The Top 5 Science-Proven Benefits of Chiropractic Care
It’s Not Just Low Back Pain Relief!
Whether you are an elite athlete, weekend warrior, battling back from an injury, or just looking to live your best life – research has shown that chiropractic care provides a wealth of benefits that can improve your quality of life.
1. Pain Reduction
The first benefit of chiropractic care is the most impactful (and obvious): reducing pain. Because if the goal is to be living your optimal life, you have to be free of pain.
Multiple studies have shown that chiropractic is considered one of the most safe and effective treatments to reduce pain from your neck, low back, and more. Even if you’re suffering from spinal stenosis, disc herniations, or foraminal encroachment, chiropractic may be able to help.
“Patients with symptomatic MRI-confirmed cervical disk herniations treated with SMT to the level of herniation reported high levels of clinically relevant improvement at 2 weeks, 1 month, and 3 months after the first treatment.”
Outcomes from Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Confirmed Symptomatic Cervical Disk Herniation Patients Treated with High-Velocity, Low-Amplitude Spinal Manipulative Therapy. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics.
“Most of the patients who were considered surgical candidates for the treatment of radiculopathy from LDH improved with standardized spinal manipulative care to the same degree as those who had undergone surgery. Of those who failed spinal manipulation treatment, subsequent surgical intervention provided excellent outcome.”
Manipulation or Microdiskectomy for Sciatica? A Prospective Randomized Clinical Study. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics.
2. Reduction of Frequency, Severity, & Intensity of Headaches
This is an especially important benefit if you’re one of the 50 million Americans that struggle with chronic daily headaches. Research has shown that chiropractic care can significantly reduce the frequency and intensity of headaches.
The most common type of headaches include tension headaches and migraines. Tension headaches often include neck pain, muscle pain, and facial pain. Migraines are usually throbbing, can cause nausea and light sensitivity, and sometimes involve visual changes – flashing lights, wavy lines, or dots – called an aura.
“With regard to the weekly register on frequency and intensity of pain, these parameters showed significant improvement in the groups with manipulation and combined treatment…”
Efficacy of Manual and Manipulative Therapy in the Perception of Pain and Cervical Motion in Patients with Tension-Type Headache: A Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trial. Journal of Chiropractic Medicine.
3. Improved Function & Quality of Life
Most people don’t go to the doctor when they have pain. They go to the doctor when that pain interferes with their quality of life!
It’s when you have a problem that’s keeping you from enjoying your hobbies, being social, and limiting your ability to perform at work- that’s when my people usually hop on Google or start asking their friends and family, “Hey, who was that chiropractor you kept telling me to go see?”
Fortunately, getting back to your active lifestyle, and improving your quality of life (or in science-speak, “functional ability”) is one proven benefit of chiropractic care.
4. Reduced Need For Medication
Reducing medication use – and specifically opioids – are one of the primary focuses of our healthcare world today.
Each day over 100 people die due to an opioid overdose. And it’s not just from illegal drugs – a majority of opioid deaths come from people who were taking medications prescribed by their doctor!
Not only are these medications addictive and deadly, but in many cases they’re simply ineffective at helping people recover from spine pain, which is why they’re most often prescribed. This vicious cycle drives patients to take even MORE medication an attempt to find relief, which only increases the likelihood of an adverse event or addiction.
But there is a better way. Research has shown that people who utilize chiropractic care are 49% less likely to fill an opioid prescription. If we were able to reduce opioid use by nearly 50% just through chiropractic care, the world of healthcare would be a very different place!
Even what many people consider to be “safe” medications like NSAID’s contribute to over 100,000 hospitalizations and over 3,000 deaths each year. Drugs should rarely be viewed as a first line treatment for spinal pain. Your body is designed to move and recover – so going to a doctor focused on movement and recovery seems like a good idea to not only reduce your medication use but to get the best results possible.
“Patients who visited a chiropractor for a musculoskeletal pain condition were 49% less likely to receive an opioid prescription than their counterparts who went to other healthcare providers.”
MedScape: Chiropractic Care Tied to Significant Reduction in Opioid Scripts
5. Sports Performance Improvements
Did you know that nearly every major professional sports team has a chiropractor available to their athletes to help with injury prevention and sports performance?
That’s right, teams in the NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL all have chiropractors integrated into their healthcare team to keep their athletes performing at their top level all season long.
No one can perform their best when in pain, so chiropractors are used to keeping the athletes feeling good, but with a focus and eye towards sport-specific performance.
Working with the athletes on flexibility, biomechanics, and range of motion is critical to raising the bar of performance.
“The increased V-wave amplitudes observed in the current study possibly reflect an increased cortical drive in the cortico-spinal pathways and corresponding increased excitability of the motoneuron following spinal manipulation.”
The effects of a single session of spinal manipulation on strength and cortical drive in athletes. European Journal of Applied Physiology.
Whether you are working at an office or whether you are on the professional sports field, a balance of strength and flexibility is critical to staying at the top of your game long-term.
The Ascent Chiropractic Difference
At Ascent Chiropractic we’re committed to not just relieving symptoms but to correcting their cause and optimizing your body to function better than it ever has before. Our unique, low-force, evidence-based approach to chiropractic care combined with the best of physical rehabilitation therapies allows us to get unmatched, long-term results. Discover the difference personalized, comprehensive care at Ascent Chiropractic makes. Instead of just fixing your pain, let’s fix you. To schedule an appointment, call us at 262-345-4166 or use our online scheduling app.