A new article from The Annals of Internal Medicine showing the efficacy of epidural injections to treat pain and radiculopathy. In case you don’t know, radiculopathy is arm or leg pain, numbness, tingling. Sometimes called sciatica too.
The good news is the article shows there is a short term relief associated with the injections. In all honesty this can be painful procedure to have done. On the other hand the long term outcome is not as good. It shows there is not a lasting effect for symptom relief. Basically the procedure is performed to either block the pain sensation in the nerve or to inject a steroid that will decrease the inflammation around the nerve.
Now how about chiropractic care? Chiropractic care can be very effective at treating radicular pain in the arms and legs. With gentle chiropractic adjustments we can alleviate the pressure on the nerve root where it exits the spine. This produces the same outcome as the injections from a treatment stand point. Where chiropractic care differs is we work on correcting the problem not just masking it over like the injections will do. We train your spine to stay in the proper position and therefore make you stronger and less likely to injure yourself again and have the symptoms come back. Yes that means you have to take care of your body and get adjusted on a regular basis and yes you will have to do some exercising. But you are worth it!
Chiropractic care helps many seemingly helpless cases. Give us a call and find out how chiropractic care can improve your life.