Chiropractic Facts - Numerous studies have shown that chiropractic treatment is both safe and effective. The following are excerpts from a few of the more recent studies.
"Patients with chronic low-back pain treated by chiropractors showed greater improvement and satisfaction at one month than patients treated by family physicians. A higher proportion of chiropractic patients (56 vs. 13 percent) reported that their low-back pain was better or much better, whereas nearly one-third of medical patients reported their low-back pain was worse or much worse." -Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics. Nyiedo et al. (2000)
“In our randomized controlled trial, we compared the effectiveness of manual therapy, physical therapy, and continued care by a general practitioner in patients with nonspecific neck pain. The success rate at seven weeks was twice as high for the manual therapy group (68.3 percent) as for the continued care group (general practitioner). Manual therapy scored better than physical therapy on all outcome measures.” -Annals of Internal Medicine, Hoving et al. (2002)
In a Randomized controlled trial, 183 patients with neck pain were randomly allocated to manual therapy (spinal mobilization), physiotherapy (mainly exercise) or general practitioner care (counseling, education and drugs) in a 52-week study. The clinical outcomes measures showed that manual therapy resulted in faster recovery than physiotherapy and general practitioner care. -British Medical Journal, Korthals-de Bos et al. (2003)
"Cervical spine manipulation was associated with significant improvement in headache outcomes in trials involving patients with neck pain and/or neck dysfunction and headache." -Duke Evidence Report, McCrory. Penzien, Hassellblad, Gray (2001)
A clinical trial reported that 72% of 123 migraine sufferers experienced improvement after a period of chiropractic care (the average length of time they had experienced migraines was 18 years). Around 22% of patients had substantial reduction; which means that the more symptomatic group had around 60 percent of their symptoms reduced during the course of the treatment." -Medical News.net, May 20, 2005
A study of retrospective claims data analysis of 700,000 people with chiropractic coverage in their plan were compared to another 1 million people who did not have chiropractic coverage. Comparing the health plans that include chiropractic to the ones that do not, the study found that: (1) Chiropractic care cut the cost of treating back pain by 28%. (2) Chiropractic care reduced hospitalizations among back pain patients by 41%. (3) Chiropractic care reduced back surgeries by 32%. (4) Chiropractic care reduced the cost of medical imaging, such as X-rays or MRIs, by 37%. -October 11, 2004 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine
A study of 2780 patients with mechanical low-back pain referred themselves to 60 doctors of chiropractic and 111 medical doctors. The study showed that both the acute and chronic patients showed better outcomes in pain and disability reduction and higher satisfaction with their care after undergoing chiropractic care, as compared to medical care. The authors of the study noted that the satisfaction for the chiropractic care was higher, and the overall total costs were lower. -November 17, 2005 issue of Medical News Today