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Research Supports Chiropractic Therapies
Although empirical evidence suggests that chiropractic is a safe and
effective means of treatment for pain and natural healing, a growing body of
scientific data supports chiropractic's effectiveness. The studies listed
below are a tiny fraction of the studies publishes on the efficacy or
benefits of chiropractic.
The RAND Study - The RAND Corporation, one of the most prestigious
centers for research in public policy and health, released a study in 1991
which found that "spinal manipulation is appropriate for specific kinds of
low back pain".
The Koes Clinical Trial - A 1992 Dutch project compared manipulative
therapy (chiropractic) and physiotherapy (physical therapy) for the
treatment of persistent back and neck complaints. After 12 months, the
manipulative therapy group (Chiropractic) showed greater improvement in the
primary complaint as well as in physical function, with fewer visits.
The AHCPR Guideline - In 1994, the Agency for Health Care Policy and
Research (AHCPR), now the Agency on Health Research and Quality (AHRQ, an
arm of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, released a
clinical practice guideline for the treatment of acute low back problems.
The guidelines recommend the use of spinal manipulation as
"an effective method of symptom control".
The researchers developing the guideline found
that
"manipulation... is safe and effective for
patients in the first month of acute low back symptoms without radiculopathy
(disease of the spinal nerve roots) and persons suffering with radiating
nerve pain (leg or arm pain) may also greatly benefit from chiropractic
treatment".
The Manga Study is probably the most
comphresive scientific study of Chiropractic care - This study researched
both the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness for the chiropractic
management of low-back pain. Dr. Pran Manga, the study's medical researcher
and author, found:
"on the evidence, particularly the most
scientifically valid clinical studies, spinal manipulation applied by
chiropractors is shown to be more effective than alternative treatment for
LBP (low-back pain). Many medical therapies are of questionable validity
or are clearly inadequate."
The Duke Study - Based on a literature
review of several headache treatment options, a panel of 19
multidisciplinary experts concluded that spinal manipulation resulted in
almost immediate improvement for cervicogenic headaches and had
significantly fewer side effects and longer-lasting relief of tension-type
headache than a commonly prescribed medication. Researchers concluded the
following:
"Manipulation appeared to result in immediate
improvement in headache severity when used treat episodes of cervicogenic
headache when compared with a attention-placebo control. Furthermore, when
compared to soft-tissue therapies (massage), a course of manipulation
treatments resulted in sustained improvement in headache frequency and
severity."
The Boline Study - This randomized
controlled trial compared six weeks of spinal manipulative treatment of
tension-type headache by chiropractors to six weeks of medical treatment
with amitriptyline, a medication often prescribed for the treatment of
severe tension headache pain. Researchers found that chiropractic patients
experienced fewer side-effects (4.3%) than the amitriptyline group (82.1 %)
and while both were effective during the treatment phase of the study only
the chiropractic patients continued to report fewer headaches when treatment
ended.
The Nelson Migraine Study - This study compared chiropractic spinal
manipulation to amitriptyline (a medication often prescribed for the
treatment of headache) for the treatment of migraine headache. The
researchers found that:
"spinal manipulation seemed to be as effective
as a well-established and efficacious treatment (amitriptyline), and on the
basis of a benign side effects profile, it should be considered a treatment
option for patients with frequent migraine headaches."
The researchers also found that in the weeks
immediately following treatment, patients who had received spinal
manipulation had a 42°/a reduction in headache frequency, compared to only
24% of those who took amitriptyline.
The Colic Study - When researchers compared spinal manipulation for the
treatment of infantile colic to dimethicone (a medication for colic), they
came to a simple conclusion:
"Spinal manipulation is effective in relieving
infantile colic."
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Kling Chiropractic Wellness Center
(805)898-9849
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