Reach for a Chiropractor--Not Drugs--for Back Pain

Anyone with back pain or other chronic conditions is familiar with this experience: you wake up in pain, pop a painkiller, and do your best to move on with the rest of the day. You may forget about the symptoms for a few hours, but once that medication wears off, you're back to square one. Even other treatments for back pain, like epidural steroid injections, only numb the pain for a few months, and surgery doesn't always work for every patient.

We often see patients in our FlorhamPark clinic have tried a host treatments for back pain. We're proud to say that more often than not, we're able to provide lasting relief for these patients trying to kick the pain medication habit.

Recent research from the journal Spine confirms that chiropractic is more effective for back pain than a common non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug called diclofenac. Researchers studied a group of 38 patients with persistent back pain who were randomly assigned to receive one of three treatments: 1) spinal adjustments and a placebo drug; 2) sham adjustments and real diclofenac; 3) sham adjustments and a placebo drug.



Although both active treatment groups experienced improvements, the patients receiving spinal adjustments had significantly better improvements in physical disability, function, time off work, and rescue medication.

These findings add to earlier research showing that chiropractic adjustments, combined with exercise, produced better treatment results for neck-pain patients compared to those taking medications. Other recent research has also demonstrated that chiropractic care is more effective than steroid injections for lumbar disc herniation and accompanying back-pain symptoms.

You don't have to rely on pain killers the rest of your life to manage your symptoms. Dr. Anthony Rivano is a skilled chiropractor and back pain specialist who has successfully eased back pain for hundreds of patients in Florham Park, NJ. Set up your appointment with Rivano Chiropractic Health Center today to get back on the road to health.

Reference

von Heymann, et al. Spinal high-velocity low amplitude manipulation in acute nonspecific low back pain: a double-blinded randomized controlled trial in comparision with diclofenac and placebo. Spine 2013; 38 (7): 540-48. doi: 10.1097/BRS.0b013e318275d09c.

Peterson, CK, et al. Symptomatic Magnetic Resonance Imaging-confirmed lumbar disk herniation patients: a comparative effectiveness prospective observational study of 2 age- and sex-matched cohorts treated with either high-velocity, low-amplitude spinal manipulative therapy or imaging-guided lumbar nerve root injections. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics 2013; doi: 10.1016/j.jmpt.2013.04.005.

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