Chiropractic treatments are extremely safe for people of all ages. Unfortunately, some critics of chiropractic care have attempted to manipulate the public into thinking chiropractic treatments are dangerous. Nothing could be further from the truth. Chiropractic treatments are among some of the safest treatments used in the health care field.
Read what Canadian researchers stated after performing the largest analysis of scientific literature on the most effective and cost effective treatments for low back pain:
“Chiropractic manipulation is safer than medical management of low back pain. Chiropractic management is greatly superior to medical management in terms of scientific validity, safety, cost-effectiveness and patient satisfaction.”
The Ontario Ministry of Health commissioned Manga Report represents the largest analysis of scientific literature on the most effective and cost effective treatments for low back pain. After reviewing all of the international evidence on the management of low back pain, lead investigator Pran Manga, Ph.D., found the treatments provided by Doctors of Chiropractic were exceptionally safe – much safer than standard medical treatments of similar conditions.
“There is no clinical or case-control study that demonstrates or even implies that chiropractic spinal manipulation is unsafe in the treatment of low back pain. Some medical treatments are equally safe, but others are unsafe and generate iatrogenic (doctor-induced) complications for low back pain patients. Our reading of the literature suggests that chiropractic manipulation is safer than medical management of low back pain.”
“Indeed, several existing medical therapies of low back pain are generally contraindicated on the basis of the existing clinical trials. There is also some evidence in the literature to suggest that spinal manipulations are less safe and less effective when performed by nonchiropractic professionals”
“Chiropractic manipulation is safer than medical management of low back pain. Chiropractic management is greatly superior to medical management in terms of scientific validity, safety, cost-effectiveness and patient satisfaction.”
The Effectiveness and Cost Effectiveness of Chiropractic Management of Low-Back Pain (The Manga Report). Pran Manga and Associates (1993) – University of Ottawa, Canada
On December 8, 1994, the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) of the US Department of Health and Human Services released Clinical Practice Guidelines for the management of acute low back pain. Their guidelines were developed after extensive study of diagnostic and treatment methods for acute low back pain.
The guidelines were created by the AHCPR panel to provide primary care clinicians with information and recommended strategies for the assessment and treatment of acute low back problems. The AHCPR panel was made up of 23 members consisting of medical doctors, chiropractic doctors, nurses, experts in spinal research, physical therapists, an occupational therapist, a psychologist, and a consumer representative.
Their findings included:
1) The risk of serious complications from lumbar spinal manipulation is rare;
2) Conservative treatment such as spinal manipulation should be pursued in most cases before considering surgical intervention;
3)Prescription drugs such as oral steroids, antidepressant medications and colchicine are not recommended for acute low back problems.
The government of New Zealand published a 377 page report which assessed the efficacy and safety of chiropractic care. The report was a result of almost 2 years of conducted hearings from recognized health care experts.
Their principal findings included:
“Chiropractors are the only health practitioners who are necessarily equipped by their education and training to carry out spinal manual therapy (spinal adjustments).”
“Chiropractors carry out spinal diagnosis and therapy at a sophisticated and refined level.”
“Spinal manual therapy in the hands of a registered chiropractor is safe.”
“The duration and training of a registered chiropractor are sufficient to enable him/her to determine whether there are contraindications to spinal manual therapy in a particular case, and whether that patient should have medical care instead of, or as well as, chiropractic care.”
New Zealand Report. Hasselberg PD. Government Printer, Wellington – 1979.
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I haven’t woken up with a migraine in a month – that’s the first time ľ’ve been able to say that in the past 59 years. The migraines were for many years hormonal but as I got older they evolved into what I felt had a more physical cause. Over the years I’ve tried chiropractic, acupuncture, massage, Botox, and naturopathic remedies. I’ve been prescribed many ‘preventative’ migraine medications, all to no avail. I’ve been hospitalized with tests showing no causation of the migraines and when, many years later, a neurologist told me he could not help me I gave myself up as a lost cause.
Every time I awoke with a migraine I blamed myself in part – too much time vacuuming perhaps or raking or even sitting for too long. The only resource I had was a migraine medication taken with OTC pain killer/muscle relaxants and often in addition antinausea tablets. My days, sometimes as many as 5-6 times weekly, were spent enduring the migraine until the medications kicked in many hours later or, in the following days, feeling the aftereffects of both the migraine and the medications.
Regular chiropractor adjustments, particularly with Dr. Nik, reduced the severity of the migraines so when he suggested Spinal Decompression along with more frequent chiropractic adjustments I was only too willing to try the treatment even though it was costly. I was not apprehensive but instead interested in starting the process which I found relaxing and not at all painful or uncomfortable and I appreciated the reassurance given that I was in the correct positioning. The 30-minute sessions passed quickly, and I appreciated greatly the wonderful care I received. I expected that if the
treatment was successful for me it would be after perhaps half of the 25 sessions, but 1 started feeling better after only a few appointments and improved incrementally with each session.In the past my life was filled with pain and the ensuing procrastination in many aspects of my life and now to wake each day without a migraine is so astounding that it is taking me a while to adjust mentally. I am no longer surviving my days but living a life I thought was impossible due to the constant migraines. I am now able to sit at my laptop and write regular emails to my family members overseas – a task which would always result in a migraine and was, therefore, constantly postponed. I no longer dread going out for the day knowing it would result in a migraine that night. My adult children are so happy to see the difference in me – seeing me live each day fully with optimism. It would have been so easy to discount the suggestion that there was yet another option in my constant search for migraine relief given the cost and the logistics of multiple appointments, but I am so glad that I took a leap of faith and ended up with a lightness of being in body and spirit which I thought was improbable if not impossible.
MBW
