Thinking About Seeing A Chiropractor In Maple Grove...
Let's Crunch The Numbers
I had my first adjustment when I was 15 years old. I had no idea what chiropractic was all about...and though it's hard to remember, I'm sure I was a little nervous. Maybe you've thought about giving chiropractic a try, but you still have a few questions about whether you're making the right decision.
So, let's crunch a few chiropractic numbers to put your mind at ease.
Just how popular is chiropractic treatment?
- There are more than 70,000 chiropractors in the United States and they go through a four year doctoral graduate school program which consists of over 4200 hours of classroom, laboratory and clinical work.
- Roughly 1,000,000 chiropractic adjustments are performed each day across the globe and approximately 35 million Americans are treated by a chiropractor annually.
Who's the most likely to see a chiropractor?
- Chiropractic helps with a number of problems, with musculoskeletal problems being the most common.
- When it comes to age, adults between the ages of 45 and 64 are the most likely to seek care.
- The lifetime prevalence of low-back pain is reported to be as high as 84%.
- An estimated 10% of the world's population suffers from lower back pain.
- Women are twice as likely to suffer from severe headaches or migraines than men. Chiropractic can often help!
But what about the cost?
- Americans spend at least $50 billion annually on treating back pain.
- Chronic pain costs the U.S. $2,000 per year in health care costs per person on average, with 36 million Americans missing work per year.
- Treatment for low-back pain initiated by a DC costs up to 20% less than when started by a medical doctor.
- By visiting a chiropractor regularly, you can reduce your pharmaceutical costs by up to 85%.
- Research by The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine found that replacing a visit to a doctor with a visit to a chiropractor for back pain could save Medicare $83.5 million every year.
Does chiropractic treatment actually work?
- Three in four people who saw a chiropractor in the last year (77%) described chiropractic care as "very effective."
- In a consumer survey, chiropractic outperformed all other back pain treatments, including prescription medication, deep-tissue massage, yoga, pilates, and over-the-counter medication therapies.
- Chiropractors are the highest-rated healthcare practitioner for low-back pain treatments above physical therapists (PTs), specialist physician/MD (i.e., neurosurgeons, neurologists, orthopaedic surgeons), and primary care physician/MD (i.e., family or internal medicine
- Chiropractic techniques may be up to 40% more effective than medical care for treating lower back pain.
- An injured worker is 28 times less likely to have spinal surgery if the first point of contact is a DC rather than a surgeon.
- A clinical comparative trial conducted at three military medical centers found that chiropractic care combined with usual medical care for low-back pain provides greater pain relief and a greater reduction in disability than medical care alone.
- In another comparative-effectiveness trial, 94% of manual-thrust manipulation (chiropractic) recipients experienced a 30% reduction in their pain, compared with only 54% of medical care recipients.
Is Chiropractic Treatment Safe?
- Chiropractic treatment is widely recognized as one of the safest forms of treatment for musculoskeletal conditions.
- The most common side effects are stiffness and soreness following an adjustment with most symptoms subsiding within 24 hours.
- Some reports have associated high velocity manipulations of the cervical spine with vertebral artery dissection, however, evidence suggests that these events occurred spontaneously in patients with pre-existing arterial disease.
- The incidence of vertebral artery dissection is equal among those receiving high velocity manipulation and the general population (about 1-3 cases per 100,000).
Looking to learn more? Check out our Maple Grove chiropractic office at www.totalspinemm.com.
