August 2023 Healthy News from Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka Less Gabapentin Prescription and Pain with Chiropractic Care Back Pain & Hip Flexibility Link
Back pain is disruptive. Its sufferers want relief. Wouldn’t it be terrific if a pill would do it?! Many back pain sufferers step into the back pain relief medical system and are given prescriptions for meds first. They take them with hope for relief of pain. (Because this is so common, we chiropractors acknowledge that we need to be well-trained in identifying patients who may deal with a substance use issue and know how to help if the use is an issue. (1)) Recent research states that the first-choice healthcare provider is an influential factor in patients’ utilization of healthcare services. An assessment of 29,806 patient cases that looked at the year following the first visit for back pain found that utilization of healthcare services was lower for those who made the choice to see a chiropractor first. The greatest health care utilization was seen for those who went to the emergency room as their first step into healthcare for back pain relief. (2) Another study documented that for patients under age 50 who are living with low back pain, two usual options of care and of care providers are spinal manipulation from a chiropractor and pharmacological prescription of gabapentin from a medical provider. Prescriptions for gabapentin were significantly less for those who underwent chiropractic spinal manipulative care than those who underwent usual medical care. (3) Your chiropractor recognizes the value of interdisciplinary care and works with healthcare colleagues for the benefit of our back pain patients whenever possible and the value of provider choice with regards to relief and care. Your Sitka chiropractor at Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka is confident to help our Sitka back pain patients with our effective chiropractic services!
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Kurt Olding on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson about the variety of choices back pain patients in “The Spine Care ‘Supermarket’” and how choosing The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management helps manage the pain.
When the hips are tight, the back gets tense, and movement is altered. Remember: Everything is linked! Researchers who compared hip rotation range of motion in participants who reported back pain and those who didn’t found that those with low back pain had remarkably restricted hip lateral rotation range of motion. (4) Luckily, there are ways to improve hip flexibility. One new way is auricular acupressure. What is that? Ask at your next appointment, but it enhanced hip flexibility (and back pain!) in one new study. (5) Another study hyped the benefit of core stability exercise and hip muscle stretching as effective at improving physical function and activity in non-specific low back pain patients. (6) We can check your hip flexibility out at your next Sitka chiropractic appointment and plan a way to boost it!
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