Staff Writer
As a senior adult – age 55+ – you may be looking for conservative and healthy options for your healthcare. Because musculoskeletal complaints often increase with age, chiropractic care can be a wise option. If you’ve never seen a chiropractor before, it’s natural to have some questions about how chiropractic can benefit you.
Here are some of the questions doctors of chiropractic encounter:
According to a new update in the American College of Physicians (ACP) clinical practice guidelines, spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) is included as a first-line treatment for low-back pain. ACP, with 161,000 members in countries across the world, is the largest medical-specialty society in the world.
For those of you who have never been to a chiropractor, SMT, also known as an adjustment, is a technique where practitioners use their hands or a device to restore proper spinal and extremity joint motion. Such treatments benefit many chiropractic patients, as documented in many evidence-based studies and reports, such as Chiropractic: A Safe and Cost Effective Approach to Health.
Chiropractic care begins with a comprehensive history and examination, followed by highly personalized treatment recommendations. Although spinal manipulative therapy is often used, other services include nutritional counseling and posture exercises.
One of the main goals of chiropractic treatment is to help restore normal range of motion. Restoring normal range of motion will help you regain normal function.
Do you want to be able to bend over and pick up your grandchildren as you’d like? Want to spend more time working in the garden? Desire to play golf more or try out pickleball?
Chiropractic treatment aims to restore your normal function, not merely eliminate your pain.
According to evidence-based recommendations in a recent issue of the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, chiropractic represents a safe and effective treatment option for older adults. Considering 15% of the population is over age 60, a rising number of senior adults are seeking chiropractic as a conservative approach to their healthcare needs.
No, it’s usually not imperative to continue visits once the primary complaint is resolved. However, many who’ve experienced the positive benefits of chiropractic want to continue to come in to ensure their body’s systems are functioning as they should.
A chiropractor’s goal is to get you out of pain and improve overall joint function as quickly as possible. Depending on your healthcare needs, your chiropractor will work with you to create a customized plan.
A recent study funded by the National Institute of Health, looking at Medicare data for comparable patient groups, showed that overall costs of care “were substantially lower for those receiving chiropractic treatment.”
Another study showed older Medicare patients with chronic low-back pain and other medical problems who received spinal manipulation therapy had lower costs of care and shorter episodes of back pain than patients who did in different treatment groups.
Finally, consider insurance coverage options. As documented by the American Chiropractic Association, about 80% of U.S. healthcare plans include chiropractic care, if medically necessary.
In addition, the ACA says essential services provided by chiropractors are also available via the Medicare program, federal health delivery systems administered by Medicaid, the U.S. departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense, Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, Federal Workers’ Compensation, and state workers’ compensation programs.
Cleveland University-Kansas City (CUKC), founded in 1922, is a private, nonprofit, chiropractic and health science-focused university in Overland Park, Kansas. The CUKC on-campus Chiropractic Health Center is open to the public and treats patients from Kansas City’s 15-county metro area. Our goal is to provide care and solutions for a better, more productive life for our patients.
