About Chiropractic
 

What is Chiropractic?

Chiropractic care focuses on the relationship between the spine and nervous system and their interaction with the rest of the body. Chiropractic emphasizes the body's innate ability to heal itself and optimizes that ability through physical medicine to ensuring the spine and nervous system are functioning properly. Chiropractic focuses on the prevention of disease and the restoration of health without the use of drugs or surgery. Doctors of Chiropractic view themselves as the first line of defense in health care and work in cooperation with other health care professionals to provide the best total care of the patient.

A chiropractor is trained as a primary care physician skilled in the areas of physical diagnosis, clinical laboratory diagnosis, radiological and imaging diagnosis and chiropractic evaluation.

What are a Chiropractor's Credentials?

Doctors of Chiropractic complete a four year Undergraduate Degree including: one year organic chemistry, one year basic chemistry, one year physics and one year biology. Once accepted into an accredited chiropractic college, the requirements become even more demanding - four to five academic years of professional study are the standard. Because of the hands-on nature of chiropractic, and the intricate adjusting techniques, a significant portion of time is spent in clinical training.

In an article published in the Annuals of Internal Medicine, Feb 5, 2002, Vol. 136, Iss. 3, a study was referenced that compared chiropractic curricula to medical school curricula.

    "U.S. Chiropractic curricula has an average of 4,820 classroom and clinical hours, with about 30% spent in the basic sciences and 70% in clinical sciences and internship. Medical school curricula average about 4,670 hours with a similar breakdown. Compared with medical students, chiropractic students spend more hours in anatomy and physiology but fewer in public health. Both programs have similar hours in biochemistry, microbiology, and pathology. Chiropractic curricula provide relatively little instruction in pharmacology, critical care, and surgery but emphasize biomechanics, musculoskeletal function, and manual treatment methods. Medical education has more than twice as many hours in actual clinical experience but 1,000 fewer hours in didactic and workshop-like clinical courses. All chiropractic colleges maintain busy training clinics that deliver chiropractic care in settings similar to typical chiropractic practice."

What do Chiropractors do?

Chiropractors diagnose health problems and then form a treatment plan to correct impaired function, improve posture and optimize health. The chiropractor adapts the procedure to meet the specific needs of each patient. Patients often note positive changes in their symptoms immediately following treatment. The main treatment of a chiropractor is spinal adjustments or spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) to correct subluxations or joint abnormalities. As stated by Scott Haldeman, DC, PhD, MD, the adjustment is an application of force to specific body tissues with therapeutic intent.

Does Chiropractic Work?

Chiropractic care produces very satisfied patients. According a study published in West J Med. 1989 Mar;150(3):351-5, Patients of chiropractors were three times as likely as patients of family physicians to report that they were very satisfied with the care they received for low back pain (66% versus 22%, respectively). Another study published in the New England Journal of Medicine also showed a higher level of patient satisfaction with similar outcomes, by those seen by a chiropractor as compared to other health care providers.

The Meade et al. trial, published in the British Medical journal demonstrated that chiropractic treatment is more effective than conventional hospital outpatient treatment for patients with chronic or severe back pain.

The Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics (JMPT) published a pilot study in 1999 comparing acupuncture, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug and spinal manipulation that showed manipulation (chiropractic adjusting) was the only treatment that showed statistically significant improvement in chronic pain of the lower back, upper back, and neck.

Another recent meta-analysis of 69 national and international Randomized Controlled Trials published in 2004 by Gert Bronfort, et al., in The Spine Journal found evidence that spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) has a similar effect as a prescription anti-inflammatory, without the potential side-effects, for care of low back pain. They also found evidence the SMT is effective in the short term when compared to placebo and general practitioner care, and in the long term compared to physical therapy for chronic low back pain. There is also evidence that SMT is better than physical therapy and home back exercise in both the short and long term for chronic back pain. They also found evidence that SMT provided more short term pain relief than mobilization for acute low back pain and faster recover than physical therapy.

Researchers have also found that spinal mobilization was more effective and less costly for treating neck pain than physiotherapy or care provided by a general practitioner. JMPT also published a study by Boline, Kassak, Nelson, et al., in 1995 that compared manipulation versus amitriptyline for the treatment of muscle tension-type headaches showed statistically signification improvements for those treated with manipulation four weeks after treatment. Other recent studies have shown the benefit of chiropractic for chronic cervicogenic headaches and migraines.

Is Chiropractic Treatment Ongoing?

The hands-on nature of the chiropractic treatment is essentially what requires patients to visit the chiropractor a number of times. To be treated by a chiropractor, a patient needs to be in his or her office. In contrast, treatment from medical doctors often involves a pre-established plan that is conducted at home (i.e. taking a course of antibiotics once a day for a couple of weeks). A chiropractor may provide acute, chronic, and/or preventive care thus making several visits occasionally necessary.

Dr. Di Novi will explain in detail your condition and discuss different treatment options that will meet your individual needs and goals. Treatment is always based on a mutual agreement between the doctor and patient and you are in control of how long your care will last.