If you are one of the four out of five people will go on to develop regular bouts of back pain after an initial attack, this is an important question to answer. For over 100 years chiropractors have claimed that regular treatment can prevent recurrences of back pain. Are we right?
For most of the 20th century, medical treatment, including here in Brighton, consisted of bed rest and painkillers for back pain. Unfortunately, this contributed to an increase in the cases of recurrent back pain. From 1980 until 2000 the number of days off work in the UK due to back pain doubled every decade.
Eventually, GPs stopped treating back pain this way and accepted what chiropractors and others had been saying that active treatment is best. It is also true that chiropractors accepted that painkillers and anti-inflammatory medication are also helpful, whereas up until then old school chiro’s often shunned drugs.
Medical Treatment for Back Pain
Even now, however, back pain treatment from the doctor consists of a brief course of physio or medication which stops as soon as the symptoms stop. If you have had recurrent back pain you will be all too familiar with the trips to the doctor, prescriptions for strong drugs, referral to the physio (after a wait of many weeks) then being given a few exercises. You are probably fed up with your back feeling vulnerable and about to go at any time. You may even find that you’re limiting your activities to avoid the things that bring it on. If so, what can be done to prevent the dreaded back pain from returning?
Well, new medical research, published in 2011, suggests that an initial intensive course of manipulation such as our chiropractors in Brighton do here at Sundial, followed by periodic checkups and treatment may help prevent long-term back pain from re-occurring. Interestingly, those that did not receive the continuing course of care lost their earlier improvements.
Preventative Chiropractic Treatment Works
So the evidence seems to point to an initial course of treatment over a few weeks to get rid of the initial pain and improve function followed by a course of care over the next few months to make sure that those improvements are maintained. Here at Sundial we use the best available evidence to guide our treatment and we generally stick to this sort of plan in helping you get better.
If you would like to know if preventative chiropractic care can help you then give us a call for an initial chat, at no charge.