Harvard Study: Low Back Pain Patients Significantly More Satisfied with Chiropractic Than Conventional Medical Care
In 2002, at the 17th Annual North American Spine Society meeting, three medical doctors publicly defended chiropractic by citing a Harvard study showing that low back pain patients were significantly more satisfied with chiropractic treatment than with conventional medical care.
One of the study’s co-authors, Dr. Jack Zigler, MD, stated that after researching common myths about chiropractic, he discovered that chiropractic education is more similar to medical education than many people realize.
Dr. Zigler had incorporated chiropractors into his multidisciplinary spine center, where they helped determine which patients required surgical care and which could be successfully treated without surgery.
Another co-author, Dr. Andrew Cole, MD, stated:
“Overall, manipulation has the advantage of reducing pain, decreasing medication, rapidly advancing physical therapy, and requiring fewer passive modalities.”
Manipulation is, of course, one of the primary treatment methods used by Doctor of Chiropractic.
Dr. Cole also recommended that spine surgeons refer more patients to chiropractors.
This is important because many people assume chiropractic and medical care are in competition with one another.
In reality, many of the best healthcare results occur when doctors work together and patients receive the right treatment at the right time.
Our goal is to provide you, your family, your friends, and your co-workers with the best care possible.
And as always, thank you for your referrals. We appreciate the confidence you place in our office.
References
Haldeman S, Chapman-Smith D, Petersen DM Jr. Time to recognize value of chiropractic care? Science and patient satisfaction surveys cite usefulness of spinal manipulation. Orthopedics Today February 2003:23(2), pp14–15.
Haldeman S, Cole A, Zigler J, et al. Spinal manipulation in spine care: who? why? when? Presented at the North American Spine Society 17th Annual Meeting, Oct. 29–Nov. 2, 2002, Montreal.
