"Don't go to a chiropractor because they can cause you to have a herniated disc." Hopefully, this is the first time you've heard this but, as is often the case, bad news travels much faster than good news. Is this true? A new study suggests that this is not the case at all. The study concludes that patients have the same risk of an acute disc herniation going to their medical doctor as they would going to the chiropractor with low back pain. It's important to know precisely what these conclusions mean and how they affect you. Low back pain can be a severe problem. Low back pain affects 70% of the population throughout their life and on any given day anywhere from 15-30% of the population is affected by low back pain. An issue is that sometimes low back pain is prodromal to a lumbar disc herniation. Meaning that the individual has already suffered from an acute disc herniation and the nature of that injury has not fully expressed itself with the first symptom. It would have appeared, on first inspection, that a visit to the chiropractor made the injury worse. However, when we compare the number of chiropractic visits with the number of medical visits, the rate of acute disc herniation was the same. The purpose of this podcast is to discuss this research and how it applies to you and your health.
What We Covered
The initial mechanism of why it was thought that going to a chiropractor could cause a herniated disc. The research study - how it was conducted and what it means. The limitations of the study.