10 Chiropractic Facts You Didn’t Know

July 15, 2018Dr. Grant Radermacher

Live Smarter – Get Adjusted!

Every day over a million Americans get adjusted, and chiropractors consistently have the highest rated patient satisfaction out of all healthcare professionals, so it’s no surprise that the number of those benefitting from chiropractic care continues to rise year after year.

If you’re a patient at Ascent Chiropractic, you probably know a lot about what we can do for your spinal health — but what about the profession itself?

Here are some chiropractic facts you probably didn’t know:

1. The term “chiropractic” is a combination of two Grecian words: cheir which means hand, and praktos which means done. “Done by hand”… fitting, right?
2. Doctors of Chiropractic (DCs) go through a minimum of 2,419 hours of classroom education during their 4-year doctoral graduate school program. Compare that to getting an MD, which requires a minimum of 2,407 classroom hours. Perspective: If you combine all that time, that’s 175 straight 24-hour days of classroom education.
3. It’s estimated that Doctors of Chiropractic (DCs) treat over 35 million Americans (adults and children) annually.<br>
4. There are about 95,000 doctors of chiropractic in active practice across the globe, and about 10,000 students are currently enrolled in chiropractic education programs.
5. All 32 NFL teams utilize chiropractic! Every team has their own chiropractor to boost performance, maintain wellness and treat musculoskeletal strain and injury.
6. Unbeknownst to most, infants can benefit greatly from chiropractic care. It makes sense – birth can be pretty hard on a little body! Adjustments (especially the low-force techniques we use at Ascent Chiropractic) are adapted to suit their needs and are perfectly safe.
7. Chiropractic is recognized and regulated by law in over 40 countries! And in the United States, DC’s are licensed in all 50 of them!
8. An injured worker is 28 times less likely to have spinal surgery if the first point of contact is a Doctor of Chiropractic (DC), rather than a surgeon.
9. Treatment for low back pain (by far the most common condition seen at our office) initiated by a DC costs up to 20 percent less than when started by a MD.
10. Research by The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine found that, for patients with musculoskeletal problems, replacing a visit to a doctor with a visit to a chiropractor could save Medicare $83.5 million every year.