Chiropractic and Medical Care: An Effective Combination

We see a number of people with back pain in our San Jose, CA practice, and Drs. Hung Lam & Loan Tran has helped a lot of them get relief with chiropractic. However, recovering from back problems doesn't necessarily mean having to decide between chiropractic care and medical care, as many individuals use both types of care with great outcomes.

Research Confirms Chiropractic and Medical Care Work Well with One Another

In a report published by the journal Spine researchers¹ looked at a group of active-duty military personnel between the ages of 18 and 35 who reported both acute discomfort and restricted function due to back symptoms. Some of the test subjects received treatment via standard medical care, while the rest were given chiropractic care together with regular medical care, as researchers wanted to see which patients fared better.

The authors determined that the group that got standard medical care combined with chiropractic scored "significantly better" than the patients who received medical care alone; 73% reported positive benefits in comparison to just 17 percent of the medical treatment only group who indicated the same amount of improvement. This was true regarding both pain and level of function at the two- and four-week marks.

Therefore, integrating these two forms of care can greatly benefit you--the patient--offering benefits when compared to medical care alone. However, while chiropractic and medicine can work alongside each other, chiropractic offers some unique advantages over medical treatment.

Where Chiropractic Wins

Although it may seem as if each method plays a 50/50 role, there is one major advantage that chiropractic has over medical care and that is in patient satisfaction. In fact, one bit of research done at UCLA² that was published in the American Journal of Public Health found that, on average, chiropractic patients are generally more satisfied with their recovery than people undergoing medical treatment.

According to the researchers, the main factors that patients favored over medical treatment were "self-care advice and explanation of treatment." This isn't surprising, as chiropractors frequently spend much more time advising their patients as to how they can improve their health on their own, as well as outlining more carefully what to expect from chiropractic.

Chiropractic Is a Natural Approach to Wellness

Without a doubt, the techniques associated with chiropractic are quite different than those available with medical care, but a large amount of the distinction is the fact that chiropractic is a holistic approach to health and well-being. Rather than focusing on just relieving the symptoms, chiropractic care means tracking down the primary cause of your pain, which often results in greater improvement as you are tackling the problem at its source.

Furthermore, while medication is sometimes helpful for treating certain conditions, many health issues respond well to a natural approach such as chiropractic care. This means fewer negative responses to drugs and longer-lasting recovery.

You don't have to suffer from back pain or other health issues. Give our San Jose, CA office a call today at (408) 293-0396. We'll work to help you get and continue to be free from back pain.

References

1. Goertz CM, Long CR, Hondras MA, Petri R, Delgado R, Lawrence DJ, Owens EF, Meeker WC. Adding chiropractic manipulative therapy to standard medical care for patients with acute low back pain: results of a pragmatic randomized comparative effectiveness study. Spine 2013;38(8):627-634.
2. Hertzman-Miller RP1, Morgenstern H, Hurwitz EL, Yu F, Adams AH, Harber P, Kominski GF. Comparing the satisfaction of low back pain patients randomized to receive medical or chiropractic care: results from the UCLA low-back pain study. American Journal of Public Health 2002;92(10):1628-1633.