Neck Pain: Chiropractors, Exercise Better Than Medication, Study featured on ABC News

When it comes to neck pain the best medicine is no medicine at all according to a new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, tracked 272 patients with recent-onset neck pain who were treated using three different methods:

1. Medication
2. Exercise
3. A Chiropractor

After 12 weeks the patients who used a chiropractor or exercised were more than twice as likely to be pain free compared to those who relied on medicine. The patients treated by a chiropractor experienced the highest rate of success with 32 percent saying they were pain free, compared to 30 percent of those who exercised. Only 13 percent of patients treated with medication said they no longer experienced pain. “Doesn’t surprise me a bit,” Dr. Lee Green, professor of family medicine at the University of Michigan told ABC News. “Neck pain is a mechanical problem, and it makes sense that mechanical treatment works better than a chemical one.”

These results are even more profound when you consider that chiropractic care and exercise were delivered separately for the purpose of this study.  Whereas in a clinical setting, a chiropractor will incorporate exercise with chiropractic, physical therapies and/or massage therapy to achieve maximum benefits for the patient.  If you looked at a sample of neck pain patients receiving the full spectrum of treatment offered in a chiropractic office such as the Back Pain Relief Center, I believe the success rates would be much greater still.

Links:
ABC News Article and Video
Original Research Abstract