What No One Tells You About Low Back Pain

When patients come to my office, Soft Touch Chiropractic in Porter Ranch, CA, I am usually their last resort for pain relief or treatment of chronic conditions such as arthritis, degenerative joint disease, pain caused by car accident injuries, etc. After everything else fails, and patients are scared to death of surgery because of what they’ve heard from an orthopaedic surgeon, they decide to finally see me for chiropractic care. So far, the majority of my patients have experienced excellent results in their health while quitting their medications and/or avoiding surgery. Here is the best order of treatments for pain and illness:

1. Chiropractic
   
2. Medication
   
3. Surgery as a last resort
   

My experience is that the propaganda of mainstream media and peer review publications, which are affiliated with interest groups, present information in reverse. They advocate medication and surgery before chiropractic.  

Everything in our body is controlled by the brain and the nervous system, including every healing ability we have, and there are many. When we take pain-killers, the medications slow down or completely block the communication between neurons in the nervous system.  In essence the very system that is supposed to be working to heal the body is being shut down or slowed down by pain-killers, thus preventing or slowing down the healing process.

Chiropractic as a first choice is best because it is the most conservative, safest and least invasive treatment.  When you take medication, especially opioids, it might make you feel a little better, but over the long term, it never fixes the cause of suffering; not only does it not heal the body, but it might put your kidneys in jeopardy or create addiction.

 When you have surgery, the best case scenario might be 50% chance of getting better and 50% chance of getting worse for life. Chiropractic can reverse disease, relieve pain, heal the root cause of the pain and improve health.

Surgery comes with some dangers. Infections, problems with scar tissue and paralysis are all possible side effects of going under the knife; having said that, there have been a few times when I have referred patients to a medical doctor to pursue surgery, but that only happens after I have made sure that I have done everything possible with chiropractic, or some other alternative care like acupuncture, to treat the patient and their bodies just don’t responded to the care.

Below are links to two studies about the efficiency of chiropractic paired with either surgery or medications, both were published by major medical journals.

Effect of Usual Medical Care Plus Chiropractic Care vs Usual Medical Care Alone on Pain and Disability Among US Service Members With Low Back Pain
Chiropractic Distraction Spinal Manipulation on Postsurgical Continued Low Back and Radicular Pain Patients: A Retrospective Case Series
The point here is that these studies have the principle backwards. If the patients on medication had tried chiropractic first, they could have potentially avoided medication altogether.  If the surgery patients had tried chiropractic before an invasive surgery, they might not have needed surgery at all. In both of these cases, the patients would have been better off trying chiropractic before any other treatment.

If you are experiencing pain due to chronic illness, inflammation, a car accident or a personal injury, please call your local chiropractor today for an exam and treatment.

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