The Risk of Chiropractic Neck Adjustments
0Have you ever heard … if you are going to the chiropractor do not allow them to adjust your neck?! Well, here are the facts:
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.
A neck adjustment (also known as a cervical manipulation) is a precise and safe procedure, generally applied by hand, to the joints of the neck. Chiropractors have received extensive training to perform this procedure. Did you know that most chiropractors will not have a single case of a patient who experiences serious adverse effects to treatment during their entire professional lives?
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.
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. The most recent research on the safety of neck adjustment confirms the safety of this procedure. The findings in the existing research literature indicate that adverse events such as stroke or stroke-like symptoms associated with neck adjustment are extremely rare. For example, a Canadian study published in 2001 concluded that stroke symptoms associated with neck adjustment occur so infrequently 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 studies.
By way of comparison, neck adjustment is significantly safer than other common treatments for headache, neck and back pain. No health treatment is completely free from potential adverse effects – even common non-prescription pain relievers carry a risk
In addition, strokes or stroke-like symptoms are also associated with many daily activities such as cradling a phone between your ear and shoulder during a prolonged conversation, having your hair washed at the hairdressers, dental procedures, painting a ceiling, or turning your head while driving. Strokes can occur without warning in some people for no apparent reason.
All the best, Dr. Terry Lemay Please take a moment to watch the video below and support me in a cause that is near and dear to my heart: