Chiropractic is Top Pick for Back Pain

It’s estimated that nearly 80 percent of adult Americans have suffered with bouts of back pain. That’s why Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center conducted an extensive survey to find out what therapies worked best to reduce or eliminate back pain.

The study began with an interview of 14,000 consumers who had, or still were, suffering with low back pain. None of the consumers had ever had back surgery. Over 50 percent of the people said their low back pain “severely limited” their normal daily activities for one week or longer.

Each person was asked to rate the helpfulness of their treatment, as well as their satisfaction with the health-care professional(s) providing the service. The most highly satisfying and helpful therapy was chiropractic adjustment. 58 percent of people said chiropractic adjustments helped reduced their pain a lot. Of these people 59 percent were “completely” or “very” satisfied with the Doctor of Chiropractic. Physical therapy came in second place, closely followed by acupuncture.

[Source: May 2009 issue of Consumer Reports magazine, Relief For Aching Backs ]