Members of the military perform physically and psychologically demanding jobs every day. Research has found that conservative medical care, like chiropractic treatment, can absolutely help with back pain.

A study has shown that chiropractic treatment brought serious relief to female veterans with back pain.

 

Causes

The causes of back pain can be viewed as being mechanical, organic or idiopathic. Spinal conditions can be congenital or from birth and can be an acquired disorder that develops later in life.

• Mechanical pain is triggered by spinal movement and involves spinal structures, like the facet joints, intervertebral discs, vertebral bodies, ligaments, muscles or soft tissues.
• Organic pain is attributed to disease, like spinal cancer.
• Idiopathic means the cause is unknown.

 

 

Back Pain & Female Veterans

Low back pain is a musculoskeletal condition and for female veterans has become a chronic condition. For these women, the condition seems to stem from repeated and prolonged deployments as contributors/causes to more prolonged injuries.

 

Female veterans had a higher rate of service-related disability compared to male veterans.

Having to live with a disease or chronic condition can impact the quality of life significantly. It can result in short- or long-term disability, it affects individuals financially from time off work and reroutes those financial resources to health care needs.

 

 

Chiropractic Research

Researchers reviewed 70 female veterans that utilized chiropractic treatment for their back pain.

The average patient was:

• Around 35-40-years old

Veteran patients were included in the study by:

1. Visiting a chiropractic clinic over a 7-year period
2. Between 18 – 70 years old during treatment
3. Needed at least two treatments

Treatments included:

Flexion-distraction therapy

This is gentle intermittent traction, along with manual pressure applied to the back.

Myofascial release

Massage therapy to muscles, joints, ligaments.

Spinal manipulative therapy

This involves the chiropractor’s hands performing a high-velocity thrust to regions within the low back.

Spinal mobilization

Similar to spinal manipulative therapy, but with gentler repetitive motions around the affected area.

 

 

These treatments were applied alone or in combination, guided by:

• The nature of the back pain complaint
• Response
• Pain severity
• Patient’s preference
• The patient’s tolerance of the various treatments

To help measure how effective the treatment was, the research team used the Back Bournemouth Questionnaire.

 

 

Pain is a complex biological process that involves both physical and mental health factors.

The test is one way to understand the multi-dimensional nature of pain.

Other factors to consider, specifically with military veterans were other health conditions like:

• Post-traumatic stress disorder
• Military sexual trauma

By comparing the patients Back Bournemouth Questionaire results at the beginning of treatment and then at the end, researchers found that these patients’ low back pain improved by 85% with chiropractic treatment.

The American College of Physicians Clinical Practice Guidelines includes and stresses that doctors refer patients first to a chiropractor/physical therapist and undergo spinal manipulation as the recommended non-drug treatment for back pain before recommending medications or surgery.

The guidelines focus on:

• Exercise
• Stress reduction
• Integrative therapies

Chiropractic spinal manipulation treatment has been shown to effectively treat back pain for everyone. 

We focus on what works for you and strive to create fitness and better the body through researched methods and total wellness programs. These programs are natural and use the body’s own ability to achieve goals of improvement. To all of our veterans, we thank you for your service.

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Reduce Back Pain with *FUNCTIONAL FOOT ORTHOTICS* El Paso, TX.

 

 

• Approximately 80 percent of the population will experience some type of back pain sometime throughout their lifetime.
• Custom-made functional foot orthotics can help support and promote the natural alignment of the spine.

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NCBI Resources

It is important to know the cause of back pain to figure out the proper treatment plan. Otherwise, one could receive treatment for the wrong diagnosis and exacerbate the existing injury.