Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.
For several years now the
chiropractic college I graduated from has done a Gallup Survey of Americans. This survey is intended to reveal American
adults’ experiences with pain and their perceptions/opinions of pharmaceutical
treatment versus conservative treatment of their pain.
This
year the survey findings reveal the severity of the epidemic of pain in Americans,
particularly the neck and low back, and the opportunity chiropractors have to
offer a clear alternative to the opioids and pain pills.
This
survey was conducted in February and March of 2017 and surveyed some 6,305 U.S.
adults age 18 and older. There are four
major takeaways found:
First,
the majority of Americans are in pain! A
full sixty three percent have had neck or back pain during their lifetime that
led to a visit to a health care professional. Over 25% have seen a provider for this in the
last 12 months. For those who visited a
provider in the last 12 months, 54% say their pain has persisted to some degree
for over 5 years, and 22% say their pain has been there for over one year. That is 76% of folks who have had pain that
has been there for longer than a year!
This
is where chiropractic should be a better option than popping pain pills
regularly.
Second,
people do not really want to take prescription medications. Nearly 78% of people say they “prefer to try
other ways to address physical pain” before taking drugs. Non-drug treatment isn’t addictive and is,
many times, more effective.
Third,
they consider chiropractic safer and more effective than prescription pain
medication. When suffering from neck or
back pain, 31% consider chiropractic safer than drugs, while another 25%
consider both to be equally as safe.
In
terms of effectiveness of chiropractic versus medication, 27% say chiropractic
is more effective and 22% say medication is more effective.
But,
overall, 81% of people believe chiropractic either “helps a great deal” (41%)
or can “help some with neck and low back pain” (40%). If 8
in 10 of your peers believe chiropractic can help neck and back pain, why are
you not trying it?
Lastly,
despite the fact people say they prefer to avoid medications as a first option
to treat their pain, they still take them. In fact, the people with the most
acute pain (less than 12 months duration) frequently consume over-the-counter
medications. A whopping 70% say they
take an NSAID S(Advil, Aleve, Aspirin, etc.) and 45% report taking
Acetaminophen (Tylenol). Why? If you say you don’t want to take pills, and
you think chiropractic can help, why do you keep taking the pills without
trying chiropractic?
Only 1
in 5 adults reported seeing a chiropractor in the last 12 months. That’s only
18% of the population. The pain crisis in America is only compounded by the
pain pill crisis and the drugging of Americans. Safe, effective, and
non-addictive treatment exists in the world outside of the medical
establishment. It is affordable, even
without insurance coverage, and very effective for back and neck pain, if not
more so, and certainly isn’t addictive or full of “side effects.”
Why
would you not try a chiropractor today? Ask your friends where they go, most
have tried more than one chiropractor, and they can give you an idea of where
to start and who to see. All chiropractors would have more patients than they
could handle if just 25% of the population received regular care. Find a good
chiropractor and see the changes it can make in your life.