Medical Professionals Are Becoming Less Biased Against Chiropractic Care

The New York Times recently featured an article discussing the fact that today’s medical doctors are rethinking their biases against referring patients for chiropractic care for the relief of pain and certain physical conditions/ailments.

In previous blogs I’ve discussed the problematic rise of opioid addiction in the U.S. and the high number of deaths resulting from this epidemic. Part of the solution to this addiction crisis would be for medical doctors to refer patients to chiropractors for pain relief, rather than prescribing prescription painkillers (which mask pain but do not address or correct the problem that causes pain in the first place).

The author of the New York Times article acknowledges that spinal manipulation helps relieve many patients’ pain the natural way, without drugs or chemicals. Numerous studies show that spinal manipulation and chiropractic adjustments very effectively treat both short-term and chronic low back pain. However, the author also suggests that heat and meditation can help relieve back pain. This suggestion is inaccurate. While a heating pad may reduce pain temporarily, it does not address the underlying cause of the pain. Often, patients come into our clinic with chronic or acute back pain and tell me that they’ve used heating pads for hours at a time – or even all night – in order to relieve their pain. This is far from ideal, because long periods of heat application actually increase swelling and blood congestion, which compromise healing. Heat should be applied for a maximum of 15 minutes at a time only, and there should be a period of at least 30 to 60 minutes without heat application between each use of a heating pad.

In contrast to pain medication or heat application, chiropractic care addresses the root cause of pain, fixing the problem naturally and resulting in long-term pain relief.

So, what is the root cause of back pain? To oversimplify it, back pain is caused by hard bones irritating soft ligaments and nerves. When a chiropractor adjusts your spine, it restores natural movement to the vertebral joints that were locked up, and pressure is thereby taken off ligaments and nerves. This results in improved spine functioning, and the patient’s whole body feels better, because their nervous system is functioning at a higher level than it was prior to the adjustment.

Chiropractic adjustments and spinal manipulation are the only natural, non-medical, drug-free procedures that have been proven to effectively relieve back pain.

The article discusses the fact that the medical establishment has, until recently, been wary of referring patients to chiropractors for spinal manipulation and pain relief because, to quote the article, “some chiropractors have made claims that they can address conditions that have little to do with the spine”.

This is a widely held misconception. Many people do not understand what chiropractors do, or that chiropractors are in fact doctors of chiropractic. Chiropractic doctors are accredited, having graduated from chiropractic school, where they undergo a similar number of hours of education as do medical doctors in medical school. After passing extensive national board tests, each chiropractor is licensed by his or her state licensing board.

And it is true that chiropractors can indeed address conditions that medical doctors do not specialize in. Chiropractors are sometimes accused by the medical community of claiming that they can address conditions unrelated to the spine. But the reality is that chiropractors really do address and provide relief of these conditions all time. When chiropractors mobilize the spine through adjustments, it allows the nervous system to function at a higher level, because the spine is so intimately related with the nervous system. This is how a chiropractic adjustment can improve a condition that seems to “have little to do with the spine”. All body processes involve the nervous system, and by definition a chiropractic adjustment deals with the nervous system, unlocking fixated vertebral segments and restoring nerve function.

In decades past, it was assumed that chiropractic care was needed only by the elderly community. But in recent years, there has been an increase in the number of young people and people of all ages seeking chiropractic treatment for a wide range of ailments. This is heartening, because individuals from birth to old age benefit from chiropractic care. If you have a spine (which we all do), then you need chiropractic care, regardless of your age. Even 35 years ago when I began practicing, my patients included people of all ages, from infants to elderly.

Everyone, no matter how young or old, can benefit from chiropractic care – and medical professionals are acknowledging now more than ever before that chiropractic is in fact a legitimate, natural and longterm solution to pain. Rather than taking drugs to mask your pain, I recommend seeking chiropractic care to solve the underlying problem that causes your pain in the first place.