Chiropractic care and exercise go hand in hand as an ideal combination for building and improving overall health as well as for speeding recovery from injury.
In the next few installments of my blog, I plan on sharing a lot of information about this concept so you can expect to read how these work together to yield the greatest improvements for patients with low back pain, how chiropractic care added to rehabilitation exercises helped people with knee injuries, and why you should give chiropractic and exercise a chance before ever considering surgical fusion of your vertebrae for back pain.
While chiropractic care and exercise work ideally together for injuries and rehabilitation, add a healthy diet, plenty of sleep and lots of clean water and you have the recipe for excellent health. (Of course you simply may not smoke and should drink alcohol only moderately if at all). While eating a healthy diet may seem hard we can help advise you. And exercise can be really tough in the beginning but it gets easier and easier. The key to it, like for chiropractic care, is to just make time for it. Once you get started you will want to continue because you will love the way you feel and the way you look. Most Americans don’t get nearly enough exercise. Let our office help you get started.
- Exercise Instead of Surgery -
A recent study showed that exercise and counseling was just as effective as back surgery for patients with disc degeneration.
When discs between the vertebrae of the spine degenerate surgeons often recommend a surgical procedure called lumbar fusion to fuse together the vertebrae above and below the problem disc(s). This takes the pressure off the discs in hopes of relieving pain, but also makes it impossible to bed or twist that part of the spine anymore. That loss of flexibility and the substantial risks of any surgery should make you think twice before having this done and now a new study shows you may do as well with exercise.
Patients with low back pain lasting more than a year, who had disc degeneration shown on X-Ray, were randomly divided into two groups. One group received the lumbar fusion surgery while those in the other group were given exercise and counseled, assuring them that the exercise and activity would not harm their back and recommending the exercise. After one year both groups had similar improvements in use of pain medication, emotional distress, life satisfaction and the ability to return to work. The “success rate” according to the researchers was 70% for the surgical fusion group compared to 76% for the exercise group.
We want patients to try all conservative measures first before submitting to any surgery especially one that permanently limits the flexibility of your back. While this study used exercise alone we would have probably added adjustments to the back to relieve pain and improve function of the back, which in turn may make exercise easier and less painful to do. There may be some severe cases that still require surgery, but most people will likely find relief with chiropractic care and exercise.
