While massage therapy can be great for melting away the troubles of everyday life, there’s more to it than mere relaxation. It can also be an essential part of maintaining overall wellness. Often, it plays a significant role in stress relief and pain management for a variety of conditions. Although, if you’ve never had a clinical massage before, you might not know what to expect. It’s possible you even have several questions.
That’s perfectly natural!
To satisfy your curiosity, Algonquin Chiropractic’s very own Dr. Galante answers some of the questions you might be asking yourself.
Learn Where Low Back Pain Comes From and Why Chiropractic Should Be Your First Line of Treatment
If you’re like many Americans, you’re probably starting to experience pain in your lower back. In fact, 80% of people will have disabling low back pain at some point in their lives. Maybe you suffered an injury at work, maybe you’ve developed a painful spinal condition, or maybe you can’t pinpoint any specific cause at all. No matter what the case is, the end result is the same: you have low back pain and you want answers.
“Why do I have low back pain? How can I alleviate my back pain?” We hear this every day from patients at Algonquin Chiropractic Center, where we treat low back pain in Algonquin, IL. Let’s dive into those questions and talk about the prevalence, causes, and treatments for low back pain, including chiropractic care and low back surgery.
If you have neck, arm, leg, or back pain, you probably think treatment has to focus on those areas. However, those symptoms often stem from conditions caused partly by poor body and foot alignment. Your feet are your foundation, and a lack of proper arch support forces your body to shift its weight a certain way to compensate. This leads to problems further up the body. One way Algonquin Chiropractic Center addresses those problems at the root is with custom orthotics.
Custom orthotic shoe inserts are an effective tool to relieve pain and improve motion when treating conditions like sciatica, spinal stenosis, and low back pain. Read on to learn how custom orthotics help, and how Algonquin Chiropractic Center supplies you with orthotics designed for your specific foot shape and condition.
Dr. Galante Is Now Certified in the Cox Technic System’s Lumbar and Cervical Spine Protocols
Algonquin Chiropractic Center announces that Dr. Anthony R. Galante is now certified in the cervical and lumbar spine protocols of the Cox Technic System of Spinal Pain Management and Relief. This evidence-based system is documented via federally funded and clinically collected research studies to reduce intradiscal pressures, leading to pain relief. Having completed both certification courses, Dr. Galante has demonstrated competent understanding of lumbar spine and cervical spine pain conditions as well as the application of the Cox Technic protocols for non-surgical relief of low back pain, leg pain, neck pain, and arm pain. Dr. Galante provides this evidence-based, non-surgical solution for spine-related pain relief in Algonquin, IL.
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 over27 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?
Click for full-size infographic.
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.
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!
