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An "Alternative" for Back Pain?
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Dr. Patrick Massey of the Chicago Daily Herald shares a column and points out several interesting facts:

  1. "Nontraditional" medicine is the most common form of medical therapy used for back pain.
  2. The most common "nontraditional" therapy used was chiropractic, and it achieved the best response among patients.
  3. Over half of the patients using "nontraditional" medicine also made use of traditional medicine.
  4. Traditional medicine is more expensive than "nontraditional" medicine.
  5. Patients want the best of ALL therapies regardless of their origins.
When a healing art such as chiropractic is so widely used; when it achieves such great success; when its education is the same or greater than "traditional medicine"; when it must integrate its care and management of patients with "traditional" or mainstream medicine should it really be considered "alternative medicine?" Should it reallybe considered an "outsider" to "traditional" medicine? Or should it be viewed as a part of "mainstream medicine", albeit a minority member.


The DailyHerald.com REPORTS HERE that "the most common reason for using nontraditional medicine is back pain. Annually, 30 percent of the U.S. population experiences back pain severe enough to require medical therapy. Approximately 60 percent of the population uses some form of nontraditional medicine to relieve their pain. This makes nontraditional medicine the most common form of medical therapy used for back pain."

"All back pain is not the same, however. It may be that persistent relief can be found in both traditional and nontraditional medicine. A number of years ago, it was hypothesized that people who used nontraditional therapies for back pain did not believe in traditional medicine. Conversely, those who believed in traditional medicine did not use nontraditional treatments. A recent national survey demonstrates that it is not that simple."

In a 2002 "study, the most common nontraditional therapy used was chiropractic manipulation followed by massage, herbal therapies yoga, tai chi and finally acupuncture. As far as perceived benefits by patients, chiropractic methods were first. Massage, yoga, tai chi and qi gong tied for second with acupuncture coming in third. However, the differences between the various methods were very small."

"What was interesting is that 53 percent of the respondents used traditional medicine and nontraditional medicine together suggesting a perception that both forms of medicine were beneficial and could easily be integrated."

"Unfortunately, the study did not address some very important pieces of information, such as overall cost and long-term outcomes. For persistent back pain, traditional medicine is often more expensive than the nontraditional approaches..."

"Unfortunately, insurance companies are slow to cover the costs of many nontraditional therapies, which are not inexpensive."

"Even with good medical evidence, traditional medicine has been slow to integrate many of the effective therapies found in nontraditional medicine. Patients, however, want the best of all therapies, regardless of their origins, and are integrating traditional and nontraditional approaches and benefiting from them."
 
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