Over this past weekend (8-20-21), I attended a seminar and learned some eye-opening statistics that I would like to share with you. As a chiropractic doctor, I am one of the cogs in the big wheel we call the health care system. First of all out of the 313 Billion dollars spent on health care, low back pain was the number one reason for hospitalizations.
The US is 4.2% of the world’s population and yet we spent 89% of that 313 Billion on our health care. More than any other country. Yet we rank 64th in life expectancy. We are 29th in infant mortality. The 2 biggest reasons for hospitalizations are being born and low back pain. Of course, as a chiropractor, the low back pain part raises eyebrows. Chiropractic is the most effective way to manage low back pain, the studies that confirm that are far and away too numerous to go into.
Steroid injections are used extensively in medical practice and since steroids ruin cartilage and ligaments and break down scar tissue, it puts you on the fast track to surgery. 70 % of the time low back surgery leads to a second surgery. It seems like drugs and surgery aren’t working so well. The leading beneficiaries seem to be the pharmaceutical companies. That is another story, however.
I think chiropractic is way underutilized. It could potentially save lives. Chiropractic adjustments do much more than relieving back pain. Chiropractic stimulates the frontal cortex of the brain. It improves neural integration, it enhances the immune system, and these days that is not a bad thing. I refer to research being done in this area by Dr. Heidi Haavik.
