Who is using chiropractic care?

For a lot of families taking your young kids or infant to the chiropractor may seem like a brand new idea! But families have been choosing chiropractic and seeing results for a long time and the utilization of this great care is increasing. 

​+ CDC survey showed chiropractic/osteopathic care continues to be the most common doctor-directed complementary and integrative form of health care used by children in the U.S. Usage of DC/DO manipulation by all children grew from
2.8% in 2007 to 3.3% in 2012.
○ Represents a 17.8% increase from 2007 to 2012.
○ Total of 1,854,000 children utilized DC/DO manipulation in 2012.
 Usage increased to 5.4% of all children if parent(s) received DC/DO manipulation. Utilization increased with parent education and private health insurance.
Black LI, Clarke TC, Barnes PM, et al. Use of complementary health approaches among children aged 4–17 years in the United States: National Health Interview Survey, 2007–2012. National Health Statistics Reports; no 78. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics 2015.

Your Family and the Opioid Epidemic

These are some bullet points that were assembled by the American Chiropractic Association about opioid use and back pain. None of us want to see a family member or teenage child struggle with these harmful drugs. Consider noninvasive treatments first!
Back Pain and the Opioid Epidemic

• Almost half of all U.S. opioid overdose deaths involve a prescription opioid.16
• Back pain is one of the leading reasons why people are prescribed opioids.17
• Research shows that opioids do not provide clinically meaningful pain relief for people with chronic back pain.18
• As many as one in four people who receive prescription opioids long term for non-cancer pain in primary care settings struggle with addiction.19
• In 2014, almost 2 million Americans abused or were dependent on prescription opioids.20
• Almost 80 percent of Americans prefer to first use options other than prescription drugs for their pain.21

Effectiveness of Chiropractic Care

• Chiropractors are widely recognized as providing the safest drug-free, non-invasive therapies available for the treatment of back pain and other musculoskeletal complaints.22
• A recent clinical comparative trial found that chiropractic care combined with usual medical care for low back pain provides greater pain relief and a greater reduction in disability than medical care alone.23
• Injured workers with similar injuries are 28 times less likely to have spinal surgery if the first point of contact is a doctor of chiropractic (DC) rather than a surgeon (MD).24
• In 2017, the American College of Physicians (ACP) updated its guideline for the treatment of acute and chronic low back pain to recommend first using noninvasive, nondrug treatments—including spinal manipulation—before resorting to over-the-counter and prescription drugs.25
• In January 2015, the Joint Commission, the organization that accredits more than 20,000 health care systems in the U.S. including every major hospital, recognized the value of nondrug approaches by adding care provided by doctors of chiropractic to its pain management standard.26

references available : www.acatoday.org/Education-Events/National-Chiropractic-Health-Month/Campaign-Toolkit/NCHM-2018-Key-Facts-and-Figures

foster kids and families

One population that can strongly benefit from this care are our foster kids. In chiropractic you often hear that there are three types of main insults to the nervous system; physical trauma, chemical toxins, and emotional traumas. Unfortunately our foster kids are often exposed to all three of these traumas by little fault of their own. They often end up with a lot of labels and diagnoses at a very young age while their physical bodies have not had a chance to heal or process the traumas or repeated insults of a bad diet. Although goals of care are often different with these kids they often have gains in feeling safer and more at home in their bodies after beginning care. 
In the same vein, if I were a foster parent, I could not imagine the emotional trauma of having children come in and out of your life so abruptly. These parents need our special attention and care as much as any parent.