A National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) published in 2012 revealed that most American adults have experienced some level of pain, from brief to more lasting pain, and from relatively minor to more severe pain.
An estimated 11.2 percent of adults had pain every day for the preceding 3 months and 17.6 percent of adults experience severe levels of pain.
The survey also showed that those with severe pain were more likely to have worse health status
Pain is one of the leading reasons Americans turn to complementary health approaches such as chiropractic, acupuncture and massage, to enable them manage pain and other symptoms that are not well managed with prescription drugs and other conventional treatments.
Adults in the two most severe pain groups were likely to have worse health status, use more health care, and suffer from more disability than those with less severe pain. However, approximately half of individuals with the most severe pain still rated their overall health as good or better.
There were associations between pain severity and race, ethnicity, language preference, gender, and age. Women, older individuals, and non-Hispanics were more likely to report any pain, while Asians were less likely.
A separate National Institute of Health article on chronic pain addressed the safety and effectively of complementary health approaches for chronic pain. This article stated “although many of the complementary approaches studied for chronic pain have good safety records, that doesn’t mean that they’re risk-free for everyone. Your age, health, special circumstances (such as pregnancy), and medicines or supplements that you take may affect the safety of complementary approaches … a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that several of these approaches, including spinal manipulation, acupuncture, massage, and yoga, may help to manage some painful conditions.”
A growing list of research studies and reviews demonstrate that the services provided by chiropractic physicians are both safe and effective. Some very recent studies indicate it is both safe and effective and that it does not carry the side effects of narcotics which have become a mainstream approach to chronic pain.
“Many treatments are available for low back pain. Often exercises and physical therapy can help. Some people benefit from chiropractic therapy or acupuncture.”
–Goodman et al. (2013), Journal of the American Medical Association
“[Chiropractic Manipulative Therapy] in conjunction with [standard medical care] offers a significant advantage for decreasing pain and improving physical functioning when compared with only standard care, for men and women between 18 and 35 years of age with acute low back pain.”
–Goertz et al. (2013), Spine
In a Randomized controlled trial, 183 patients with neck pain were randomly allocated to manual therapy (spinal mobilization), physiotherapy (mainly exercise) or general practitioner care (counseling, education and drugs) in a 52-week study. The clinical outcomes measures showed that manual therapy resulted in faster recovery than physiotherapy and general practitioner care. Moreover, total costs of the manual therapy-treated patients were about one-third of the costs of physiotherapy or general practitioner care.
— Korthals-de Bos et al (2003), British Medical Journal
“Patients with chronic low-back pain treated by chiropractors showed greater improvement and satisfaction at one month than patients treated by family physicians. Satisfaction scores were higher for chiropractic patients. A higher proportion of chiropractic patients (56 percent vs. 13 percent) reported that their low-back pain was better or much better, whereas nearly one-third of medical patients reported their low-back pain was worse or much worse.”
– Nyiendo et al (2000), Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics
In Comparison to Other Treatment Alternatives
“Manual-thrust manipulation provides greater short-term reductions in self-reported disability and pain compared with usual medical care. 94% of the manual-thrust manipulation group achieved greater than 30% reduction in pain compared with 69% of usual medical care.”
– Schneider et al (2015), Spine
“Reduced odds of surgery were observed for…those whose first provider was a chiropractor. 42.7% of workers [with back injuries] who first saw a surgeon had surgery, in contrast to only 1.5% of those who saw a chiropractor.”
– Keeney et al (2012), Spine
These evidence in these studies strongly supports the natural, whole-body and cost-effective approach of chiropractic care for a variety of conditions.
To read more about the report: https://nccih.nih.gov/research/results/spotlight/081515
https://nccih.nih.gov/health/pain/chronic.htm
*This approach was developed by Kristen Miller and Mitch Loeb of the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics while working with of the Washington Group on Disability Statistics.
