COULD CHIROPRACTIC SAVE YOUR LIFE? It’s far too common to have a patient come into my office that has been given some heavy duty pain meds, frequently among the opioid class (Vicodin, Oxycotin).
Recent studies have even shown that a large number of primary care doctors will even prescribe these on a patient’s first visit for acute low back pain, which is disturbingly against all the recommendations. As a chiropractic physician, I can tell you that it is a major goal of the treatment of any patient to reduce, avoid or eliminate their need for any type of pain control. It is rare that we are not successful.
Hopefully, this report from the CDC will enlighten you on just how dangerous this class of drugs is. The number of annual deaths in 2006? 26,400. And we spent billions of dollars on the swine flu???? What is sometimes frustrating as a chiropractor is that, when entities (like here in AZ for AHCCS or insurance companies) look at costs for our care, they only rarely look at cost SAVINGS for care. They just look at chiropractic care as a line item expense, despite the fact that we save up to 30% on orthopedic costs alone. These numbers do NOT take into account how many patients are able to go off of, reduce their usage or not go on prescription opioids in the first place.