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Chiropractic care is a health care profession based on interactions of the spine and nervous system, as well as the surrounding muscles.

Yes. Doctors of Chiropractic (also known as chiropractors) are not medical doctors, but go through a similar education process to become licensed in the field of chiropractic care. In fact, educational requirements for chiropractors are among the most stringent of any health care profession.

Chiropractors are known for our expertise in caring for patients with back pain, neck pain, and headaches. We also treat sports injuries and other disorders involving muscles, ligaments and joints. The benefits of chiropractic care go beyond this and extend into general health as our core body structure affects overall function and health.

A chiropractic adjustment is the art of using a specific, controlled force in a precise direction that is applied to a spinal joint not moving properly or “locked up.” The purpose of this natural and safe procedure is to correct structural alignment and eliminate interference in the nervous system. For the patient, this means improved spinal function, reduction in pain, and an overall improvement in health and wellness.

Chiropractic manipulation is a highly controlled procedure that rarely causes discomfort because minimal force and gentle pressure are used. In fact, most patients feel relief immediately following treatment. Any reported soreness after an initial adjustment has been described as similar to that associated with starting a new exercise program. Drinking plenty of water, using an ice pack, and engaging in light stretching after your first visit can help ease any discomfort promote healing.

Chiropractic care is widely recognized as one of the most safe drug-free, non-invasive therapies available for the treatment of most back and neck problems. Spinal adjustments are extremely safe when performed by a licensed chiropractic physician.

The noises you hear resembling popping sounds are your joints releasing tiny pockets of air. A chiropractic adjustment does not affect the bones of either side of a joint; it affects the connective tissue that holds the joint together.

Each patient’s care is unique and therefore customized to meet their specific condition and needs. Your chiropractor will modify adjustments based on your size, weight, age and health condition.

For many, back pain can become chronic if left untreated. Chiropractic care has been shown to ease and even eliminate back pain for many patients.

Many pregnant women find that chiropractic adjustments improve the pregnancy experience and make delivery easier. Adjustments are adapted to accommodate the stage of pregnancy and the unique needs of each patient.

More than 80 percent of people experience lower back pain at some point in their lives. In fact, it is one of the most reported reasons people miss work and is the second most frequent reason patients visit the doctor.

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The draft Guidance for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain, issued in December 2015 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, included “many complementary and alternative therapies (e.g., manipulation, massage, and acupuncture)” among its recommended non-pharmacologic approaches. However, when the final Guidance was released three months later, manipulative therapy and its 75,000 licensed chiropractic practitioners was not directly referenced. A recent study from James “Jim” Whedon, DC, MS, pictured, suggests that the CDC harmed its mission with its excision of explicit reference to manipulation. Patients using chiropractors were less likely to use prescription opioids.

Whedon is currently a researcher at the Southern California University of Health Sciences, and is co-chair of the Research Working Group of the Academic Collaborative for Integrative Health. He is a relatively rare resource in the integrative health community, as a specialist in diving into huge data sets of insurers and seeking to extract useful information. Whedon is a veteran of arguably the most important research center in this type of work, The Dartmouth Institute at the Geisel Medical School at Dartmouth College.

Whedon’s research began with awareness that “little is known about the comparative effectiveness of non-pharmacological care for low back pain as a strategy for reducing the use of opioid analgesics.” What is well known, as Whedon shared in his poster and presentation at the 2016 conference of the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine, is that patients with such pain are swimming in opioid prescriptions. Whedon’s presentation included a Baskin-Robbins-like list of 39 opioid varieties. He postulated that opioid use would be less likely among those receiving chiropractic care.

In “Association between utilization of chiropractic services for low back pain and use of prescription opioids:  Preliminary results of a health claims study,” Whedon reports what he found through examining the New Hampshire All Payer Claims Database.  Of roughly 33,000 adults registered as having low back pain, slightly over a third saw a chiropractor. Of these, 38 percent had at least one opioid prescription. Of those who did not see a chiropractor, 61 percent had at least one opioid prescription.

The core question that interested Whedon was how many prescription fills the two sets of insured patients received. Those whose opioid prescription was integrated with chiropractic care had an average of 3.9 fills. Those who did not receive chiropractic manipulative therapy averaged 8.3 fills per patient. He estimated that the average per person opioid charges were $88 for those using chiropractors. The figure was $140, or 60 percent higher for those not using chiropractic care.

Whedon’s conclusions were, first, that the likelihood of filling a prescription for a high-risk drug of any type was 27 percent lower. Secondly, the likelihood of filling a prescription for an opioid analgesic was 57 percent lower in the chiropractic-using population. “These are preliminary results,” Whedon cautioned. “We intend to analyze the data further, applying robust methods to reduce the risk of bias that can result from other differences between people who use chiropractic care and those who do not.”

Comment: While Whedon takes care to note that “no causal inferences can be made,” the associations should be of real interest to the CDC and other policy makers. A follow-up study might attempt to compare the whole costs of the chiropractic-using population and those who didn’t.  These costs could include, on the one hand, the cost of chiropractic treatment, and on the other, the costs of other medications or treatment that may be prescribed for those on longer-term opioid treatment who may end up cycling into the addiction.

John Weeks, Publisher/Editor of The Integrator Blog News and Reports