Category Archives: chiropractor

A new study from Egypt reports that chiropractic care can be an effective treatment strategy for fibromyalgia treatment with chiropractic care.

The study involved 120 people between the ages of 40 and 65 who had suffered with severe fibromyalgia for four years or more. Each person rated their pain as a 4 or higher on a pain scale and also had limited movement in their cervical (neck area) spine, specifically in their C1-C2 area.

All of the individuals participating in this study engaged in 12 weeks of therapy which included:

An education program (one two-hour session per week) designed to provide the participant with more information about fibromyalgia and available treatment options;
Cognitive behavioral therapy (one two-hour session per week) which involved discussion regarding pain management via relaxation exercises, challenging treatment-prohibitive beliefs about fibromyalgia, and positive reinforcement about what types of actions can be taken to ease fibromyalgia symptoms; and
An exercise program (three one-hour sessions per week plus 20-minute session twice daily at home) which included relaxation techniques, as well as active and passive stretches.

One-half of the individuals were also randomly assigned to a treatment group, which meant that they also engaged in upper cervical chiropractic adjustments. This involved a high-velocity, low-amplitude thrust to the C1-2 motion segment three times per week for the first month. This was then reduced to once a week sessions for the remaining eight weeks.

At the beginning of the study, the conclusion of the study, and at one year post-study, each participant was asked to complete various questionnaires to help the researchers determine what effect, if any, the chiropractic had on easing fibromyalgia symptoms and reducing its impact on their lifestyle. Specifically, questions were asked regarding physical function abilities, work days missed due to fibromyalgia symptoms, sleep disturbances, level of pain, fatigue, depression, and anxiety.

The individuals who participated in the cervical chiropractic care group showed more improvement and better results than the control group who had no chiropractic intervention. This was validated by questionnaire scores that improved by 15 or more percent. The researchers concluded that adding chiropractic to your current fibromyalgia treatment regimen may offer even more benefits when it comes to getting to the root off the problem.

Reference:

Moustafa IM, Diab AA. The addition of upper cervical manipulative therapy in the treatment of patients with fibromyalgia: a randomized controlled trial. Rheumatology International 2015;35(7):1163-1174.

SchluterChiropractic.com

A study from the prestigious medical journal The Annals of Internal Medicine reports that chiropractic is more effective for neck pain than medication.

In the study, 272 patients with acute or subacute neck pain were given one of three treatments: medication, exercise with the advice of a health practitioner, or chiropractic care. After 12 weeks of treatment, patients in the chiropractic and exercise groups experienced the most pain reduction. When compared to the medication group, both exercise and chiropractic had more than doubled the likelihood that participants experienced complete relief of their pain. For chiropractic patients, these benefits lasted for at least a year, demonstrating that chiropractic can provide long-term relief.

The strong success of chiropractic and exercise is likely due to the fact that both treatments address the cause of neck pain, rather than just masking the symptoms. Whether your neck pain is a result of an injury or sitting at a desk for long hours, chiropractic care can restore your normal health free of pain, without the adverse effects of drugs.

Bronfort, Gert, Roni Evans, Alfred Anderson, Kenneth Svendsen, Yiscah Bracha, and Richard Grimm. Spinal Manipulation, Medication, or Home Exercise With Advice for Acute and Subacute Neck Pain: A Randomized Trial. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2012, January; 156 (1): 1-10.

SchluterChiropractic.com

The pain of sciatica often drives patients to opt for surgery. But new research suggests that chiropractic treatment can be just as effective as surgery in some cases of sciatica. Spinal decompression surgery, also known as microdiscectomy, has proven to be effective for many people with sciatica. However, scientists questioned whether surgery was a necessary step in all cases.

That’s why researchers recently conducted a study to determine whether chiropractic was just as successful as surgery in treating sciatica. The study included 40 patients with sciatica who had a history of trying other treatment methods like painkillers, lifestyle changes, massage, and acupuncture but were still experiencing pain. Half of the patients were randomly assigned surgery and the other half was treated with chiropractic adjustments. 85% of participants in the surgery group saw significant improvements while 60% of participants in the chiropractic group clearly improved. Those in the chiropractic group who later decided to have surgery experienced the same rates of improvements as the initial surgery group.

Although chiropractic may not solve every sciatica case, it did prove effective for over half of the patients treated with chiropractic in this study. This led researchers to conclude that patients should seek chiropractic adjustments before opting for surgery. Avoid the potential risks of surgery by seeking chiropractic care for your sciatica.

McMorland G, Suter E, Casha S, du Plessis SJ, Hurlbert RJ. Manipulation or microdiskectomy for sciatica? A prospective randomized clinical study. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics. 2010; 33(8): 576-584.

SchluterChiropractic.com

A study by Swiss chiropractors published in the JMPT entitled “Outcomes from Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Confirmed Symptomatic Cervical Disk Herniation Patients Treated with High-Velocity, Low-Amplitude Spinal Manipulative Therapy: A Prospective Cohort Study with 3-Month Follow-Up.” This was an uncontrolled study of 50 patients. 55% were “improved” at 2 weeks, 69% at 1 month and 86% at 3 months, according to the patients’ own global impressions; there were no objective measurements. Improvement was greater in patients with acute pain than in those with chronic pain. The treatment is exactly the kind of neck manipulation that has been associated with strokes.

How many of these patients would have improved with no treatment at all, due to the natural course of the disease? The authors say it is virtually impossible to extract reliable figures on the natural history of this condition, so a control group is crucial to interpreting the significance of their findings, and it’s hard to understand why they failed to use one. While double blinding with a credible placebo control would be difficult, they might at least have compared HVLA manipulation to gentle mobilization with exercise and physical therapy modalities like heat.

SchluterChiropractic.com