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Safe and Effective Health Care Answering your questions about neck adjustment Thank you for your interest in learning more about the safety and effectiveness of chiropractic care. Chiropractic is widely accepted as one of the safest, drug-free, surgery-free therapies available for a wide range of conditions. Some of the most common reasons patients seek chiropractic care include headache and neck and back pain. No health treatment is completely free from potential adverse effects-even common non-prescription pain relievers carry a risk. Did you know that during their entire professional lives most chiropractors will not have a single case of a patient who experiences serios adverse effects to treatment? Questions and Answers What is a neck adjustment and how do I benefit from this procedure? A neck adjustment (also known as a cervical manipulation) is a precise and safe procedure, generally applied by hand, to joints of the neck. Your chiropractor has recieved extensive training to perform this procedure. Neck adjustment works to improve the mobility of the joints in the neck in order to relieve pain, ease muscle tension and increase your range of painless motion. After an adjustment, you should feel less pain, less pressure, less stiffness and more mobility. What training do chiropractors have? Chiropractic education in Canada is an extensive four-year program following the completion of at least three years of university undergraduate studies. By the time they graduate, Canadian doctors of chiropractic are among the most skilled in the world, and experts in the practice of spinal manipulative therapy (or spinal adjustment). Chiropractors are trained to take your health history and assess your condition prior to making diagnosis and proposing a treatment plan. Since your neck is an integral part of the spine, a neck adjustment may be prescribed. Your chiropractor is trained to determine if this procedure is right for you. He or she may decide to use massage, ultrasound, or other therapies to treat your condition. Is neck adjustment safe? Yes, it is. The most recent
research into the safety of neck adjustment confirms the safety of this
procedure. 1 Neck adjustment is performed well
within the normal turning range of the head and it is skill – not
strength – that is needed to perform this safe, effective procedure.
Most patients experience immediate relief following an adjustment, however,
some may experience temporary pain, stiffness or slight swelling. In
rare situations, patients may experience temporary dizziness, local I am worried about the risk of stroke from having my neck adjusted. The findings in the existing research literature agree that adverse events such as stroke or stroke-like symptoms associated with neck adjustment are extremely rare. 2 3 For example, a Canadian study published in 2001 concluded that stroke symptoms associated with neck adjustment are so rare that it is very difficult to quantify. Similarly, a medical review published in 2002 looked at 73 studies of chiropractic care and found no serious complications reported in any of them. By way of comparison, neck adjustment is significantly safer than other common treatments for headache, neck and back pain. For example, long-term use of non-prescription pain relievers carries a 1,000 times greater risk of serious complications than neck adjustment. What are the risk factors for stroke? There are many risk factors for stroke including blood clotting problems, hypertension, smoking, high cholesterol, heart problems, use of birth control pills, and trauma such as blows to the head or sports injuries. In addition, strokes or stroke-like symptoms are also associated with many normal everyday activities such as cradling a phone between your ear and shoulder during a prolonged conversation, having your hair washed at a beauty parlour, dental procedures, painting a ceiling, and turning your head while driving. Strokes even occur without warning in some people for no apparent reason. For more information on the chiropractic profession and chiropractic care visit the Canadian Chiropractic Association website at www.ccachiro.org. This document was written and distributed by the Chiropractic Communications Working Group. References 1 Internal forces sustained by the vertebral artery during spinal manipulative therapy, Herzog W, Journal of Manipulative Physiologics and Therapeutics, Oct. 25(8):504-10, 2002. 2 Chiropractic Manipulation and Stroke:
A Population-Based Case-Control Study, Rothwell DM, Bondy SJ, Williams
JI, Stroke, May 2001. 3 Chiropractic: A Profession at the Crossroads of Mainstream and Alternative Medicine, Meeker WC, Haldeman S, Annals of Internal Medicine, February 5, 2002, Vol. 136, No. 3. |