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Lower Back Pain Treatment

Low Back Pain and Chiropractic Care Near Me [Published on Jun 7, 2012] This message on Low Back Pain and Chiropractic Medicine is brought to you as a public service by the West Hartford Group (WHG)

Most people have either experienced low back pain (LBP) or know someone who has. It is quite a common condition in society today and also very difficult to treat in some cases. This site is designed with evidence-based care in mind so that as a patient you can make an informed decision as to whether or not you wish to pursue chiropractic care for your pain. There happen to be several treatment options out there but you should know that more than 80% of the evidence-based clinical guidelines on the diagnosis and management of LBP that have been written since 1994 consider spinal manipulation to be beneficial for low back pain especially in the acute phase!¹That being said, this is what the research tells us:

- A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1999 compared spinal manipulation to standard medical care for low back pain. This study evaluated patients who had been experiencing low back pain for a duration of 3 weeks to 6 months and while both groups showed similar clinical results the patients who received spinal manipulation required significantly less medication. ²

- A study published in the September 2006 edition of the Journal of Complementary and Alternative Medicine showed that subjects with chronic low-back pain who were treated with 4 weeks of either flexion-distraction therapy or a physical therapy exercise program and subsequently evaluated for 1 year post-treatment demonstrated a decrease in low back pain and disability, with the flexion-distraction group demonstrating significantly greater pain reduction.³

- Overall, evidence indicates that spinal manipulation provides relief from low back pain and is safe and as effective as conventional treatments for low back pain.⁴

- The January/February 2008 issue of The Spine Journal presented more than 200 currently offered treatments for low back pain , the majority of which are offered by medical physicians. Of these, less than 10% have a reasonable body of support based on high quality clinical trials. However, manual therapies, education, and exercise, modalities commonly used by chiropractors near me, were found to possess the greatest research support.⁵

- A recent review of existing research found that chiropractic manipulative therapy is just as helpful as other treatments commonly used by other healthcare professionals.

- Spinal manipulation is just as effective as microdiskectomy for patients struggling with sciatica due to lumbar disc herniation.⁶

- Health maintenance care conducted by chiropractors around me for non-specific work related low back pain found superior to physical therapy or physician services.⁷

- Researchers at the University of Bremen in Germany concluded that  spinal manipulation therapy is more effective than the non-steroidal anti- inflammatory drug  Diclofenac in the treatment of  non-specific lower back pain.⁸

(1) Haldeman S,ed., et al. Principles and Practice of Chiropractic. New York: McGraw Hill, 2005

(2)Andersson GB, et al. A comparison of osteopathic spinal manipulation with standard care for patients with low back pain.N Engl J Med 1999;341: 1426-1431

(3) Cambron JA, Gudavalli MR, Hedeker D, et al. One-year follow-up of a randomized clinical trial comparing flexion distraction with an exercise program for chronic low-back pain. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 2006;12(7):659–668.

(4)United States. Department of Health and Human Services . Spinal Manipulation for Low Back Pain. Bethesda: NCCAM, 2009

(5) Haldeman S, Underwood M. " Commentary on the United Kingdom evidence report about the effectiveness of manual therapies". Chiropractic & Osteopathy 2010 18:4; 25 Feb 2010. BioMed Central 13 pgs. Accessed 26 Feb 2010 http://www.chiroandosteo.com/content/18/1/4

(6) "Manipulation or Microdisketomy for Sciatica? A Prospective Randomized Clinical Study.," (Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, October 2010, Vol. 33 Iss. 8, p: 576-584) http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/224957.php

(7) " Health maintenance care in work-related low back pain and its association with disability recurrence". J Occup Environ Med. 2011 Apr;53(4):396-404.

(8) von Heymann, Wolfgang J. Dr. Med; Schloemer, Patrick Dipl. Math; Timm, Juergen Dr. RER, NAT, PhD; Muehlbauer, Bernd Dr. Med, " Spinal High-Velocity Low Amplitude Manipulation in Acute Nonspecific Low Back Pain: A Double-Blinded Randomized Controlled Trial in Comparison With Diclofenac and Placebo," Spine, Volume 38, Issue 7.