"The key to quick results with chiropractic is in finding the right chirporactor, one whose style and technique best matches the specific needs of the individual patient"

Does Chiropractic Help?

Bad Backs

Several years ago, the U.S. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research concluded that chiropractic care is effective for low back symptoms.

And Americans are paying attention. One in six U.S. adults uses chiropractic services, according to a survey of 1,500 adults commissioned by Landmark Health, Inc., of Sacramento, Calif. About 38 percent of these patients seek care for low back pain, according to an American Chiropractic Association survey.

The preponderance of the evidence strongly suggests that for acute lower back pain, without evidence of neurologic deficit, the treatment of choice is spinal manipulation.

A one-time cure for low back problems is unrealistic. Most people will experience a periodic return of symptoms — on average having their second episode about seven months after the first.

Through chiropractic therapy and working with the client to make lifestyle changes and become more physically fit, Dr. Dan is highly successful in treating chronic back pain.

Pains In The Neck

More than one in four people who see chiropractors are seeking relief from neck pain, whether it stems from an injury or from daily misuse and bad posture — say, sitting for hours in front of a computer screen or using the neck to cradle the telephone.

In general, the medical model has not been successful in addressing neck pain, according to Dr. Dan “Whether you see a chiropractor, an orthopedist or a neurologist, there is no good system to pinpoint the specific pain-generating tissue and provide a specific treatment for neck pain, unless there is severe trauma with obvious dislocations or fractures,” says Dr. Dan. “At this point, the evidence shows that manipulative procedures are worth the effort."

The most common acute cause of neck pain is whiplash - the term used for the painful symptoms created when a sudden insult, such as a rear-end collision, forces neck structures to extend past their normal range of motion.

Immediately after a whiplash, patients generally do better if they are encouraged to move their necks gently and return to normal activities as quickly as their pain will permit. Chiropratic adjustments will aid tremendously in helping the patient to resume this mobility.

Manipulation is also effective in subacute neck pain, when the patient is over the initial injury but the neck is still subject to muscle spasms, limited range of motion and ‘locking up'.

Migraine Headaches

About 14 percent of chiropractic patients are looking for headache relief, according to the American Chiropractic Association.

Recently, researchers at the Northwestern College of Chiropractic in Bloomington, Minn., compared the use of spinal manipulation against daily treatment with amitriptyline - a tricyclic antidepressant used in the preventive therapy of both chronic tension and migraine headache. In their study of 218 patients with frequent migraine (at least four episodes per month), scores derived from patients’ daily headache pain diaries improved between 40 and 50 percent over the four-week treatment period, whether the treatment was twice-weekly chiropractic adjustments, amitriptyline or both.

However, four weeks after the treatments were stopped, those in the chiropractic group retained the benefits, while those in the amitriptyline and combined groups lost about half of their improvement, according to a report in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics.

The results were virtually identical to a similar study, without the combination group, that was conducted with tension headache.

Manipulation done by a licensed chiropractor is safe despite the rumors you may have heard.

Dr. Dan works with migraine headache sufferers to identify the triggers that provoke their headaches, and to avoid the daily or almost daily use of pain relievers, which can result in rebound headaches.

Many patients do have postural or mechanical factors that contribute to their headache situation. In that kind of patient, it can occasionally be useful to use chiropractic along with exercise conditioning programs or postural retraining programs to address the underlying problem.