We see a large number of patients in our Aloha, Beaverton office, and Oregon Medical Centers has helped many people eliminate a range of health challenges. However, a frequent concern that seems to prevent some men and women from seeking care is whether or not chiropractic care is safe. Fortunately, according to three separate studies (out of countless on the subject), the answer to this concern is a clear: "Yes! Chiropractic is safe!"
The first article(1) was published in Spine and included 183 women and men between the ages of 20 and 85. Each individual was affected by spinal pain, and half of the people received real chiropractic adjustments while the remaining patients were given two fake chiropractic adjustments. Data was gathered after each real or fake adjustment to see whether or not any undesirable side effects were caused by the actual chiropractic treatments.
Researchers reported that nobody reported any significant unfavorable side effects at all after getting one or two sessions of chiropractic care. Some individuals did state that they had a headache (9 percent) or muscle stiffness (about 1 out of 3) post-treatment, but the results were not of a serious nature.
A second study(2), also published in the prestigious medical journal, Spine, was done in an attempt to determine the safety of chiropractic care. The test group was much larger as it involved just under 20,000 patients. Each participant received chiropractic adjustments of the neck, with over 50,000 total adjustments for all study participants.
Once again, the experts found no serious adverse side effects. The authors computed the risk of total negative effects to be about 6 out of every 10,000 consultations or every 100,000 treatment sessions. And, just as with the previous study, some participants did report non-serious, milder, side effects such as dizziness (16 out of every 1,000 treatment consultations and 15 out of every 1,000 treatment sessions) or a headache (4 out of every 100), and this caused the authors to determine 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 different from the first two pieces of research, as it focuses on the safety of chiropractic care for children. In this case, the authors 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 kids, chiropractors responding to the survey reported only three cases where there were adverse reactions. When parents were surveyed, 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 has been deemed safe and effective for everyone. To learn what chiropractic care can do for you, call our Aloha, Beaverton 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.
