By Dr. Steven Warfield
As any baby boomer will attest, the rising cost of
medical care is as inevitable as death and taxes. In 2011, Americans spent more than $50
billion to treat chronic back pain alone.
That doesn’t factor in the costs associated with loss of income due to missed
work days while patients recover from their injuries. The reason that I point this out is due to
the fact that half of all working Americans will experience back pain of one
form or another in 2013. While the
causes are many, the reason that back injuries are so debilitating has to do
with the sophisticated architecture of the spine, as well as all the areas of
the body that are controlled by it.
The back is a complicated support and control structure
that consists of bones, disks, joints, ligaments,
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| Back pain (Photo credits: www.myhardhatstickers.com) |
nerves, and muscles. If any of these structures becomes stressed,
damaged or imbalanced, it can cause a domino effect that can make life
difficult to say the least. If you have
ever pulled a muscle in the back and then experienced a sharp pain from bending
down to pick up a dropped pencil, you know how your back can make or break even
the simplest of tasks. While auto
accidents, falls, sports injuries and other traumatic events can cause back
pain, so can poor posture, pregnancy, obesity and stress.
When most people experience back or neck pain, the
first thing they do is reach for a bottle of pain killers. Be it an over-the-counter remedy or a
prescription medication, all analgesics have one thing in common: all they do
is mask pain. They neither alleviate the
underlying cause of pain, nor do they create an environment that leads to
recovery. Since pain is the body’s way
of telling you that something isn’t quite right, covering up these signals can
sometimes cause further damage that can ultimately lead to surgical
intervention.
After an extensive study of all currently available care for
low back problems, the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research—a federal
government research organization—recommended that low back pain sufferers
choose the most conservative care first. And it recommended spinal manipulation
as the only safe and effective, drugless form of initial professional treatment
for acute low back problems in adults.
Chiropractors specialize in non-invasive treatments
for back and neck pain, including spinal manipulation.
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| Jim Dubel demonstrating adjustment protocals (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Not only can these treatments prove effective
in correcting the underlying causes of back pain, but they can in many cases
circumvent the need for surgery, thus saving patients time and money in their
effort to rebound from injury.
A new study by the Journal of Manipulative
Physical Therapy, “Aging baby boomers and the
rising cost of chronic back pain: secular trend analysis of longitudinal
Medical Expenditures Panel Survey (MEPS) data for years 2000 to 2007,” concludes that the prevalence of back pain and costs
associated with existing treatment patterns have and will continue to escalate
— in part due to an aging population. The JMPT analysis conducted by
researchers out of National University of Health Sciences found no indication
of a decline in regards to the number of chronic back pain incidents and costs
coupled with current treatment patterns.
When compared to the high costs associated with
surgery, chiropractic care can not only save you money, it can also improve your
long term outlook on life, which itself is priceless.
Dr.’s
Steven Warfield and Dave Edenfield offer the most
advanced treatments for back pain, sciatica, neck pain, whiplash and
headaches. They also treat auto accident victims with state-of-the-art
technologies. For more information visit http://www.lakewoodchiropracticjax.com/
Worst than the cost of surgery is the cost in pain and time post-surgery. I will definitely choose my chiropractor over a surgeon every time.
ReplyDeleteHaving been there before I can tell you that nothing is more debilitating than a sore back. Your choices are taking pain pills and hoping for the best, or going to the chiropractor to get the situation straightened out.
ReplyDeleteI have been a big proponent of chiropractic care for over 20 years. My introduction came because my regular doctor was not able to help me with my back pain except by providing short term relief via pain killers. The pain killers came with side effect and that's what prompted me to look elsewhere. I found chiropractic treatment at that time and its been a Godsend ever since. I now use chiropractic treatment as a preventive measure for my aging back and that treatment keeps me in the pink!
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