What Is National Chiropractic Health Month? [Infographic]
Image of Chiropractors meeting for National Chiropractic Health Month
Learn More About the ACA’s National Chiropractic Health Month
This October, Algonquin Chiropractic Center is participating in National Chiropractic Health Month 2017! Lead by the American Chiropractic Association (ACA), chiropractors across the country mark this month by sharing back injury prevention and strengthening tips. We also share the benefits of a conservative approach to back pain treatment, in line with this month’s “Back to Basics” theme.
Read on to learn more about chiropractors, their approach to pain treatment, the benefits of this approach.
Who Are Chiropractors?
A Doctor of Chiropractic (DC) is a qualified healthcare professional who focuses on disorders of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems as well as how they affect overall health. Approximately 10,000 chiropractic students are currently studying in 18 nationally-accredited programs across the country. About 2,500 doctors of chiropractic enter the workforce every year, and nearly 77,000 doctors of chiropractic treat over 27 million Americans annually.
The federal Medicare program and most states designate doctors of chiropractic as physician-level providers. To become a chiropractor, a chiropractic student has to complete an accredited four-year doctoral graduate school program. The curriculum includes a minimum of 4,200 hours of study in classroom, laboratory, and clinical settings. This is equivalent to the classroom hours required of allopathic and osteopathic doctors (MD and DO).
What Is the Chiropractic Approach to Back Pain?
Doctors of chiropractic use many methods of healthcare which you’re probably already familiar with, including examination, diagnosis, and treatment. They reject the allopathic approach’s dependence on addictive drugs and invasive surgery, and instead recommend a conservative approach to treating back pain.
First, a doctor of chiropractic will identify the root causes of the pain. This could be a herniated disc, spinal stenosis, or any number of other conditions. Rather than simply medicate the symptoms away, a chiropractor inspects and understands the biomechanics of the spine to get to the root of the problem.
Once a diagnosis has been made, the doctor of chiropractic treats the condition with a conservative approach. This can include any combination of the therapeutic and rehabilitative treatments that chiropractors are trained in. Using their broad diagnostic skills, doctors of chiropractic prescribe and administer various exercises and techniques, as well as nutritional and lifestyle counseling.
Examples of treatments carried out by doctors of chiropractic include the Cox Technic, massage therapy, weight training, custom orthotics, and more.
Why Choose Chiropractic for Back Pain?
Among the different types of healthcare practitioners for low-back pain treatment, doctors of chiropractic are the highest rated in terms of patient satisfaction, beating out physical therapists, primary care physicians like family doctors, and specialist physicians like neurologists and orthopedic surgeons. Why? There are two main reasons: cost and effectiveness.
The conservative approach to healthcare is cost effective. On average, low-back pain care initiated by a doctor of chiropractic costs 20% less than low-back pain care initiated by a medical doctor. A lot of this has to do with the reduced chance of surgery: 42.7% if your first point of contact is with a medical doctor or surgeon, compared to only 1.5% if your first point of contact is with a doctor of chiropractic.
However, the results you get in return are better than those you get from the medical doctor’s treatments. Chiropractic outperforms all other back pain treatments including deep-tissue massage, yoga and pilates, and both over-the-counter and prescription medications. A systematic review in 2010 revealed that most studies indicate equal or better short-term and long-term improvements in pain and function with spinal manipulation (a chiropractic technique) compared to other common methods.
So, chiropractic provides equal or better improvements to your back pain with less invasive treatments and at a lower cost. This National Chiropractic Health Month, take some time to let us educate you about what our work can do for you. Give Algonquin Chiropractic Center a call at (847) 854-2000 to speak with a doctor of chiropractic in Algonquin, IL and learn how conservative care can help you take your life back!