Lower-back pain is suffered, at one time or another, by up to 80 percent of adult Americans. Next to the common cold, it is the most common reason men and women visit primary care physicians. For lower back pain this is some of what a government report recommends:
- Spinal manipulation by a Chiropractor.
- Low-stress exercise such as walking, swimming or biking, if the problems are mild or moderate.
- More rigorous conditioning exercises for the trunk muscles to start and gradually increase after the first two weeks of pain.
Because back pain is so pervasive in our society, a recent study published in the British Medical Journal pointing out that back pain doesn’t go away easily, confirmed what chiropractors have always known. Only 25 percent of low back pain sufferers had fully recovered 12 months after their first visit to a general practitioner, the study said. This low number is in conflict with the commonly-held notion that low back pain episodes go away by themselves after a month.
Doctors of Chiropractic have long understood the cyclic nature of low back pain, and perhaps this is one of the reasons they consistently rate higher than MDs in patient satisfaction in this area. In a recent Gallup Poll, 90 percent of all people who visited a chiropractor agreed that their care was effective.
(SOURCES: Internet Access, July 1999, PRNewswire, Oakbay Chiropractic; Chicago Sun-Times, Thursday, Dec. 8, 1994)