Is Spinal Manipulation Safe
Spinal manipulation is relatively safe when performed by a trained and licensed practitioner. The most common side effects of spinal manipulation are temporary muscle soreness, stiffness, or a temporary increase in pain.
Serious complications, deaths, and delays in diagnosis of serious illnesses have been associated with spinal manipulation, including in children, but are very rare.
Strokes and Artery Tears
- A type of spinal manipulation that focuses on the neck has been linked to small, potentially dangerous tears in the artery walls in the neck, called cervical artery dissections . These tears are rare but can lead to a stroke. Any kind of sudden neck movement, such as playing sports, getting whiplash, and violent vomiting or coughing may also increase the risk of tears. The available evidence suggests that the incidence of CAD in people getting spinal manipulation is low, but patients need to be informed of this potential risk.
Spinal Manipulation and Pregnancy
- There are few reports of spinal manipulation causing problems during pregnancy or in the period after childbirth, a 2012 research review reported. The problems that have been reported ranged from mild, temporary pain to life-threatening injuries. Serious adverse events occurred only after cervical spinal manipulation.
More Affordable Treatment For Chronic Back Pain
Chiropractic treatment may be a cheaper alternative to conventional treatment for chronic low back pain.
In a 2016 study, researchers looked at the potential financial benefits of chiropractic treatment for Medicare recipients with chronic back pain.
The researchers found that people who received chiropractic treatment had a lower overall treatment cost. The study also determined that their treatment duration was shorter than that of those who had conventional medical treatment.
How Does A Chiropractor Help Relieve Back Pain
When you see a chiropractor for your back pain, they will complete a thorough examination to diagnose the specific cause of your pain.
Once a diagnosis has been made, the chiropractor will be able to put together a specialized treatment plan that will effectively treat your back pain conditions.
The chiropractor may utilize a combination of spinal adjustments, manual therapies, and therapeutic exercises to help you heal quickly and optimally.
Some of the spinal manipulation techniques may include:
- Flexion-Distraction Technique is a gentle, hands-on manipulation that involves a pumping action on the intervertebral disc instead of direct force.
- Instrument-Assisted Manipulation uses a hand-held instrument to allow the chiropractor to apply force without thrusting into the spine.
- Specific Spinal Manipulation helps restore joint movement using a gentle thrusting technique.
With these techniques and therapies, our chiropractors are able to restore mobility to the joints and help to relieve back pain symptoms.
The goal of your chiropractor is to not only treat your back pain but the person as a whole.
We might educate you on nutrition, stress management, and lifestyle goals in addition to treating your back pain.
With chiropractic care, you will also learn how to prevent your back pain from getting worse as well as how to prevent back pain in the future.
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Chiropractic Care Offers Relief For Pinched Nerves
A person that suffers from pinched nerves has a disrupted normal body performance. On top of pain and discomfort, an inflamed nerve may cause muscle spasms. It may affect other vital parts of the body, such as the leg or the arm, and leaves the patient unable to function normally because of the pain. Chiropractic can relieve the pressure of pinched nerve rather quickly. For some patients, pain relief is achieved after only one session.
Should You See A Chiropractor For Low Back Pain
If youve ever seen a doctor for back pain, youre not alone. An estimated 85% of people experience back pain severe enough to see a doctor for at some point in their life. Yet despite how common it is, the precise cause of pain is often unclear. And a single, best treatment for most low back pain is unknown. For these reasons, doctors recommendations tend to vary. “Standard care” includes a balance of rest, stretching and exercise, heat, pain relievers, and time. Some doctors also suggest trying chiropractic care. The good news is that no matter what treatment is recommended, most people with a recent onset of back pain are better within a few weeks often within a few days.
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Make Sure You Know What To Expect
Chiropractors can claim to treat a range of conditions, but seeing a chiropractor for lower back pain is by far the most common reason.
The word chiropractor itself literally means hand-practical in Greek, but it is the level of practical manipulation that makes the idea of seeing a chiropractor for lower back pain often quite controversial.
This is because chiropractic practice relies on the chiropractor using enough physical force to correct a potential misalignment in the your spine, with the main goal of restoring your skeletal framework.
Many of you will have seen cartoons depicting the work of the chiropractor cracking someones spine to reveal a miracle recovery
A lot of people assume that it is no more forceful than a massage or physiotherapy. But this simply is not true. In most cases, it can take very considerable force to realign your spine. And that is where the controversy begins.
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Do Herniated Discs Cause Back Pain And Sciatica
We know that one of the causes of Low back pain can be a bulging or herniated disc. There are also clues we get from your history and physical examination that make us suspect LDH may be causing your pain.
You may be worried that the chiropractor is going to crack your back which might aggravate or injure your disc. YOu may be scared if that happens, you would need to go for surgery.
Is that a myth or truth. Lets see what this latest research out of Europe says
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How Does Chiropractic Care Help Lower Back Pain
Your main question is probably: What does a chiropractor do for lower back pain?
Well, most chiropractors try to reduce the pain and help improve patients functionality. They teach people how to improve their health via exercises, proper use of ergonomics or other back pain therapies.
Licensed chiropractors can make mechanical adjustments to your body, ease pain and improve spinal alignment. They know how to use these adjustments to restore movement in your joints and spine. This process is known as spinal adjustment or manipulation.
Many people find these adjustments more effective over the long term than drugs and surgery, while having the added benefit of being much safer .
And this isnt just theory or some random, unproven idea. There have been many studies done showing the efficacy of these treatments. In fact, per the Harvard Medical School, spinal manipulation is considered an efficient treatment for lower back pain.
How Can Chiropractic Care Help Those With Low Back Pain
Chiropractic care can be a great way to manage and relieve swelling and pain caused by low back pain. Routine chiropractic care provides patients with low back pain treatment that’s a safe, non-invasive, non-addictive alternative to prescription medications or over-the-counter pain medications , which are commonly prescribed to patients to help them manage their pain and swelling.
Chiropractors deliver a gentle, non-invasive, non-addictive therapy, known as a chiropractic adjustment. Chiropractic adjustments reduce joint restrictions or misalignments in the spine and other joints in the body in an effort to reduce inflammation and improve function of both the affected joint and nervous system. By increasing joint mobility and improving your nervous system function and spinal health, your body has the ability to better manage symptoms caused by low back pain.
Below are some of the health benefits chiropractic care and chiropractic adjustments can provide patients with low back pain:
- Reduced pain and discomfort
- Improved flexibility
- Increased muscle tone and strength
To find a local chiropractor and to learn more about how chiropractic care can help those suffering from low back pain, contact or visit one of our chiropractic offices today, to speak with a licensed doctor of chiropractic.
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What Does The Science Tell Us
These authors investigated whether seeing a chiropractor for treatment of back pain or sciatica resulted in increased occurrence of herniated disc requiring them to go for surgery. They compared those patients seeing a chiropractor for their back pain to those that saw their family doctor for their back pain.
The assumption was that those who saw their family doctor did not receive any manual therapy and those who saw the chiropractor likely would.
The authors investigated all adults who visited an emergency department with acute LDH that went on to require early surgical intervention from April 1994 to December 2004. They compared those that had seen a chiropractor prior to the emergency room visit versus those that had not. They also compared this to those who had seen their primary care provider prior to visiting the emergency room.
As you can imagine, this was an enormous patient population they studied. The number of people, as measured in person-years was over 100 million person-years. Try wrapping your head around that number!
Who Uses Spinal Manipulation And Has Usage Changed
Between 2012 and 2017, U.S. adultsâ use of chiropractic care during the past year increased slightly, from 9.1 percent to 10.3 percent, a comparison of NHIS data from the two years showed. The data also show that women were more likely than men to see a chiropractor, and that adults between the ages of 45 and 64 were more likely than people aged 18-44 or 65 and over to have visited one during the past year. According to the same national survey , non-Hispanic white adults were much more likely to visit a chiropractor than Hispanic or non-Hispanic black adults.
Among children, there was no significant difference in the use of chiropractic care between 2012 and 2017 . Older children were more likely than younger ones to have seen a chiropractor, but there was no significant difference in the use of chiropractic care between girls and boys. Non-Hispanic white children were more likely than non-Hispanic black or Hispanic children to have seen a chiropractor.
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What To Expect If You Visit A Chiropractor
When you first visit a chiropractor for lower back pain, you can expect your first consultation to include the following 3 initial steps
1. Consultation. Youll be asked what hurts, where it hurts and what makes the pain feel better or the pain feel worse.
2. Your History. As well as your job, you may be asked about your family history, other injuries/ treatments that youve had and your diet.
3. Physical Tests. You may be asked to perform a variety of movements so the chiropractor can assess the range of motions available to you and how stable you can perform them.
4. X-Ray. It is possible that they may even ask for an e-ray to be carried out, while they try to assess the true position of the vertebrae in your spine.
The purpose of this pre-assessment is to identify areas of the spine that may have altered for specific focus during the chiropractic adjustment.
Using Percussion Massage Guns To Feel Better
The year 2020 will go down as one of the worst years on record for well, a lot of things. The Covid-19 pandemic impacted people in different ways, but we can all agree it was a stressful and anxiety-inducing time for everyone. I found myself willing to try anything and everything that could make me feel betterboth mentally and physically.
Some of the attempts were a waste of time and money. For example, tracking down different essential oils to impact my mood. They all smelled pretty good, but I can’t say that one or another actually helped me fall asleep or noticeably reduced stress. Oh, well.
But, a lot of my wellness experiments did work. And those are the results I’m reporting here, on what I call my “15 Days of Feeling Better.”
One of the items I tried is this unexpected device that reduced my low back pain: a Theragun Elite percussion massage gun. The Theragun mini is also one of the best back massagers for lower back pain.
However, I should emphasize that percussion massage guns should not be used on acute injuries like muscle spasms, ligament sprains, and muscle strains.
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How Do Chiropractors Help Reduce Back Pain
Chiropractic Doctors are specially trained physicians whose expertise lies in treating conditions and injuries to the Musculoskeletal and Nervous system, which includes the upper, middle, and lower back. Chiropractors use treatment methods such as Spinal Manipulation, Chiropractic Adjustments, Exercise Therapy, Electrical Muscle Stimulation, Ultrasound, Spinal Decompression, and more to help reduce back pain in patients.
The Pain Is Generated From Hard Tissue Rather Than Soft Muscular Tissue
The medical industry classifies pain according to the points of the body impacted and the structural tissue involved. Pain that is created by injury to soft tissue like the muscles is often treated effectively through massage therapy, but pain generated from hard tissue is more likely to require spinal manipulation or other techniques best performed by a well-trained chiropractor.
The spine and joints are two examples of hard tissue that may lead to lower back pain. Tightness and sharp pain caused by spinal misalignment isnt easily relieved through massage alone, so visiting a chiropractor is essential. Other conditions may involve unspecified tissue, and most patients find that treatment by a chiropractor is the fastest and most consistent route to relieve.
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How Do I Deal With The Pain From Spinal Stenosis
There are several over the counter and prescription based painkillers that might help you cope with the pain from a compressed spinal cord.
Please note, however, that this is a temporary solution. The painkillers do not address or correct the causative factor for your condition and pain. Increased use of painkillers without tackling the root cause of a disease has, in many cases, led to over-dependence on the pain meds. That is the story of Americas Opioid addiction crisis.
Its also important to remember that pain is only one of the many symptoms of spinal stenosis. You can mask the pain, but what about numbness, loss of balance, muscle weakness and impaired mobility? These concerns, therefore, call for a more comprehensive treatment approach for spinal stenosis to correct not only the symptoms but stem out their original cause once and for all.
Need Help Finding A Chiropractor
If youre in or near Northeast PA, drop me a line and Ill share my chiropractors information with you. If youre elsewhere, ask your friends and family until youve found someone who STRONGLY recommends a chiropractor. For me, a nearby friend is a power-lifter, and he said things like this:
– “I was going to have back surgery and Dr. So-and-so saved me from surgery altogether.”- “If you go see Dr. So-and-so and after 4 or 5 visits, he still cant fix you, Ill pay for it myself.”
After hearing these two strongly-worded recommendations, I finally broke down and went to go see his doctor for myself. After 3 adjustments, Im sitting here writing this blog post, trying to figure out why it took me so long to go see a chiropractor in the first place.
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Is It Normal To Feel Worse After Seeing A Chiropractor
Chiropractic care is well known for reducing pain, particularly neck and back pain. Many people seek out chiropractic care to help them recover from a car accident, get rid of recurring headaches and migraines, or to help with things like sciatica and herniated discs. Chiropractors are experts in the skeletal and central nervous systems, and they often work in conjunction with other specialists, like neurologists, orthopedic surgeons, and physical therapists, to provide the most comprehensive care to their patients.
So you go to the chiropractor for an adjustment and cant wait to feel relief from that lingering aching pain or that frustrating shooting pain. But what happens if you leave the chiropractor after an adjustment and actually feel worse than you did before you went in? Does that mean that chiropractic care isnt working, that its not safe, or that something serious is wrong with your body? The short answer to all of those questions is nobut it is important to understand why you may have some discomfort after a chiropractic adjustment.
Signs You Should See A Chiropractor
Office Manager, Sharon Health Center
Seeing a chiropractor can yield many benefits that dramatically improve ones physical and emotional well-being. Yet many people think to see a chiropractor only when something has gone wrong, or when they can no longer tolerate their pain symptoms. A chiropractor can help prevent something from going wrong in the first place.
While most people know it is time to see a chiropractor if they are experiencing back pain, there are other clues to keep in mind. Here are 10 signs you should see a chiropractor:
Headaches can be caused by a number of factors, including dehydration, malnutrition, oxygen deprivation, or a misalignment in the neck or spine. A chiropractor can help to relieve headaches and improve blood flow, which will increase the amount of oxygen that is supplied to the brain.
Your chiropractor also may recommend a change to your diet to help you improve your overall health.
If you are experiencing pain in your muscles and joints, your first reaction should not be to get the aspirin out of your medicine cabinet. Your pain could be due to problems with musculoskeletal alignment.
A chiropractor is trained to make sure your body is functioning as optimally as possible by using spinal manipulations to relieve pain in your joints and muscles. These spinal adjustments will increase blood flow and nerve conductivity to the joints and muscles that are experiencing pain.
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