According to the Palmer College of Chiropractic, more than 31 million Americans are experiencing back pain at any given time. On top of that, more than 60 percent of people living with chronic pain take opioids for relief. However, there is a safer way to address pain. Consider the benefits of kicking painkiller dependence with chiropractic care.
The problem
Of the number of Americans experiencing back pain, as many as 16 percent of people become addicted to prescription pain pills in the process, and between 26.4 million and 36 million people abuse opioids worldwide. Painkillers are not only costly for patients, but they are dangerous. Unintentional deaths from opioids have more than quadrupled since 1999. Specifically, from 1999 to 2017, almost 218,000 people died in the United States from overdoses related to prescription drugs, according to the CDC. In addition, every day, more than 1,000 people are treated in the emergency room for opioid misuse.
Addressing painkiller dependence with chiropractic care
Chiropractic care offers a safer solution for addressing back pain compared to prescription painkillers. In 2012, the Annals of Internal Medicine published a study in which 75 percent of participants saw a reduction in pain after regularly seeing a chiropractor, compared to only 33 percent who only used prescription painkillers. In 2017, the American College of Physicians updated its guidelines for the treatment of acute and chronic low back pain, in which the College now recommends using non-invasive, natural treatments like chiropractic first before resorting to drug therapies. Thus, addressing painkiller dependence with chiropractic care serves to identify and treat the source of pain before drugs become a potentially addictive issue.
If you can treat back pain at its source, you can often eliminate the need for ever having to rely on costly, addictive painkillers. At Advantage Chiropractic Clinic, we can address chronic back pain by treating the underlying cause without medicine or surgery Call us today at 334-821-2552 to get started.