We tend to a large number of patients in our Juneau, AK office, and Dr. Messerschmidt has helped many people eliminate a range of health challenges. Even so, one concern that seems to prevent some men and women from seeking care is whether or not chiropractic is safe. Luckily, according to three separate studies (out of quite a few on the topic), the answer to this question is a resounding: "Yes! Chiropractic is safe!"
The first research paper(1) was published in Spine and included 183 men and women between the ages of 20 and 85. Each participant was suffering from spinal pain, and half of the people received real chiropractic care while the remaining patients received two sham chiropractic treatment sessions. Data was gathered after each real or fake adjustment to determine if any unpleasant negative effects occurred as a result of the real chiropractic adjustments.
The doctors found that no one reported any significant negative adverse reactions at all after getting one or two sessions of chiropractic care. Some participants did report that they got a headache (just 9% of people) or muscle stiffness (about 1 out of 3) after treatment, but the effects were not of a serious nature.
The second study(2), also published in the prestigious publication, Spine, was done in an effort to determine the safety of chiropractic care. The study group was much larger as it involved just under 20,000 individuals. Each participant received chiropractic adjustments of the cervical spine, with over 50,000 total adjustments for all patients.
Once again, the researchers discovered no serious negative side effects. The authors determined the risk of total side effects to be approximately six out of every 10,000 consultations or every 100,000 treatment sessions. And, just as with the previous study, some volunteers did report non-serious, milder, unwanted effects such as dizziness (less than 2%) or a headache (4 out of every 100), and this caused the authors to conclude that "the risk of a serious adverse event, immediately or up to 7 days after treatment, was low to very low."
This third research paper(3) is unique from the first two pieces of research, as it focuses on the safety of chiropractic care for kids. In this case, the authors analyzed results reported by both chiropractors and parents involving 816 children who participated in 7,173 chiropractic treatment sessions.
Out of 5,438 chiropractic visits made for the young children, chiropractors responding to the survey documented 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 deemed safe and effective for everyone. To learn what chiropractic can do for you, call our Juneau, AK office and schedule an appointment today at (907) 789-1344.
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