We see a large number of patients in our Harrisburg office, and Dr. Blake has helped countless people manage a variety of health issues. However, one worry that seems to stop many folks from seeking treatment is whether or not chiropractic adjustments are safe. Fortunately, according to three different studies (out of many on the topic), the answer to this concern is a clear: "Yes! Chiropractic is safe!"
The first article(1) was published in Spine and involved 183 women and men. Each person was suffering from spinal pain, and half of the people received real chiropractic care whereas the remaining patients were given two sham chiropractic treatment sessions. Information was gathered after each real or fake adjustment to identify whether or not any undesirable side effects were caused by the actual chiropractic treatments.
The authors reported that no one documented any significant negative side effects at all after getting one or two sessions of chiropractic. Some participants did state that they had a headache (just 9% of people) or muscle stiffness (37 percent) after treatment, but the effects were not serious.
The next article(2), also published in the prestigious medical journal, 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 study participants.
Again, the experts discovered no serious negative side effects. The experts determined the risk of total side effects to be approximately 6 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, side effects such as dizziness (16 out of every 1,000 treatment consultations and 15 out of every 1,000 treatment sessions) or a headache (4%), and this prompted 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."
The third study(3) is unique from the previous two reports, as it concentrates on the safety of chiropractic care for kids. In this article, researchers investigated results reported by both chiropractors and parents involving 816 children who participated in 7,173 chiropractic adjustments.
Out of 5,438 chiropractic appointments made for the children, chiropractors responding to the survey reported only three cases where there were adverse reactions. 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 can do for you, call our Harrisburg office and schedule an appointment today at (717) 657-2561.
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Trust the medical professionals at Blake Chiropractic & Rehab for all of your chiropractic needs. We have more than 26 years of experience and work to ensure your complete satisfaction. Our staff is dedicated to providing top-quality chiropractic care, so make an appointment today. We are conveniently located right off Route 22, beside the Colonial Park Fire Department, and accept most major insurance plans.
