Commercial Drive - East Vancouver Chiropractor; Dr. Dominic Chan DC - "Is Medical Care of Pain Safer than Chiropractic?......You Be the Judge"

Many of you out there that have never tried Chiropractic before may be concerned about safety. Perhaps you have heard 'horror stories' about someone feeling worse after a Chiropractic treatment? Maybe even worse, you have come across stories of Chiropractors causing a stroke in patients. I'd like today to put things into perspective and speak about the relative risks involved with Chiropractic and Medical interventions for pain or specifically back pain.

Estimates of a life threatening event like a stroke occurring due to a Chiropractic treatment vary. Most estimates are in the neighborhood of 1 in every 1-10 million Chiropractic adjustments of the neck. A very low incidence relatively speaking. However, I have come across some sources that claim the incidence can be as high as 1 in every 40,000 treatments. Being fair though, a lot of these studies go on to note that, " While our analysis is consistent with a positive association in young adults, potential sources of bias are also discussed. The rarity of VBAs makes this association difficult to study despite high volumes of chiropractic treatment. Because of the popularity of spinal manipulation, high-quality research on both its risks and benefits is recommended." 

In other words, researchers admit that the incidence of vertebrobasilar accidents (VBA's) or strokes is very rare compared to the number of treatments offered. In addition, many admit that there may be potential sources of bias in reporting, thus skewing the actual numbers reported. 

Now lets turn our attention to a common therapy offered by the medical profession for pain; Prescription pain relievers. This article I came across recently comes directly from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Their own research found that currently, more Americans are more likely to die of a drug overdose than in a car accident! Just ponder that fact for a moment. Car accidents probably come to mind if you ask anyone to name a cause of accidental death. But according to the numbers, a drug overdose that leads to death is actually MORE likely! Now to put it another way, if you are not concerned about potentially dying the next time you're in a car, how concerned should you be about being harmed by a Chiropractor, let alone dying?

I know the comparison is stark but many seemingly innocent things in life carry a risk. Crossing the street carries a risk. But if you are taking prescription medication to relieve pain, please reconsider your options and try Chiropractic!

Here's more from the article; "In 2008, poisoning deaths became the number one cause of accidental deaths in the United States and the leading cause of injury death in 30 states, according to the report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ninety percent of these poisonings were linked to drugs, with a surge in deaths from prescription painkiller overdoses reported."

Dr. Jeffrey Bernstein, medical director of the Florida Poison Information Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, said "we knew this was coming; it shouldn't shock anybody. It's disturbing though."

More attention needs to be devoted to this problem, Bernstein noted. "It needs to be attacked from multiple angles and multiple levels in the way we have made headway in trauma," he said.

"There are newer and better drugs and that's great for treating people's pain, but they come with a price," Bernstein pointed out. "There is addiction and interactions with other drugs, and potential for overdose and misuse."

The number of users and abusers of these drugs is much greater than those who die from them, Warner added. "This is the tip of the iceberg," she said.

By 2010, 12 million Americans said they were using opioid painkillers without a prescription. In 2009, almost 500,000 emergency room visits were for abuse of these painkillers. This costs health insurance companies as much as $72 billion a year in direct costs, the CDC said in a November report.

I hope this article sheds some light on the relative risks between Chiropractic care versus medical treatment of pain. If you're in the Commercial Drive neighborhood of East Vancouver, stop by my office or visit my website here; COMMERCIAL DRIVE - EAST VANCOUVER CHIROPRACTOR; DR. DOMINIC CHAN!!!! 


Sources;
 Margaret Warner, Ph.D., injury epidemiologist, National Center for Health Statistics, Office of Analysis and Epidemiology, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Chris Jones, Pharm.D., M.P.H., health scientist, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Jeffrey Bernstein, M.D., medical director, Florida Poison Information Center, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine; Dec. 20, 2011, Drug Poisoning Deaths in the United States, 1980-2008