Is Chiropractic Treatment Safe?

 

Chiropractic is a safe practice as millions of chiropractic are provided worldwide every day. Discover why it is as safe as any care.

 

Evidence Chiropractic is Safe

A new major study reports evidence that chiropractic is safe for neck pain treatment

The large American study, using the records of 40 million people, researched the link between chiropractic care and VBA stroke.

As it was expected, it shows no obvious causality between chiropractic manipulation and vertebrobasilar artery (VBA) stroke.

This study supports the results of another previous and independent made by Cassidy, Boyle et al.

Indeed, the latter concluded that neck adjustments do not cause a stroke.

However, an association between the two events may exist.

 

The Study Results

In this new study, the researchers analysed up to 30 days before the date of hospital admission for VBA stroke:

They controlled if their patients visited chiropractors and/or GPs.

Positively, the authors' conclusions were unequivocal: “there was no association between chiropractic visits and VBA stroke found for the overall sample or samples stratified by age."

In contrast, “there is an association existing between GP visits and VBA stroke incidents regardless of the length of hazard period."

The likelihood or odds ratio of there being an association between a stroke and a GP visit “increase dramatically from 1-30 days to 1-1 day."

This is consistent with “the hypothesis that patients are more likely to see a GP for symptoms related to vertebral artery dissection closer to the index date of their actual stroke.”

“Overall, our results increase confidence in the findings of (the Cassidy, Boyle et al. study) which concluded there was no excess risk of VBA stroke associated with chiropractic care compared to primary care".

Reference:
Kosloff T, Elton D et al. (2015) Chiropractic Care and the Risk of Vertebrobasilar Stroke: Results of a Case-Control Study in U.S. Commercial and Medicare Advantage Populations. Chiropractic and Manual Therapies; 23:19. (Appendix A)