New Back Pain Guidelines From The American College of Physicians. Choose Chiropractic, Acupuncture, Massage and Heat FIRST. Call (207) 774-6251 for a clinic that offers all of these under 1 roof.
On valentines day earlier this week, a very important evidence based clinical guideline for back pain was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine that physicians and patients should treat acute or sub acute low back pain with non-drug therapies such as superficial heat, massage, acupuncture or spinal manipulation.
According the American College of Physicians, approximately 25% of american adults reported having low back pain lasting at least one day in the past three months.
Dr. Nitin Damle, MD and president of the American College of Physicians is quoted as having said “physicians should avoid prescribing unnecessary tests and costly and potentially harmful drugs, especially narcotics, for these patients.” and he then goes on to say, “for the treatment of chronic low back pain, physicians should select therapies that have the fewest harms and costs…” This my friends, is chiropractic acupuncture, massage, and heat.
Further evidence showed that Acetaminophen was not effective in improving pain outcomes versus placebo. Which means, for acute back pain, it’s of very little value and no better than a sugar pill.
Just in case you are on the fence and need evidence that chiropractic, acupuncture, massage or heat are the first things you should try for your back, there it is. When the annals of internal medicine and the American College of Physicians is recommending Spinal manipulation (chiropractic), Acupuncture and Massage first, this is no longer the alternative, this is the preferred method.
If you know someone with low back pain, tell them to call us at (207) 774-6251. We are committed to helping people live their best life possible, free of pain and full of optimized function!