Review of ‘Safety of Chiropractic Manipulation of the Cervical Spine SPINE Volume 32, Number 21, pp 2375–2378 2007″

Many people are afraid of chiropractic adjustments and even though I do gentle adjustments it is important to look at what the research says about there safety. This high-quality prospective study separates fact from fiction. Because the adjustment can look scary it is important to look at the facts.

The authors of this study found not a single instance of a “serious adverse event” in over 50,000 cervical spine manipulations. Therefore the patients risk appears to be considered “low to very low” for cervical spine manipulation.

Of the treatment outcomes obtained from 19,722 patients. There were no reports of serious adverse events found. The risk rates of chiropractic described in this study are equal to or lower than drugs routinely prescribed for musculoskeletal conditions and acupuncture. So even though neck adjustments look scary they are safer than many medications used for neck pain.

Serious complications were considered neurologic deficit and stroke and minor side effects were neck pain, stiffness, soreness, headache, and
tiredness. There were no adverse events reported in this study which is evidence that chiropractic has a high safety rating.

Therefore chiropractic is considered to have low risk of serious complications.

Check out my eBook on Chronic Neck Pain.

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Article originally published on Medium.