Military Personnel Find Relief from More Chiropractic Care Available in the VA
The spines of our veterans need good care. Veterans need access to chiropractic care - just like their fellow Sitka chiropractic spine pain patients - and now can get it. Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka is the Sitka back pain specialty center for spine pain, back pain, neck pain, arm pain and leg pain relief for Sitka veterans and Sitka back pain patients. Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka offers relieving Sitka chiropractic care to any Sitka back pain patients seeking back pain relief!
WHAT HAPPENS TO THEIR SPINES?
Data from the Veterans’ Administration (VA), “diseases of the musculoskeletal system/connective system” like back pain are the chief problems for veterans returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. (1) To what is it attribute? Most of us would assume it is due to carrying heavy backpacks and weapons. (2) One study points out that back pain is found more in military construction and law enforcement personnel. (3) Causes of back pain for non-military folks like Sitka residents apply to military, too, like injury, posture, daily activity, weight, stress, genetic defects, etc.
RELIEF FOR A VETERAN
One military officer with a 20-year history of mechanical back pain secondary to an injury incurred during active military duty lived with intermittent radiation of numbness and tingling involving the right lower extremity distal to the knee. Chiropractic care provided him a 25% decrease in low back pain severity and a 22% lessening in perceived disability. The program of conservative, chiropractic management involved 10 treatments of lumbar flexion/distraction and activity modification over an eight-week period. Despite the fact that he’d had this pain for some time, he gained relief. (4) After 20 years, such drops in pain and disability would surely be welcomed by Sitka back pain sufferers, too.
BENEFICIAL CHIROPRACTIC CARE FOR VETERANS’ SPINES INSTEAD OF OPIOIDS
1999 marked the year of the US law empowering the VA to provide chiropractic care via private sector chiropractors. (5) From 2004 (the year the law was voted for that chiropractic was to be accessible in the VA system) to 2015, annual chiropractic VA patients rose by 821%, chiropractic visits by 694%, number of clinics by 9%, chiropractic employees by 21%. (5) Recently, 70 VA facilities have chiropractors on staff. (1) Nearly 100 VA facilities still have little to none. (2) If a VA facility does not have a chiropractor(s) on staff, veterans (if they ask) are able to get a referral to a local chiropractor like yours at Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka for care. Many do not know about this option or that they can benefit from chiropractic care. Chiropractic as a profession and your Sitka chiropractic continue to educate the public about how it can help musculoskeletal pain, back pain, sciatica, neck pain and arm radiculopathy, how it can help with pain management. Today, many veterans - like many others in the general population - are struggling with prescription opioid pain drugs. (6) The opioid epidemic is everywhere; chiropractic care may help curb its effects for military veterans as it does for general population Sitka pain patients.
ACCESS TO CHIROPRACTIC EXPANDS IN THE U.S.
Chiropractic researchers strive to make sure that military personnel have access to chiropractic care. One group developed an integrated care pathway for doctors of chiropractic, primary care providers, and mental health professionals who manage veterans with low back pain, with or without mental health comorbidity, within Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care facilities. (7) Recently, the US House endorsed expansion of chiropractic services in the VA. Availability is to expand to at least 2 medical centers/clinics in each Veterans Integrated Service Network by December 31, 2019, and be at 50% of them by December 31, 2021. (1) Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka is grateful for the confidence in chiropractic care this action demonstrates.
CONTACT Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka
Listen to this PODCAST from The Back Doctors’ Podcast about a military veteran with multiple spinal issues whose local chiropractor helped him find relief.
Schedule a Sitka chiropractic appointment for yourself or a loved one – military veteran or not. Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka is well prepared to help ease the musculoskeletal spine pain and back pain conditions of all sorts faced by military personnel and military veterans with chiropractic care.
