Study Finds that Starting with Chiropractic Saves 40% on Low Back Pain Care

A new study finds that low back pain care initiated with a doctor of chiropractic (DC) saves 40 percent on health care costs when compared with care initiated through a medical doctor (MD), the American Chiropractic Association (ACA) announced today. The study, featuring data from 85,000 Blue Cross Blue Shield beneficiaries, concludes that insurance companies that restrict access to chiropractic care for low back pain treatment may inadvertently pay more for care than they would if they removed such restrictions.

Low back pain is a significant public health problem. Up to 85 percent of Americans have back pain at some point in their lives. In addition to its negative effects on employee productivity, back pain treatment accounts for about $50 billion annually in health care costs—making it one of the top 10 most costly conditions treated in the United States.

The study, “Cost of Care for Common Back Pain Conditions Initiated With Chiropractic Doctor vs. Medical Doctor/Doctor of Osteopathy as First Physician: Experience of One Tennessee-Based General Health Insurer,” which is available online and will also be published in the December 2010 issue of the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, looked at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee’s intermediate and large group fully insured population over a two-year span. The insured study population had open access to MDs and DCs through self-referral, and there were no limits applied to the number of MD/DC visits allowed and no differences in co-pays.

Results show that paid costs for episodes of care initiated by a DC were almost 40 percent less than care initiated through an MD. After risk-adjusting each patient’s costs, researchers still found significant savings in the chiropractic group. They estimated that allowing DC-initiated episodes of care would have led to an annual cost savings of $2.3 million for BCBS of Tennessee.

“As doctors of chiropractic, we know firsthand that our care often helps patients avoid or reduce more costly interventions such as drugs and surgery. This study supports what we see in our practices every day,” said ACA President Rick McMichael, DC. “It also demonstrates the value of chiropractic care at a critical time, when our nation is attempting to reform its health care system and contain runaway costs.”

Source: American Chiropractic Association

Non-Surgical Spinal Decompression Considered An Effective Treatment For Back Pain

As new clinical research demonstrating the positive outcomes of this form of therapy continues to surface, it has not take long for the spinal decompression therapyto be widely used in Vancouver as an effective treatment option for chronic back pain conditions. With millions of people suffering with back pain worldwide and individuals searching for alternative ways to find chronic back pain relief, non-surgical spinal decompression therapy arises. Non-surgical spinal decompression therapy has successfully treated many back pain sufferers who received unsatisfactory results with traditional treatment methods such as bed rest, pain medications, or surgery.

Spinal decompression therapy can be found at Vancouver Spinal Decompression Center in Vancouver, B.C. In a study published in Pain Practice, patient outcomes indicated that chronic low back pain improved with treatment on the DRX9000 Non-surgical Spinal Decompression System.

The study indicated that patients with a mean pain duration of 535 weeks which is over 10 years reported a mean verbal numerical pain intensity rating equal to 6.05 on a 0 to 10 scale prior to treatment with spinal decompression. Patients were treated at four different back pain clinics throughout the United States. They received thirty minute spinal decompression therapy sessions daily for the first two weeks and then it tapered down to one session per week.

Patients in the study reported a decrease in analgesic use and improvement in activities of daily living. After the completion of the Non-surgical Spinal Decompression program, the mean verbal numerical pain intensity rating decreased to a statistically and clinically significant rating of 0.89.

The authors were able to follow-up at a mean 31 weeks with 29 patients and reveal mean values of 83% improvement in back pain and satisfaction of 8.55 on a 10-point scale. None of these 29 patients reported requiring surgery.

For more information about spinal decompression therapy, Dr. Ali Akhavan, D.C. at Vancouver Spinal Decompression Center can be reached at 604-984-4601. As more clinical research demonstrating positive results utilizing this form of treatment is disseminated, the question may no longer be whether it’s effective but rather which office offer it. Vancouver Spinal decompression center in Vancouver has successfully treated many patients with back pain, leg pain, sciatica, pinched nerves and more.

Please note, like any other medical therapy, individual patient results varies.

The pain shoots down your leg—burning, tingling, almost electric. Anyone who’s felt it knows that this is the hallmark symptom of sciatica. But did you know that there’s more to sciatica than just leg pain? And what about the best treatment—should you get plenty of rest or join boot camp?

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What Is Your Back Pain Telling You?

You may have heard that pain is our body’s way of sending us a message. But when back pain first arrives, what it tells you may not be the truth — or, at least, not the whole story.

Symptom: A brand-new pain

What you think: “I need tests to find out what’s going on”
The reality: You can feel better without seeing the doctor
Your next step: Try first 48 hrs self-help tips below.

Symptom: A sudden pain with a fairly ordinary movement

What you think: “Uh-oh. I shouldn’t have done that!”
The reality: You overdid it a few days ago. Stressed muscles only cried out with your latest quick movement
Your next step: Try first 48 hrs self-help tips below.

Symptom: It hurts to move

What you think: “I’d better stay still, or I’ll make it worse”
The reality: There’s no connection — in most cases, activity will hasten your recovery
Your next step: Start moving and stretching gently as soon as possible. Don’t stay in bed more than two days

Symptom: It’s worst in early morning

What you think: “I must be sleeping in a weird position”
The reality: Back muscles tend to hurt more at day’s end and following activity, not after resting
Your next step: A check for inflammatory problems, such as arthritis, that cause morning pain and stiffness

Symptom: A terrible pain

What you think: “This must be really serious!”
The reality: Even temporary problems like muscle sprains can hurt like crazy
Your next step: Book an appointment with your chiropractor about your pain, and also be sure to report symptoms like leg weakness

The First 48 Hours: Self-Help Tips

You’ve thrown your back out — #$%?! While the pain may be terrible, if you’re lucky, it will be short-lived. Here, simple relief measures to get you back on your feet:

Chill (Then Thaw)
Apply an ice pack (a bag of frozen peas works, too), over a thin shirt or towel, for up to 15 minutes. Or give yourself (or recruit the nearest set of helping hands for) a five-minute ice massage using water frozen in a paper cup with the sides peeled down. Repeat as often as you want, but no more than once an hour. (Ice is a natural pain reliever, and it reduces swelling by causing blood vessels in the area to constrict.) After 48 hours, you want blood flow to increase to help healing, so switch to heat.

Rest. A Little.
Lie down when you need to, but make sure it’s in a back-neutral position: Try lying on your back with your head supported but not lifted and your knees bent and supported with a cushion. Another option: Lie on your side with one pillow behind your neck and another between your knees. Bed rest is OK only for the first 48 hours; after that (or even in those first two days), walking around will relieve pain-causing tension in your muscles. 

Reach for your chiropractor

Talk to your doctor of chiropractic if your pain continues to worsen after initial period or you need professional care to speed up the healing process, or seek help right away if:

·         You’ve fallen, been in a car accident, or had another traumatic injury

·         You can’t move one or both legs, or you have severe numbness or weakness

·         You lose bowel control or have urinary difficulties, or you lose feeling in the groin (there may be severe nerve involvement)

·         You experience severe pain with movement, especially if you have arthritis or osteoporosis — you may have a fracture

The July, 2004 of “The BackLetter” published by Lippincott contains the following inditement:

“The world of spinal medicine, unfortunately, is producing patients with failed back surgery syndrome at an alarming rate” (Vol. 12, No. 7, pp.79).

The validity of this declaration continues to be reinforced by an increasing chorus of voices from the health care communities including neurosurgeons and orthopedists.  The key questions today are how this sad state of affairs came to be and how to best address this serious health care issue. 

All spine surgery carries with it a significant degree of patient risk but when the resulting surgery does not alleviate the problem, or creates even greater problems for the patient, the situation is referred to as a    “failed back surgery syndrome (FBSS).”  In 1981 the Editor was a contributor to an international FBSS (Canada and the United States) study which was published in the peer reviewed journal “Clinical Orthopedics.” The authors pointed out that the first step in avoiding FBSS was the need to study the reasons why surgery failed and to endeavor to provide this information to surgeons and other physicians as an important means of promoting better patient care.

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