Skip to main content
Continued Chiropractic Care for Chronic Low Back Pain


This is a little provocative.  Why should someone continue seeing a Chiropractor for low back pain?  Some in the public feel like this is just a scam perpetuated by the Doctor of Chiropractic sometimes.  Especially if the low back pain is better or if we have reached a maximal therapeutic benefit (meaning we’ve gotten you as good as we can) there is confusion on the part of the patient as to why they need to keep seeing the chiropractor.  This confusion is fair and must be addressed.  The goal of this post is to help inform our current and potentially future patients as to the importance of continued chiropractic care. 
This first part refers to an article in the journal Spine from 2011.  Two Medical Doctors, Senna and Machaly, performed a single-blinded study comparing sham Spinal Manipulative treatment to treatment that discontinued after initial course of care and to Spinal Manipulative Treatment that continued every two weeks after the initial 1-month care.  The study showed that the two groups that received the actual adjustment had significantly less pain than those who got the fake adjustment.  What’s more, the group that discontinued care after one month saw a return of pain and disability where the continued care group continued seeing the benefits of adjustments.
Here’s a way to think of this:  if you go to the dentist and get a cavity filled, do you then no longer have to worry about your tooth health, or do you need to continue care both at home and in the office to ensure your oral health is maintained or increased?  Of course you need to continue care.  Just because you no longer have pain, doesn’t mean you are necessarily cured from the problem that brought you in.  In some cases, it may take a while to see the pain return, but 10 percent of people with low back pain will see the condition become chronic.  Also, you may still have pain after that first month or six week period, but I personally would rather live with a 2/10 than an 8/10 over having that 2/10 return to an 8/10 after I discontinue care.
Discontinuing your care after you no longer are experiencing symptoms is an understandable temptation, but if you want to return to your pre-injury state (or as close to it as possible), and enjoy the benefits of spinal health, be open to the maintenance care plan your DC recommends.

Reference:
Does Maintained Spinal Manipulation Therapy for Chronic Nonspecific Low Back Pain Result in Better Long-term Outcom?, Senna, Mohammed. Machaly, Shareen. Spine. August 15, 2011. Vol 36. Issue 18.  http://journals.lww.com/spinejournal/Abstract/2011/08150/Does_Maintained_Spinal_Manipulation_Therapy_for.2.aspx



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pain and mental health

                One of the symptoms of depression is vague aches and pains.   One of the complications to chronic pain is depression.   For many it can be similar to the question regarding the chicken or the egg.   Did significant trauma at a young age (even unremembered) cause the brain to grow weary of constant pain, resulting in depressive and anxious symptoms?   Or did depression which came on in adolescence develop into physical symptoms that have grown into more severe and frequent complaints?                 Does the question even matter?   Do we really care if the person has been suffering from pain and is depressed from it, versus if the person has been depressed and is suffering from pain because of it?   There are many who would argue that it doesn’t matter.   We can be given psychotrop...
Post a Comment
Read more

Woes of the Weekend Warrior

                You don’t have to worry about this micro-trauma crap, right?   You pick up heavy objects 4 days a week and participate in tough mudder and run a 10k every weekend, so you’re obviously in too good of shape to need to worry about this.   Micro-trauma is to be worried about by the obese guy who sits in his cubicle all day.   … Right?                 Maybe… Maybe you move enough throughout the day.   Maybe you are perfectly mindful of your posture.   Maybe you have escaped what many people have experienced, so far.   Realistically, (if you’ve read any pieces from my blog in the past you know this) there is a cross-section of the population whom I believe don’t required chiropractic care weekly, or even monthly, (or even at all?) to live a good, long, healthy life.   I think everyone ca...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Downfall to Dieting

                Have you experienced the exuberance of victory when dieting, only to be brought crashing down a week or two later when your “celebratory dinner” turned into a reversal of all your hard work?   The entire diet industry is built on this.   Weight Watchers doesn’t become enormously successful unless it’s designed for you to need the structure to maintain your weight.                   What if I told you there were only a few, easy-to-follow rules to follow and for no money at all, you could start down the path of a healthy LIFESTYLE?   That’s the key… stop referring to these changes as diets.   While, generally speaking, the word diet refers to food choices throughout societies and lifespans, it has taken on the connotation of finite changes to reach a specific weight loss goal.   Also, ra...
Post a Comment
Read more