Chiropractic care can be effective at treating both acute and chronic pain. Chronic pain is considered any pain that has been persistent for longer than 3 months. Acute pain is a pain that just started and by definition will decrease in intensity and respond to treatments. Typcially a patient will undergo physical therapy, pain injections and pain medications for chronic pain in the traditional medical model. The FDA recently released a statement warning against taking opioid medications for chronic pain.
FDA Warning for Opioid Drugs for Pain
A recent report shows that roughly 40 people a day die from overuse of opioid medications. Typically these medications are prescribed for back and dental pain. They are addictive and can have severe side effects, as if death was not severe enough.
Some of my patients have true chronic pain that we manage to keep at a tolerable level with adjustments, intersegmental traction, electric stimulation, home exercises, stretching therapy and topical analgesics. Unfortunately, not every patient I see leaves my office with no pain. We work hard to manage patients pain to keep them at an acceptable activity level. Of course there will be ups and downs, but we always strive for more good days than bad.
Chiropractic care is safe, gentle and effective and has zero side effects. It’s worth a try if you have been having pain that has not responded well to care in the past or want to decrease or stop taking pain medications.
Pain Medications