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Chiropractic Better Than Drugs for Back Pain

In our Rockville office, Dr. Aazami has helped countless people recover from back pain. If you suffer from back pain, you've probably been tempted to take some medications to decrease the pain. You should recognize that studies have shown that chiropractic is oftentimes a better choice than drugs when it comes to alleviating this particular type of problem.

In a 2013 study published in the medical journal Spine researchers included 101 people who had experienced back pain for at least two days. Each individual was then designated to one of three groups. The first group, which was made up of 37 people, received chiropractic treatment and a placebo of the non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac. The second group of 38 individuals received sham chiropractic adjustments and the genuine drug. The third group of 25 individuals acted as the control as those subjects engaged in sham chiropractic care and also received the placebo, thus having no real treatment whatsoever.

All of the patients who received some form of treatment, whether through chiropractic care or the drug diclofenac, fared better than the control patients who had no real treatment. However, when the two active groups were compared to each other, the people who received chiropractic care had improvements that were "significantly better" than those who took the medications.

Chiropractic: Natural Healing

Because chiropractic is non-invasive and doesn't use drugs, it helps enhance healing without adverse effects. For example, NSAIDs can result in ulcers, hypertension, and other serious health issues. Plus, the benefits of chiropractic care last longer as it's designed to correct the source of the problem, not just treat the symptoms.

If you're ready to address your back pain naturally, then chiropractic care is for you. Schedule an appointment in our Rockville office with Dr. Aazami today at (240) 221-2666. We'll help relieve your back pain in a healthy way!

References

von Heymann WJ, Schloemer P, Timm J, Muehlbauer B. Spinal high-velocity low amplitude manipulation in acute nonspecific low back pain: a double-blind randomized controlled trial in comparison with diclofenac and placebo. Spine 2013;38(7):540-548.

Jaw pain is a fairly common condition reported by people after a car crash, and it can be tough for some doctors to diagnose the cause of the problem. Complicating the matter, oftentimes you won't develop TMJ pain until many weeks or months after the accident.

Dr. Aazami has treated many men and women with jaw pain after an injury, and the scientific research explains what causes these types of symptoms. During a crash, the tissues in your spine are oftentimes stretched or torn, causing ligament, muscle, or nerve damage. This can obviously cause pain in the neck and back, but since your nervous system is one functioning unit, inflammation of the nerves can cause pain in other parts of your body.

For instance, with radicular pain, irritation of a nerve can cause prickling or pins and needles in the arm and hand. Similarly, it can affect parts of your body above the injured area, like your head and jaw. Headaches after a wreck are very common because of neck injury, and the jaw works the same way. Dr. Aazami sees this very commonly in our Rockville office.

Research Supports Chiropractic Lessens TMJ Pain After an Auto Injury

Research shows that the source of many jaw or TMJ problems originates in the neck and that treatment of the underlying neck injury can fix the secondary headaches or jaw symptoms. The trick to dealing with these symptoms is simple: Dr. Aazami will work to return your spine back to health, decreasing the inflammation, treating the injured tissues, and eliminating the irritation to the nerves in your spine.

Dr. Aazami finds that jaw and headache issues often resolve once we return your spine to its healthy condition.

If you live in Rockville and you've been injured in a crash, Dr. Aazami can help. We've been working with auto injury patients since 1995, and we can most likely help you, too. Give our office a call today at (240) 221-2666 for an appointment or consultation.

Ciancaglini R, Testa M, Radaelli G. Association of neck pain with symptoms of temporomandibular dysfunction in the general adult population. Scandinavian Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine 1999;31:17-22.

Brantingham JW, Cassa TK, Bonnefin D, Pribicevic M, Robb A, et al. Manipulative and multimodal therapy for upper extremity and temporomandibular disorders: a system review. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics 2013;36(3):143-201.

Many people suffer from headache pain, and tension headaches are a frequent problem in our busy lives. Postural problems and stress are common sources of tension headache, and ones that Dr. Aazami and the staff here in our Rockville chiropractic office have a lot of experience in treating.

Research Supports Chiropractic Eases Tension Headaches

The scientific literature confirms our results: A 2016 study from Spain treated a group of 76 men and women with chronic tension headaches. The participants were divided into four treatment groups: 19 patients were treated with suboccipital inhibition (the doctor presses on the tight tissues at the top of the spine); 19 with chiropractic adjustments; 19 with both adjustments and suboccipital inhibition; and 19 received no treatment.

The authors found that the spinal adjustments were helpful at relieving pain, and that the best results were found when spinal adjustments were combined with the suboccipital inhibition.

When we get stressed out, the nerves and tissues in the neck can be disrupted, leading to pain. Chiropractic works by getting rid of these stresses and restoring the normal nerve function to the tissues.

We're Here to Help Patients Find Comfort From Tension Headaches

If you live in Rockville and are dealing with any kind of headache, we're here to help you get relief. Call Dr. Aazami today at (240) 221-2666 for an appointment or more information.

Reference

Espi-Lopez GV, Rodriguez-Blanco C, Oliva-Pascual-Vaca A, et al. Do manual therapy techniques have a positive effect on quality of life in people with tension-type headache? A randomized controlled trial. European Journal of Physical Rehabilitation Medicine 2016; February 29.

Chiropractic is centered on the concept of enabling your body to naturally heal through spinal adjustments and lifestyle changes that encourage wellness. For Dr. Aazami, this involves working to restore your body's healthy functioning to avoid the need for medications or surgery. We notice that many of our Rockville patients are happy to find a natural solution for their health conditions.

One benefit of chiropractic care is that it helps people minimize or eliminate the use of drug treatments. Medications are commonly issued to patients who have back pain. This is such a significant concern that the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) issued a news release stating that opioid (painkiller) dangers overshadow the advantages when administered for back pain.

Some of the most common narcotics, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, include hydrocodone (Vicodin), oxycodone (OxyContin and Percocet), morphine, and codeine. Data provided by the AAN mention the fact that approximately 50% of the people taking these drugs for a period of three months are still taking them five years down the road. This can further complicate the issue of back pain and healing, particularly if an opiate dependency arises.

Compare that to chiropractic which engages natural healing and the advantages are obvious. While a medication might be useful at temporarily relieving the symptoms of a health condition, it's not a real solution to the problem. Drugs don't fix your damaged spine; it will only cover up the pain.

Dr. Aazami will first examine you to get to the source of your back problems and then work with you to correct the problem -- without risky medications.

If you're ready for relief of your pain, naturally, give our Rockville office a call at (240) 221-2666 to make an appointment with Dr. Aazami.

References

• Risk of opioids outweigh benefits for headache, low back pain, other conditions. American Academy of Neurology;September 29, 2014.
• What are opioids? National Institute on Drug Abuse. Retrieved from http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/prescription-drugs/opioids/what-are-opioids

Approximately 2.3 million people are injured every year in motor vehicle collisions in the U.S. While some people are able to recover from their injuries fairly easily, others are left to deal with chronic pain and impairment. We see many of these patients here in our Rockville office. Thankfully, Dr. Aazami is here to help you heal from your auto injury.

Research Proves Chiropractic Helps Prevent Chronic Pain After an Auto Accident

The science confirms what we see in our office: A British study was carried out on 28 people diagnosed with chronic whiplash pain. Each participant received chiropractic treatment and 93 percent of them experienced pain relief following their adjustments, even though 43 percent of whiplash sufferers overall usually never find relief. This confirms that chiropractic is a great way to avoid long-term pain after an auto injury.

It's important to remember that studies have also found that delaying care after a car crash can adversely affect healing time, so getting in to see Dr. Aazami at the earliest opportunity is key to having a quicker recovery.

We Can Help Clients Find Comfort From Pain After a Car Accident

Dr. Aazami has worked with many auto injury sufferers, and we're here to help you, too. Call our Rockville office today for more information or an appointment.

Resources

• Association for Safe International Road Travel. Retrieved from http://asirt.org/initiatives/informing-road-users/road-safety-facts/road-crash-statistics
• Dies S & Strapp J. (1992, September). Chiropractic treatment of patients in motor vehicle accidents: a statistical analysis. The Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association, 36(3), 139-145.
• Woodward M et al. (1996, November). Chiropractic treatment of chronic 'whiplash' injuries. Injury, 27(9), 643-645.

When performing sports that demand a lot of lower body movement, like football, soccer, and basketball, it's common to suffer some type of injury to your lower extremities. Between pulled hamstrings, sprained ankles, knee injuries, and more, many athletes have found themselves out of commission. Dr. Aazami has seen all of these problems in our Rockville patients. The good news is, chiropractic can help prevent some of these injuries from developing and research proves it.

Research Supports Chiropractic Helps With Sports Injuries & Recovery

Dr. Aazami keeps current with all of the recent scientific research, and in a paper published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, researchers from Macquarie University in Australia studied 59 semi-elite Australian Rules football players. Roughly one-half were placed in a control group and the other half were put in a treatment group that received sports chiropractic care at regular intervals. During the first six weeks, this meant receiving care once a week. The following three months consisted of an adjustment every two weeks before decreasing those to one visit monthly for the final three months of the study.

Researchers noted that there was a "significant" decrease in the number of lower limb strains the players received in the treatment group when compared to the control. In addition, they noticed that the subjects who received chiropractic also had fewer weeks of missed practice and games as a result of non-contact knee injuries. This led them to determine that sports chiropractic treatment should be added to "the current best practice management."

Every major sports organization in the United States and the US Olympic Team has chiropractors on staff for their players, because they know that chiropractic works. If you live near our practice in Rockville and would like to see if Dr. Aazami can help you boost your performance or reduce sports injuries, give our office a call today at (240) 221-2666 for an appointment.

Dr. Aazami Can Help Clients Find Relief From Sports Injuries and Recover Faster

If you're suffering from severe pain, Dr. Aazami and our staff are here to help you recover. Give our Rockville office a call today at (240) 221-2666 for an appointment today.

Original Study

Hoskins W, Pollard H. The effect of a sports chiropractic manual therapy intervention on the prevention of back pain, hamstring and lower limb injuries in semi-elite Australian rules footballers: a randomized controlled trial. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders 2010;11(64).

In our Rockville practice, it isn't uncommon for us to see people troubled with sciatica, and Dr. Aazami has helped many of these people heal with chiropractic. What makes chiropractic care so helpful to those who suffer with this condition? First off, it shortens their time of recovery and a Norwegian medical study confirms it.

In the article, which took place in a Norwegian hospital's orthopedic division, researchers looked at 44 patients who presented with abrupt low back pain that was diagnosed as acute sciatic nerve pain. The participants were all treated by a chiropractor, with the average follow-up being two years after treatment.

The authors found that all but two patients went back to work after receiving chiropractic treatment, which is a 95% success rate. Moreover, the average period of time that the individuals spent off work "was reduced by two thirds as compared with that associated with conventional medical treatment."

Considering that the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that over 170,000 workdays were lost in 2013 due to employees dealing with back or spine-related issues, that is nearly 112,500 work days that could potentially be recovered each and every year solely by receiving chiropractic care. Not only could that increase work productivity, but it might also decrease costs to businesses and employees from lost work.

If you live in Rockville and you suffer with sciatic pain, Dr. Aazami is here to assist. Give us a call at (240) 221-2666 and we'll work with you to find the source of your sciatica and get you back on the road to health.

Orlin JR, Didriksen A. Results of chiropractic treatment of lumbopelvic fixation in 44 patients admitted to an orthopedic department. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics 2007;30(2):135-139.

There are many different kinds of headache, but one of the most common types is known as "cervicogenic headache," or headaches that originate in your neck.

Dr. Aazami sees a lot of people in our Rockville office who are struggling with frequent headaches. Fortunately, chiropractic adjustments can usually help, potentially reducing these types of headaches by 50 percent, and research confirms it.

Research Shows Chiropractic Helps With Cervicogenic Headaches

A study was conducted involving 80 participants who reported experiencing at least five cervicogenic headaches during the prior three months. The goal was to discover how effective chiropractic was for this type of head pain, as well as to ascertain the number of treatment sessions required to achieve a positive effect.

The subjects were divided into four separate groups, so that each group was similar in age, gender, number of cervicogenic headaches, and their intensity. Of the four groups, two engaged in chiropractic treatments and two received light massage. Furthermore, one group assigned to each treatment received eight sessions and the other group received twice that amount.

Each person was assessed based on head pain, neck pain, and disability prior to the study and 12 and 24 weeks after treatment was complete. The researchers found that those who received chiropractic as opposed to massage reported fewer headaches at the conclusion of the study. Furthermore, improvements were maintained when checked six months after treatment ended.

Furthermore, participants who were taking medications for their headaches were able to lower their intake after completing the study. Those who received chiropractic care had lower drug usage 24 weeks post-study.

We Can Help Patients Find Comfort From Head Pain

Dr. Aazami has helped many patients who were suffering from headache pain in our Rockville office. Call us today at (240) 221-2666 for more information or for an appointment.

Reference

Haas M, Spegman A, Peterson D, Aickin M, Vavrek D. Dose response and efficacy of spinal manipulation for chronic cervicogenic headache: a pilot randomized controlled trial. The Spine Journal 2010; 10: 117-128.

In our Rockville practice, we see many people who are troubled with back pain, and some of these people have been told they might need surgery to recover. Fortunately, Dr. Aazami has helped many people get relief without the need for any type of operation. The science confirms the results we see in our office. One medical study published in the journal Spine found that consulting with a chiropractor as your first move in overcoming with your back pain may literally keep you off of the operating table.

In this scientific study, medical professionals from Dartmouth analyzed data from about 1,900 workers from Washington state who first saw either a surgeon or a chiropractic doctor for their back-related issues. They then looked at three years' worth of follow-up medical records to ascertain whether the patients wound up having back surgery in an attempt to correct the problem.

What the authors discovered was that 42.7% of the patients who first saw a surgeon for their back problems ended up with surgery in that 3-year time frame, whereas only 1.5 percent of those who first saw a chiropractor had the same fate. The authors wrote:

"Even after controlling for injury severity and other measures, workers with an initial visit for the injury to a surgeon had almost nine times the odds of receiving lumbar spine surgery compared to those seeing primary care providers, whereas workers whose first visit was to a chiropractor had significantly lower odds of surgery."

These are remarkable results. Consulting with a chiropractor drastically reduces your odds of getting back surgery, plus the chiropractic patients in this report "had lower odds of chronic work disability" and they also had fewer expensive MRI tests.

Let's also keep in mind this important detail: this study was carried out by orthopedic surgeons from Dartmouth College, and printed in the world's most distinguished medical journal on spinal injury.

The Problems with Surgery

Any surgical procedure has risks, but a major problem associated with spine surgery is that there's a very high rate of failure. In an important analysis in the European Spine Journal, researchers wrote:

"Failed back surgery is a problem that has become sufficiently widespread to even warrant its own special conferences, with recent reviews reporting failure rates ranging from 5 to 50%."

The authors of this same study concluded:

"It is extremely difficult to identify unequivocal predictor factors that can be used to accurately predict the outcome of surgery."

As a chiropractor, Dr. Aazami is convinced that surgery should be the absolute last resort for treating back pain. Chiropractic works to restore your spine to its normal function--without the need of risky surgery or drugs--and many scientific studies have confirmed the effectiveness of chiropractic for back pain.

If you live in Rockville and you need relief for your back pain, give our office a call today at (240) 221-2666 for a consultation or an appointment. We'll help get you back on the road to a pain-free life!

Studies

• Keeney BJ, Fulton-Kehoe D, Turner JA, Wickizer TM, Chan KC, Franklin GM. Early predictors of lumbar spine surgery after occupational back injury: results from a prospective study of workers in Washington State. Spine 2013;38(11):953-964.
• Mannion AF, Elfering A. Predictors of surgical outcome and their assessment. European Spine Journal 2006;15(Suppl 1):S93-S108.
  

Neck pain is a common condition after an auto injury, and it's something that Dr. Aazami sees frequently in our Rockville office. Chiropractic care can be very helpful for neck pain symptoms after a crash. Let's examine what causes neck pain and why chiropractic works.

Your neck is subjected to very high stresses and strains during a collision, so it's not surprising that neck pain is so common from this type of injury. During even a low speed wreck, your head is subjected to very rapid acceleration. In such crashes, a head that normally weighs about 10 pounds can instantly weigh eight times as much. This force exerts a severe strain on the tissues of the cervical spine. The bones of your spinal column are held together with strong bands of tissue called ligaments, and these ligaments provide stability for your neck. These ligaments can be sprained during a collision, just as your ankle ligaments can be sprained. A sprain means that the ligament is stretched or torn.

When you experience a sprained ligament, the injured area become swollen and sore, and that's what happens after a car crash. Chiropractic helps by increasing flexibility in the injured region, which helps the tissues heal and helps decrease scar tissue.

Dr. Aazami is here in Rockville to help you recover from neck pain. We've been helping patients since 1995 and we can probably help you, too. First, we'll do a careful evaluation to establish the root cause of your pain, and then decide how to restore your body's natural functioning. Give our office a call today at (240) 221-2666 to make an appointment.