We tend to a large number of patients in our North County, St. Louis, MO office, and Dr. Mark Holland has helped countless people overcome a range of health issues. Even so, a common worry that seems to prevent a lot of women and men from pursuing treatment is whether or not chiropractic care is safe. Well, according to three different studies (out of countless on the issue), the answer to this concern is a clear: "Yes! Chiropractic is safe!"
The first study(1) was published in Spine and involved 183 women and men between the ages of 20 and 85. Each person was affected by spine-related pain, and half of the people received real chiropractic adjustments whereas the other half were given two fake chiropractic treatments. Information was obtained after each real or fake adjustment to discover if any unfavorable negative effects were caused by the actual chiropractic adjustments.
Researchers found that nobody reported any serious unfavorable side effects in any way after receiving one or two sessions of chiropractic. Some individuals did state that they got a headache (9% of patients) or muscle stiffness (37 percent) after treatment, but the effects were not serious.
The next article(2), also published in the distinguished medical journal, Spine, was done in an effort to establish the safety of chiropractic. The test group was much larger -- 20,000 people. Each participant received chiropractic adjustments of the neck, with over 50,000 total adjustments for all patients.
Again, the researchers discovered no serious adverse side effects. The experts determined the risk of total adverse reactions to be approximately 6 out of every 10,000 consultations or every 100,000 treatment sessions. And, just as with the previous study, some individuals did report non-serious, milder, unwanted effects such as dizziness (about 1.6%) or a headache (4 out of every 100), and this prompted 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."
The third research paper(3) is different from the previous two reports, as it concentrates on the safety of chiropractic care for kids. In this article, the researchers analyzed results reported by both chiropractors and parents involving 816 children who participated in 7,173 chiropractic treatment sessions.
Out of 5,438 chiropractic appointments made for the young children, chiropractors answering the survey reported only three cases where there were negative side effects. When parents were surveyed, they indicated only two adverse side effects out of 1,735 visits. Furthermore, both chiropractors and parents reported "a high rate of improvement with respect to the children's presenting complaints."
Based on these three studies (and many more!), chiropractic care has been found to be safe and effective for everyone. To find out what chiropractic care can do for you, call our North County, St. Louis, MO office and make an appointment today at (314) 867-8888.
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We have a long-standing track record or helping people get out of pain with chiropractic care. Whether you were injured last week, or have been suffering from chronic pain for years - It might only take one visit to our office in Downtown Saint Louis, MO to get you back on the path to everyday health.
