We see a large number of people in our Tulsa office, and Dr. Bogan has helped many people eliminate a wide array of health problems. However, a frequent concern that seems to stop a lot of men and women from pursuing treatment is whether or not chiropractic adjustments are safe. Well, according to three different studies (out of countless on the issue), the answer to this question is a clear: "Yes! Chiropractic is safe!"
The first research paper(1) was published in Spine and included 183 men and women. Each person was suffering from some kind of back pain, and half of the patients received real chiropractic adjustments whereas the other half were given two sham chiropractic adjustments. Data was collected after each real or fake adjustment to see if any undesirable reactions were caused by the real chiropractic adjustments.
The doctors reported that no participants reported any serious negative adverse reactions in any way after receiving one or two sessions of chiropractic care. Some individuals did report that they had a headache (9% of patients) or muscle stiffness (37 percent) post-treatment, but the results were not of a serious nature.
A second article(2), also released in the influential journal, Spine, was done in an attempt to establish the safety of chiropractic care. 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 study participants.
Once again, the researchers found no serious negative side effects. The experts calculated the risk of total negative effects to be about six out of every 10,000 consultations or every 100,000 treatment sessions. Plus, just as with the previous study, some people did report non-serious, milder, unwanted effects such as dizziness (about 1.6%) or a headache (4%), 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."
This third research paper(3) is different from the first two reports, as it focuses on the safety of chiropractic care for kids. In this case, 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 visits made for the young children, chiropractors responding to the survey reported only three cases where there were negative side effects. When parents were questioned, 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 care can do for you, call our Tulsa office and make an appointment today at (918) 832-7880.
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