September 30, 2021

Is Chiropractic Maintenance Care Effective?

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

 

When I sit down with a new patient for the first time, one of the questions I ask is if they have ever been to a chiropractor before. I’d guess about half of them have not. My next question is usually, “Why not?” The most common answer is, “I’ve never needed one before.” For me, that translates into, “The pain I’ve been having off and on for years won’t go away this time!”

Needing a chiropractor should be on 100% of everyone’s list of necessary doctors. Not just for getting rid of pain but for maintenance of joint function to prevent future problems. Do you not change the oil in your car? Rotate the tires? Wash it once in a while? Why do you do this? It’s called preventive maintenance, right? Spend a little bit of time and money now to protect your huge investment for years to come. Isn’t your health worthy of investment? How can you eat right, exercise, avoid bad health habits, yet not consider maintaining the vital function of the spine and nervous system?

“Well, I didn’t have any pain, so why do I need adjusted?” Again, my response is, “Do you wait for the low oil light to come on before you decide it check it?” Of course not, so why wait until the last symptom to appear, which is pain, before maintaining your body?

An exciting new study that won first prize at a research competition at the European Chiropractor’s Convention underscores the advantages of regular chiropractic care, whether you have pain or not.

This study specifically looked at low back pain. It compared a group of people in Sweden, some receiving treatment at regular intervals, called maintenance care, and another group receiving treatment only when symptoms were present. They followed these people for one year.

The results show that the group of maintenance care patients, totaling 163 subjects, had 19.3 fewer days of bothersome low back pain than the control group of 154 subjects, who only treated once pain appeared. The average number of visits per year was 7 for the maintenance group and 5 for the control group.

Let’s do the math…for as few as two more visits per year, 7 vs 5, you could have 20 less days of back pain on average. My personal insight is that monthly care, 12 per year, yields many benefits to your health. I literally have several hundred people who do this very thing in my practice right now. Almost all of them have tried going without regular treatment at some point, and have found it not as effective in keeping their pain at bay.

Now, I didn’t say these people never have any pain, but they have all found they have less pain by maintaining their skeletal system. This study actually proves that premise.

So “needing a chiropractor” should not be based on the pain you now feel, but on the pain you wish to avoid in the future. My own practice proves it every day and the research proves it.  Regular chiropractic treatment is a vital part of maintaining your health, and who doesn’t want better health for the future?