We tend to a large number of people in our Portland office, and Dr. Helton has helped countless people manage a wide array of health issues. Even so, the primary issue that seems to stop some men and women from pursuing treatment is whether or not chiropractic adjustments are safe. Well, according to three different studies (out of many on the subject), the answer to this concern is a resounding: "Yes! Chiropractic is safe!"
The first article(1) was published in Spine and involved 183 men and women. Each individual reported suffering from spine-related pain, and half of the people received actual chiropractic care visits while the other half were given two sham chiropractic adjustments. Information was collected after each real or fake adjustment to determine if any unpleasant reactions occurred as a result of the actual chiropractic treatments.
The authors found that no participants documented any serious adverse side effects in any way after getting one or two sessions of chiropractic care. Some individuals did state that they experienced a headache (just 9% of people) or muscle stiffness (about 1 out of 3) post-treatment, but the results were not of a serious nature.
The next article(2), also released in the prestigious publication, Spine, was conducted in an effort to ascertain the safety of chiropractic care. The test group was much larger as it involved just under 20,000 people. Each participant received chiropractic adjustments of the cervical spine, with over 50,000 total adjustments for all study participants.
Again, the investigators found no serious adverse side effects. The experts calculated the risk of total negative effects to be about six out of every 10,000 consultations or every 100,000 treatment sessions. Plus, just as with the previous study, some volunteers did report non-serious, milder, side effects such as dizziness (about 1.6%) or a headache (4%), and this caused the researchers to determine that "the risk of a serious adverse event, immediately or up to 7 days after treatment, was low to very low."
This third research paper(3) is unique from the previous two reports, as it concentrates on the safety of chiropractic care for children. In this case, researchers investigated data reported by both chiropractors and parents involving 816 children who participated in 7,173 chiropractic treatment sessions.
Out of 5,438 chiropractic appointments made for the children, chiropractors responding to the survey documented only three cases where there were negative side effects. 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 studies like these, chiropractic has been deemed safe and effective for everyone. To learn what chiropractic care can do for you, call our Portland clinic and schedule an appointment today at (503) 771-1974.
References
Dr. Helton, a Portland chiropractor, has been providing chiropractic health care and treatment for accident injuries for over 30 years. Dr. Helton specializes and is an expert in the evaluation and treatment of injuries from auto accidents. He has passed advanced certification training and testing by the Spine Research Institute of San Diego in the evaluation, treatment, and management of injuries from whiplash and brain traumatology.
