Do you want to understand the secret of excellent back pain relief? It's not resting on your couch, suffering in pain while you wait for it to go away. It's not just doing your daily exercise therapy and using ice packs. So what is it?
Physical therapies are wonderful for musculoskeletal injury, but to get the total rewards of the exercise you need to get therapy that corrects misalignments in the muscles plus the spine. That's where your Portland (Woodstock, Sellwood) chiropractor, Dr. Helton, can help. If you have sprained your back, it is likely that you have a vertebra or two out-of-place. Stretching and strengthening your back muscles alone won't be adequate to remedy the out-of-place vertebrae. One recent study explains why combining exercise therapy with chiropractic is so useful.
Investigators studied 49 patients with chronic back pain who were randomly assigned to get either manual therapy or sham (placebo) treatment. Manual therapies included treatments regularly used by Dr. Helton, like spinal adjustments and spinal mobilization. Immediately after treatment, patients did exercises like stretches, muscle and motor control exercises, mobility workouts, and strengthening. The clients were treated eight times, with an evaluation after three and six months.
Immediately after treatment, patients receiving chiropractic plus exercise experienced larger reductions in pain compared to the placebo plus exercise group. The benefit seen in the treatment room continued at the three and six-month follow-up sessions. The manual therapy participants had reduced disability and a trend towards reduced pain scores compared to the sham group. These findings indicate that a integrated treatment of chiropractic and exercise could be better than exercise therapy alone for back aches.
So if you'd prefer complete relief of back pain, pick up the phone and give our office in Portland (Woodstock, Sellwood) a call. After a few visits with Dr. Helton, you'll wonder why you didn't call sooner!
Balthazard P, et al. Manual therapy followed by specific active exercises versus a placebo followed by specific active exercises on the improvement of functional disability in patients with chronic non specific low back pain: a randomized controlled trial. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders 2012; 13: 162.
