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Sat 20 Nov, 2004 03:38 am
BBC Rports - (full story here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4022963.stm )
Research finds knack to bad backs
Spinal manipulation is key to curing back pain
Researchers say they have found the most effective treatment for people suffering from a bad back.
The Medical Research Council team said chiropractic, osteopathy or manipulative physiotherapy - plus an exercise programme was most effective.
Writing in the British Medical Journal, they say this three-pronged approach provides significant symptom relief.
They hope their findings will clarify how to treat back pain - one of the most common conditions seen by GPs.
More than 1,300 patients whose back pain had not improved through the "first line" advice of keeping active and not taking bed rest.
They filled in questionnaires on their general health, back pain, beliefs and psychological well-being before being randomly assigned to a treatment. Further questionnaires were completed after one, three and 12 months.
Cost effective
Patients were allocated a class-based physical exercise programme overseen by a physiotherapist, one form of spinal manipulation (such as physio), or a combination of the two.
People in all groups saw some improvement in their back function.
Those assigned to exercise classes in addition to GP care reported a small benefit at three months but not at one year.
Spinal manipulation plus GP care was linked to a small to moderate benefit at three months and a small, on average, benefit at one year.
But the biggest improvement was seen in those patients assigned to combined manipulation and exercise in addition to GP care.
They reported a moderate, on average, improvement at three months and a smaller average improvement at one year............[/b]
dlowan- I find the article very interesting. I have been having a running argument with my husband for years. I am a fan of chiropractic. He believes that spinal manipulation is fine for young people with acute problems. He thinks that with older people suffering from chronic back problems, the improvement could at best, be temporary, and at worst harmful.
In the article that you cited, neither the age of the people in the study was not mentioned. nor were the kinds of back problems with which they were dealing.
I would love to delve into this further. When I have time, I would like to find a link to the original study.
Lol - I was just coming back t ogive it to you!
The BBC pages usually have a lot of good links, if you go to the full article.
that's cool. although, I must admit that in Croatia most of chiropractics generally refuse to deal with chronic back pain....
I love this article! And I agree with this article! Having 3 bulging discs in my lower back since a car accident when I was a teen, I know the pain of a bad back fairly well. I haven't had any back pain from that in probably the last ten years when my family doctor and I devised a treatment plan using the basic methods described in this article. Some chiro, some physio and lots and lots of walking. Today, I only need see the chiro or the physio very rarely and its not even related to the bulging discs. But I do walk my butt off still, every single day.
Thank you for sharing!
Glad to hear that, Lady J.
dlowan - well, not back pain, but bad back injuries and disorders. And those are chiropractics I heard only good things about
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