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We care for a large number of people in our North County St. Louis, MO clinic, and Dr. Mark Holland has helped countless people eliminate a variety of health challenges. In spite of this, the primary worry that seems to stop some men and women from seeking care is whether or not chiropractic adjustments are safe. Luckily, according to three different studies (out of many on the issue), the answer to this question is a resounding: "Yes! Chiropractic is safe!"

Australian Study: Chiropractic is Safe

The first study(1) was published in Spine and involved 183 adults. Each test subject was suffering from spine-related pain, and half of the individuals received real chiropractic adjustments whereas the remaining patients received two fake chiropractic adjustments. Data was collected after each real or fake adjustment to see whether or not any unfavorable side effects were caused by the genuine chiropractic adjustments.

Researchers found that none of the patients documented any serious negative side effects at all after receiving one or two sessions of chiropractic. Some individuals did report that they experienced a headache (just 9% of people) or muscle stiffness (37%) post-treatment, but the effects were not of a serious nature.

Nationwide Survey Finds that Chiropractic Care is Safe

The second study(2), also published in the influential medical journal, Spine, was conducted 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.

Once again, the researchers found no serious negative side effects. The experts calculated the risk of total adverse reactions to be about 6 out of every 10,000 consultations or every 100,000 treatment sessions. Plus, just as with the previous study, some participants did report non-serious, milder, unwanted 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 researchers to determine that "the risk of a serious adverse event, immediately or up to 7 days after treatment, was low to very low."

Chiropractic Adjustments are Safe for Kids

This third study(3) is unique from the first two reports, as it concentrates on the safety of chiropractic care for kids. In this article, the researchers analyzed data reported by both chiropractors and parents involving 816 children who participated in 7,173 chiropractic adjustments.

Out of 5,438 chiropractic visits made for the kids, chiropractors responding to the survey reported 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 has been deemed safe and effective for everyone. To learn what chiropractic care can do for you, call our North County St. Louis, MO office and schedule an appointment today at (314) 867-8888.

References

1. Walker BF, Hebert JJ, Stomski NJ, Clarke BR, Bowden RS, Losco B, French SD. Outcomes of usual chiropractic. The OUCH randomized controlled trial of adverse events. Spine 2013;38(20):1723-9.
2. Thiel HW1, Bolton JE, Docherty S, Portlock JC. Safety of chiropractic manipulation of the cervical spine: a prospective national survey. Spine 2007;32(21):2375-8.
3. Alcantara J, Ohm J, Kunz D. The safety and effectiveness of pediatric chiropractic: a survey of chiropractors and parents in a practice-based research network. Explore NY 2009;5(5): 290-5.

When you're trying to support your family, take care of your home, and pay all of your bills on time, every day at your work counts. Work injuries can be a big problem for many folks, and we see many of these types of injuries in our North County St. Louis, MO office. Dr. Mark Holland appreciates your situation and is here to help.

The advantages of chiropractic care for work injuries are well-documented. A 2013 survey involving over 600 adults who were suffering with either back or neck pain found that the men and women who didn't see a chiropractor missed work at twice the rate of those who were seeing a chiropractor.

So, why don't more people use Chiropractic?

According to the participants in this report, two of the major reasons were that they thought they needed a medical referral for chiropractic care (which is typically no longer true) and they overestimated the costs associated with chiropractic treatment sessions by almost 70 percent.

The fact is, chiropractic patients actually spend less on care than medical patients, plus they are less likely to use drugs for their symptoms.

Dr. Mark Holland Can Help Patients Find Relief From Chronic Pain

If you live in North County St. Louis, MO and you've been injured at work, we can help. Give our office a call today at (314) 867-8888 for an appointment.

References

"Thousands of Minnesotans with Back and Neck Pain Don't Seek Treatment." (2013, June 12). ChiroCare.

We encounter a good deal of sports injuries in our North County St. Louis, MO clinic, and Dr. Mark Holland is usually able to assist these athletes. Stanford Children’s Hospital states that over 3.5 million children aged 14 and younger are hurt each year when playing sports. Add that to the close to 2 million adults hurt annually while taking part in sports-related activities, as reported by statistics collected by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and you can start to see the importance of preventing these sorts of common injuries. One approach to potentially realize that goal, as stated in a study released in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, is to engage in regular chiropractic care.

In Australian Rules football, hamstring and other leg injuries are commonplace, often sidelining the players and affecting their team's odds of winning. One particular study was administered using 59 semi-elite Australian Rules footballers to see how well chiropractic could cut down on these injuries and help keep them in the game.

Research Shows Chiropractic Helps in Treating Sports Injuries

For this study in particular, every one of the volunteers received medical treatment. In addition, half of them also engaged in chiropractic sessions at the rate of 1 session each week for the first six weeks, biweekly treatments for the following three months, and one session per month for the last three months of the study. The remaining group were given no chiropractic intervention whatsoever and were used as the control group to determine the benefits of chiropractic care.

After twenty-four matches, researchers reported a lessened number of lower limb muscle strains in the group that had received chiropractic care. Moreover, that very group also missed fewer matches correlated to non-contact knee injuries. This lead the researchers to conclude that chiropractic ought to be made an addition to sports training programs to dramatically decrease the quantity of leg injuries.

Dr. Mark Holland Can Help Patients Find Relief From Sports Injuries & Help You Recover Quicker

If you or your child are active in sports and you would like to ensure more time is dedicated on the field versus on the bench, call our North County St. Louis, MO office at (314) 867-8888 and make an appointment today. We will do our best to keep you in the game!

References

• Hoskins, W, & Pollard, H. (2010, April 8). The effect of a sports chiropractic manual therapy intervention on the prevention of back pain, hamstring and lower limb injuries in semi-elite Australian Rules footballers: a randomized controlled trial. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, 11(64), doi:10.1186/1471-2474-11-64
• Misra, A. (2014, March 17). Common sports injuries: Incidence and average charges. Department of Health & Human Services.
• Stanford Children’s Hospital. (n.d.). Sports injury statistics.

Dr. Mark Holland sees many back pain patients in our busy North County St. Louis, MO chiropractic office. Many of these people have some kind of spinal condition that is causing them pain and discomfort. Fortunately, Dr. Mark Holland finds that spinal decompression treatment is a highly effective way to help these people.

What is Spinal Decompression and How Can it Help Me?

Non-surgical spinal decompression is a treatment approach that takes all of the positive benefits that one normally gets from chiropractic, traction, physiotherapy, exercise therapy, and myofascial therapy and integrates them all into one.

The objective of this technique is to keep you out of the operating room, and that is precisely what it's done for a number of folks, as it has a documented 85% success rate.

A few of the problems spinal decompression helps with include generalized back pain, sciatica, herniated discs, degenerative disc disease, compression fractures, and joint pain.

Spinal decompression works by reversing the effects of wear, tear, and gravity that compresses the intervertebral discs in your neck and back. The movie below shows how it works to reduce pressure on your back and helps eliminate pain and disability.

Dr. Mark Holland Can Help Clients Find Relief From Chronic Back Pain

If you live in North County St. Louis, MO and you're suffering with back issues, spinal decompression treatment might be the solution. Call Dr. Mark Holland today at (314) 867-8888 for a consultation or appointment.

According to experts, around 5 percent of the population will suffer from painful ailments like frozen shoulder syndrome at some point in their lives. That makes shoulder-related pain a common occurrence and one that Dr. Mark Holland sees in our North County St. Louis, MO office on a regular basis.

Research Shows Chiropractic Helps With Shoulder Pain

By and large, this issue is more common for people in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, and it tends to affect women more often than men. While ice, heat, and gentle stretches can sometimes help relieve the discomfort, so too can chiropractic adjustments.

As an example, a study released in the Journal of Chiropractic Medicine looked at 50 people with frozen shoulder who were given chiropractic care. The duration of care ranged from 11 days to 51 days, with 28 days being the average.

The authors found that almost all of the study participants fared very well with chiropractic care. The study found:

8 of the subjects reported 50-75 percent improvement
25 indicated improvement ranging from 75- 90 percent
1 participant had complete resolution of their frozen shoulder pain

Only one patient reported an improvement of 50 percent or less, so studies like this show just how beneficial chiropractic care can be when it comes to decreasing shoulder pain and increasing quality of life.

We Can Help People Find Comfort From Shoulder Pain

Let Dr. Mark Holland help you ease your suffering by contacting our North County St. Louis, MO office and scheduling your appointment today.

Resources

Murphy F et al. (2012, December). Chiropractic management of frozen shoulder syndrome using a novel technique: a retrospective case series of 50 patients. Journal of Chiropractic Medicine;11(4):267-272

Dr. Mark Holland works with many sciatica patients here in our North County St. Louis, MO office, and quite a few of these patients were concerned that they might require surgery to relieve their pain. The latest research shows that many people don't need surgery for this prevalent issue, and that chiropractic is more successful at resolving sciatic nerve pain.

A popular surgery for sciatica is microdiscectomy, and in a 2010 study, specialists examined 80 individuals with sciatica who were referred for this operation.

Forty patients were then randomly placed in one of two groups. The first group received surgical microdiscectomy and the second group was given chiropractic care.

Both groups improved; however, no noticeable difference in results was recorded one year post-treatment between either group. Furthermore, roughly 60 percent of the participating subjects who could not find relief from any other treatment method "benefited from spinal manipulation to the same degree as if they underwent surgical intervention."

Simply put, chiropractic delivered the same positive benefits as surgery without having to undergo the greater amounts of surgery-based pain or suffer through lengthy recovery times often associated with that specific treatment method. Plus, you also don't run the risks affiliated with surgical microdiscectomy, including nerve root damage, bowel or bladder incontinence, bleeding, or infection.

Surgery should be the last option for sciatica pain. If you live in North County St. Louis, MO and you're experiencing back pain or sciatica, give Dr. Mark Holland a call today at (314) 867-8888. We'll help pinpoint the source of your pain and work hard to get you relief.

References

• McMorland, G et al. Manipulation or microdiskectomy for sciatica? A prospective randomized clinical study. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics 2010;33(8):576-584.
• Solberg TK, Nygaard OP, Sjaavik K, Hofoss D, Ingebrigtsen T. The risk of "getting worse" after lumbar microdiscectomy. European Spine Journal 2005;14(1):49-54.
  

According to The American Academy of Pain Medicine, more people in the US suffer with chronic pain than diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, and cancer combined. In addition, neck pain is the third most reported type of pain, beat out only by back pain and headaches.

Not surprisingly, many people come to our North County St. Louis, MO office looking for neck pain care, and Dr. Mark Holland has helped many of them find relief. This is a smart choice, as some studies have shown that over 90 percent of neck pain patients benefit from chiropractic care.

Studies Confirm Chiropractic Effective for Neck Pain

A report published in The Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy involved 64 individuals who were suffering with neck pain. Approximately half were placed in an experimental group and the other half were assigned to a comparison group. Both were given chiropractic adjustments of the neck as well as a home exercise program, while the experimental group also received thoracic spine adjustments.

Data was gathered before treatment began and one week post-treatment. The authors found that 94 percent of the experimental group reported "significantly greater improvements" in regard to pain and disability in their neck symptoms. Just 35% of the individuals who received neck adjustments showed the same level of improvement, illustrating that evaluating the entire spine is a critical part of restoring the body's normal function.

One more study posted in Physical Therapy involved 60 participants between the ages of 18 and 60 who were suffering with neck pain. Each individual was randomly assigned to one of two groups--thoracic spine thrust manipulation or non-thrust manipulation--with follow-up exams occurring two and four days after the treatments.

Researchers found that the study patients who received the thrust manipulations (the same adjustments that offered such positive results in the first study) "experienced greater reductions in disability" than the patients who received the non-thrust adjustments. Their pain was lower as well, which shows that this type of technique offers many benefits.

Chiropractic Even Offers Benefits After Failed Neck Surgery

One study also found the same sort of positive results after thoracic adjustments in a patient who had a failed neck surgical treatment. This specific case involved a 46-year-old woman who had recently had neck surgery but still reported neck pain, headaches, pain in her elbow, and muscle fatigue.

The patient documented reduced pain in her neck and reduced headache intensity, right after the first chiropractic treatment session. After six weeks of care, which involved chiropractic, exercise, and patient education, the patient still placed her pain at a zero on a scale of 1 to 10. Her neck disability reduced as well, with a rating score that represented that it was a "great deal better."

It is studies like these that prove the effectiveness of chiropractic care, even if you've already attempted neck surgery that didn't provide relief. So, if you are suffering with neck problems and would like to find a solution that has a high success rate, try chiropractic. It may just be the help you're looking for.

We're located in North County St. Louis, MO and Dr. Mark Holland can help you recover from neck pain. Give us a call today at (314) 867-8888.

References

• AAPM facts and figures on pain. The American Academy of Pain Medicine.
• Masaracchio M, Cleland JA, Hellman M, Hagins M. Short-term combined effects of thoracic spine thrust manipulation and cervical spine nonthrust manipulation in individuals with mechanical neck pain: a randomized clinical trial. Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy 2013;43(3):118-127.
• Cleland JA, Glynn P, Whitman JM, Eberhart SL, MacDonald C, Childs JD. Short-term effects of thrust versus nonthrust mobilization/manipulation directed at the thoracic spine in patients with neck pain: a randomized clinical trial. Physical Therapy 2007;87(4):431-440.
• Salvatori R, Rowe RH, Osborne R, Beneciuk JM. Use of thoracic spine thrust manipulation for neck pain and headache in a patient following multiple-level anterior cervical discectomy and fusion: a case report. The Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy 2014;44(6):440-449.
  

With the Migraine Research Foundation reporting that migraine headaches affect 38 million people in the U.S. (more than asthma and diabetes put together), it's no surprise that Dr. Mark Holland treats a lot of migraine patients in our North County St. Louis, MO office. Eventhough some folks choose to relieve migraine pain with drugs, chiropractic is a fantastic, all-natural approach that often provides positive results.

Research Shows Chiropractic Care Helps With Migraines

For instance, one report published in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics involved 127 participants ranging in age from 10 to 70-years-old who suffered with frequent (at least monthly) headaches. Each subject received up to 16 chiropractic sessions. The patients noted that their headache frequency, duration, and disability two months before the study began, during the duration of the sessions (which was two months), and two months post-treatment.

What the researchers discovered is that chiropractic adjustments reduced the frequency, duration, and disability of the migraine headaches when compared with the control group who didn't receive chiropractic. Even better, this enabled them to take less medication for the pain, providing them an all-natural answer for a chronic problem.

Another article found that a combination of chiropractic and neck massage reduced migraine pain almost 68%.

If you have migraine pain and are looking for relief, call Dr. Mark Holland today and request an appointment in our North County St. Louis, MO chiropractic office. We'll do what we can to help you become pain-free!

References

Migraine Fact Sheet. Migraine Research Foundation. Retrieved from http://www.migraineresearchfoundation.org/fact-sheet.html on November 2, 2015
Noudeh Y et al. (2012). Reduction of current migraine headache pain following neck massage and spinal manipulation. International Journal of Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork;5(1):5-13
Tuchin P et al. (2000, February). A randomized controlled trial of chiropractic spinal manipulative therapy for migraine. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics;23(2):91-5

Knee pain is a frequent problem for patients in our North County St. Louis, MO chiropractic practice, and Dr. Mark Holland has successfully provided many of these men and women relief. This is largely because chiropractic care has been found to help with many types of knee pain.

For example, some individuals experience pain in and around the knee tissues due to osteoarthritis. Research has shown that this ailment responds very well to chiropractic--and rather quickly, too. In fact, one paper published in The Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association found that men and women with osteoarthritis in their knees felt significant pain relief and enhanced function after just two weeks of chiropractic care.

If your knee pain is due to a medial meniscus tear, chiropractic could likely help with that as well. One study found that integrating chiropractic with soft tissue therapy, rest, ice, and compression on the affected knee helped lower the intensity of the pain.

Of course, sometimes a knee replacement surgery is necessary in order to correct the issue, and if that's the case, your chiropractor can also help improve the outcome. How?

Research Supports Chiropractic Helps With Knee Injuries

Medical research has shown that people with low back pain frequently have less positive results after knee surgery. Therefore, dealing with your back pain through chiropractic prior to having a total knee arthroplasty can assist with your post-surgery recovery.

No matter what your knee issue, Dr. Mark Holland can likely help. Call our North County St. Louis, MO office today and find out what we can do for you!

References

• Pollard H et al. (2008, December). The effect of a manual therapy knee protocol on osteoarthritic knee pain: a randomised controlled trial. The Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association;52(4):229-42
  Boyle J et al. (2014, March). Influence of low back pain on total knee arthroplasty outcome. Knee;21(2):410-4
• Jarosz B & Ames R. (2010, December). Chiropractic management of a medial meniscus tear in a patient with tibiofemoral degeneration: a case report. Journal of Chiropractic Medicine;9(4):200-8

We see a great number of people with headaches in our North County St. Louis, MO office, and Dr. Mark Holland has been able to aid many of them. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that one half of all adults struggle with some type of headache problems, so this really isn’t a surprise. One of the most common sorts of headaches that our patients suffer from is cervicogenic headache which, thankfully, chiropractic can generally help.

Cervicogenic Headaches Defined

A cervicogenic headache is one that arises from an issue in the cervical spine. It might be as a result of a problem with either the spine itself (particularly, the vertebrae, joints, or discs), or it may be due to a problem in the muscles and tendons of your neck. This problem in your spine results in compression or aggravation of the spinal nerves, which can bring about headache pain.

How can you know if the headache you are feeling is a cervicogenic headache? Besides obtaining a diagnosis from a healthcare expert, a common symptom of cervicogenic headaches is tenderness or pain in your neck. This is occasionally combined with pain in the back of your head or between your shoulder blades.

How Chiropractic Helps with Cervicogenic Headaches

Since cervicogenic headaches will not go away until whatever problem is inducing them is remedied, it is important to get treatment instead of just trying to "wait it out." Chiropractic care is an excellent approach, and one that provides a considerable amount of headache pain relief.

In one study published in Chiropractic & Osteopathy, specialists evaluated 80 people who had regular cervicogenic headaches. Half were given chiropractic care and the other 50% underwent light massage therapy. Each participant was examined 12 and 24 weeks after the treatment and it was found that chiropractic offered the best results.

In particular, this study uncovered that chiropractic adjustments provided patients more significant pain relief and diminished the number of headaches that occurred. In addition, it also diminished the disability that resulted from these painful headaches.

To find out what Dr. Mark Holland can do for you and your headache pain, call us today. We'll do our best to get you the pain relief you need!

References

• Haas M, Schneider M, Vavrek D. Illustrating risk difference and number needed to treat from a randomized controlled trial of spinal manipulation for cervicogenic headache. Chiropractic & Osteopathy 2010 18(9).
• World Health Organization. (2012, October). Headache disorders. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs277/en/