The Key to Effective Back Pain Recovery

Do you want to know the trick to lasting back pain relief? It's not staying on your couch, aching with pain while you wait for it improve. It's not just doing your daily exercise therapy and using ice packs. So what is it?

Physical therapies are great for musculoskeletal injury, but to get the total rewards of the physical activity you need to to get treatment that corrects misalignments in the muscles plus the spine. That's where  Dr. Rivano comes in. If you have damaged your back, it is very likely that you have a vertebra or two out-of-place. Lengthening and strengthening your back muscles alone won't be adequate to correct the misaligned vertebrae. Recent research explains why combining exercise therapy with chiropractic is so beneficial.

Researchers studied 49 patients with chronic back pain who were randomly assigned to get either manual therapy or sham (placebo) treatment. Manual therapies consisted of procedures regularly employed by Dr. Rivano like spinal adjustments and spinal mobilization. Immediately after treatment, patients did exercises like stretches, muscle and motor control exercises, mobility workouts, and strengthening. The clients were received eight sessions, with an assessment after three and six months.

Immediately after treatment, patients treated with manual therapy plus exercise experienced bigger reductions in pain compared to the placebo plus exercise group. The advantage seen in the treatment room was maintained at the three and six-month follow-up visits. The manual therapy clients had reduced disability and a pattern of lower pain scores compared to the placebo group. These results indicate that a combined treatment of chiropractic and exercise could be better than exercise therapy alone for back pain.

So if you'd prefer comprehensive relief of back pain, pick up the phone and give our office in Florham Park, NJ a call. After a few visits with Dr. Rivano, you'll wonder why you didn't call earlier!

Reference
Balthazard P, et al. Manual therapy followed by specific active exercises versus a placebo followed by specific active exercises on the improvement of functional disability in patients with chronic non specific low back pain: a randomized controlled trial. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders 2012; 13: 162. doi:10.1186/1471-2474-13-162.