Staying Active Care + Manual Therapy = Better Results!

For many years, rest was used as a treatment for back pain.  Then, as scientific research methods advanced, additional information became available and that changed.  It is now known that remaining active is a large part of reducing low back pain.  In many cases, multiple treatment methods work together to create a better result than either would have alone.  Researchers wanted to know if manual therapy and active care would create a better effect than either would alone.

One hundred sixty patients with acute or subacute low back pain were randomly divided into two groups.  One group received traditional active care while others received that same care plus manual therapy.  Pain and disability ratings were utilized as tools to measure progress.  Before the study began, the experimental group reported somewhat higher pain levels, higher disability rating and more ruptured discs.

Ratings tools were repeated after 5 weeks of treatment and again after 10 weeks of treatment. For both of these follow ups, the experimental group that had received the manual therapy, reported less pain and lower disability ratings when compared to those who received only active care.

Researchers concluded that adding manual therapy to the stay-active approach appears to reduce pain and disability rating better than the traditional stay-active concept on its own.

There are many factors that can cause a person to experience low back pain.  Therefore, it makes sense that sometimes a combination of treatment methods may be beneficial to treat the pain.  Talk to your doctor about adding manual, chiropractic care to your back-pain relief regimen.  You may find that this increases the effectiveness of other treatments.  If you do not have a chiropractor, you can find one here.

 

REFERENCE:

Marie I. Grunnesjö, Johan P. Bogefeldt, Kurt F. Svärdsudd, Stefan I.E. Blomberg  “A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial of Stay-Active Care Versus Manual Therapy in Addition to Stay-Active Care: Functional Variables and Pain”  Journal of Manipulative and Physiological therapeutics   Volume 27, Issue 7, p431-492   Published in issue: September 2004