These two topics have been debated between patients, medical doctors, and chiropractors for many years. There is a lot of studies on the efficacy of chiropractic and the efficacy of surgery, but no research studies pitting the 2 against each other, only debates between doctors.(FindArticles – A tale of two remedies – surgery or chiropractic treatment for an injured runner
American Fitness, Nov-Dec, 1994, by Shelly Downing)
Surgery is a more invasive treatment and can result in a long recovery process. There are many things to consider if you are considering surgery, (http://www.ehealthmd.com/library/backpain/BAK_shouldhave.html), including; Is the pain definitely caused by an abnormality seen on an imaging test?, have your symptoms been helped by a conservative therapy?, have you tried chiropractic yet?. A recent story on abcnews.com (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Story?id=2670812&page=1), , says that patients with low back pain get the same benefit in pain relief from non-surgical treatment as they do from back surgery.
Chiropractic is a non-invasive, conservative treatment, altmd.com/Articles/Chiropractic-Risks-and-Research, which includes manipulation and rehabilitation designed to relieve the pain, but also improve physical function. Chiropractic in the past has been thought to be unscientific because of its lack or research, but today more research for chiropractic treatment of specific conditions has been completed than for almost any other type of healthcare. A great resource to see many of the studies on the effectiveness of chiropractic is, www.chiro.org/research.
The good news is that both forms of treatment can be very effective and they are both being heavily researched. However, since the studies and research do not compare them directly against one another, the research is incomplete in this area and we definitively cannot answer the question. Everyone with back pain should do there homework and find someone who they believe is qualified and can help them the best. A conservative approach to start can be a good way to avoid surgery for those who don’t want to go under the knife. Here are a couple of good resources for finding a local chiropractor, www.chirodirectory.com, and www.chirohub.com.
Feel free to also look at www.chiropracticbookstore.com for books on chiropractic, nutrition, and health.
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