Conventional
medicine is built on treating illnesses with two tools and only two tools:
drugs and surgery. You can visualize a conventional doctor as a workman who
carries only a hammer and a screw driver. To be fair, they're the absolute best
hammer and screw driver that science can build, and the workman is very, very
good with those particular tools; if you need a nail or screw driven, this is
the guy you want to hire.
But back pain isn't
all just nails to be hammered and screws to be driven. Back pain can be caused
by multiple factors, and each cause can require a different kind of treatment. Would
it make sense to fix everything with only two tools even though that the
problem may require other tools? Would it be better to patch the road or fix it
at its root?
For example, if
drugs are used to treat a spinal misalignment, will that correct that
misalignment that is causing the pain? Or will that just temporary inhibit the
pain without treating the cause? Ultimately, medications are there to just
block the pain, and although this eases the anguish associated with back pain,
it does not restore the functional biomechanics. Even worse, while prescription
drugs can be effective at treating pain, in most cases they can't do anything
to fix the underlying problem causing that pain. This means that if you want
that pain to stay away, you have to keep taking those drugs until the cause of
the pain somehow fixes itself. That's a life sentence of sky-high medical bills
and side effects!
Pain is a sign that
something is seriously wrong with the body, and blocking that mechanism will
only cause more damage in the long run. Wouldn't it be better to treat the
underlying problem and restore its proper function?
And surgery, while
generally more effective at treating the root cause of a problem, can be even
more dangerous. Iatrogenic disease-that is, illnesses caused by doctors-is
currently the number three cause of death for Americans, behind only cancer and
heart disease. Every time a patient goes under the knife, no matter how necessary,
they are taking their life in their hands. Again, there are certainly
conditions where surgery is the best option, but why put up with the risks of
surgery when there are alternative treatments that can deal with a problem
before it gets bad enough for surgery to be the only option?
In short, when it
comes to back pain, conventional medicine comes at the problem with nothing but
that hammer and screw driver, and whatever the cause of the pain may be, those
are the tools you get. Given the alternative, wouldn't you rather be treated by
someone with a complete toolbox, a medical practitioner who approaches each
problem by its own standards instead of using the same approach to every
malady?
Considering how
inadequate the drugs-and-surgery method is at effectively treating back pain,
is it any surprise that millions of Americans are seeing Doctors of
Chiropractic? Chiropractic medicine, unlike conventional medicine, isn't about
treating symptoms, but about treating people. Doctors of Chiropractic make use
of a wide range of methods and equipment to treat a variety of problems. After
all, chronic disorders such as back pain result in almost 80% of health care
expenditures in the United States, and chronic disease can't generally be fixed
with drugs or surgery. Chiropractor helps patients look at their lifestyle and
medical history as a whole so they can treat the root cause of chronic pain-and
"treat" doesn't mean "make it go away by taking a pill."
Let's examine why
more and more people are looking to chiropractor to treat their back pain:
Chiropractic is
Safe and All Natural
Compared to the
dangers of surgery as described above, chiropractic is incredibly safe, with
injury to patients during spinal manipulation reported in fewer than one in
three million adjustments. Doctors of chiropractic make use of all natural
remedies instead of relying on prescription drugs, which lead to millions of
hospitalizations annually. The safety of chiropractic explains why malpractice
insurance is one of the lowest of any medical practitioner.
Chiropractic is
Effective for Back Pain
The effectiveness
of chiropractic in treating back pain has been proven countless times. In fact,
chiropractic is so effective that the Ontario Ministry of Health recommended
that chiropractic should be the preferred treatment for lower back pain, with
traditional medicine not even in the running. Chiropractic patients have
reported being happier with chiropractic treatment than traditional medicine in
startling numbers, citing the communicativeness of chiropractor, the low cost
of treatment compared to traditional medicine, and most importantly, the
effectiveness at reducing pain compared to drugs and surgery.
Chiropractic Has
Shown to Reduce Hospital Admissions and Healthcare Costs
Doctors of Chiropractic
don't just keep their patients safe when treating back pain; they actually
reduce hospital admissions as a result of their treatment. According to the
Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, patients who saw
chiropractor as their primary care physician experienced 43% fewer
hospitalizations and had more than 50% reduction of their pharmaceutical costs.
Considering how many hospital visits result in iatrogenic disease, it's not
only better financially to avoid hospitalization, it's a lot safer, too!
Chiropractic is the
not answer to every health ailment. However, for musculoskeletal issues such as
back and neck pain, headaches, and other related disorders, it is a safer and
more effective treatment than drugs and surgery.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9367338
