We care for a large number of patients in our Aloha clinic, and Oregon Medical Centers has helped many people manage a variety of health problems. Even so, a common worry that seems to prevent a lot of people from pursuing care is whether or not chiropractic is safe. Well, according to three separate studies (out of many on the issue), the answer to this question is a clear: "Yes! Chiropractic is safe!"
The first article(1) was published in Spine and included 183 men and women between the ages of 20 and 85. Each person reported affected by some kind of back pain, and half of the individuals received actual chiropractic care visits whereas the other half were given two sham chiropractic treatments. Information was collected after each real or fake adjustment to see if any unpleasant side effects occurred as a result of the real chiropractic adjustments.
Researchers found that no participants documented any significant negative adverse reactions at all after receiving one or two sessions of chiropractic. Some individuals did report that they experienced a headache (9 percent) or muscle stiffness (37 percent) post-treatment, but the effects were not of a serious nature.
The second study(2), also released in the distinguished journal, Spine, was done in an attempt to ascertain the safety of chiropractic. The test group was much larger -- 20,000 people. Each participant received chiropractic adjustments of the cervical spine, with over 50,000 total adjustments for all patients.
Again, the experts discovered no serious adverse side effects. The experts determined the risk of total side effects to be about 6 out of every 10,000 consultations or every 100,000 treatment sessions. Plus, just as with the first study, some people did report non-serious, milder, side effects such as dizziness (less than 2%) or a headache (4%), and this caused the researchers to conclude that "the risk of a serious adverse event, immediately or up to 7 days after treatment, was low to very low."
This third research paper(3) is unique from the previous two pieces of research, as it focuses on the safety of chiropractic care for children. In this article, researchers investigated data reported by both chiropractors and parents involving 816 children who participated in 7,173 chiropractic treatment sessions.
Out of 5,438 chiropractic visits made for the young children, chiropractors answering the survey documented only three cases where there were adverse effects. When parents were questioned, they indicated only two adverse side effects out of 1,735 visits. Additionally, both chiropractors and parents reported "a high rate of improvement with respect to the children's presenting complaints."
Based on studies like these, chiropractic care has been deemed safe and effective for everyone. To learn what chiropractic can do for you, call our Aloha clinic and schedule an appointment today at (503) 642-2845.
References
Dr. Bhasin grew up in Southern California and did her undergraduate work in pre-med at California State University Northridge, as well as Humboldt State University in California. Dr. Bhasin attended the University of Western States in Portland Oregon where she earned her Doctor of Chiropractic Degree. Dr. Bhasin has passed her National boards and her State Boards. Dr. Bhasin loves helping people and finds great joy helping injured people get out of pain and get their life back again. She has helped thousands of patients.
