This is why using chiropractic care to reduce pain, increase strength, flexibility and endurance can be so important.

Having More Than One Symptom May Impact Your Chiropractic Care

Something I have seen many times, is when a new person presents to me declaring only one problem, it could be headaches, low back pain or even leg pain, when I ask them if they have any other health concerns, the majority of people say "yes". However, sometimes the person will say they only have one or two problems and I will end up being able to document over a dozen symptoms. This can end up being very helpful in helping the patient which is why the title of the Danish study I'll discuss below got my attention.

The way chiropractic care can, in some cases, positively impact so many seemingly unrelated conditions never fails to amaze me. That’s why I think it's so important for me to spend the time to find out about all the “other” issues people might have, and to monitor them in detail from time to time during reevaluation sessions.

On their initial visit, people usually have two or three primary problems that they share because these are the issues most affecting their life. It may be that a particular symptom is affecting their golf game or ability to sleep. However, knowing about their other symptoms which are not as big a priority may help me to better understand the cause of their most bothersome symptoms.

Further, it maybe that their body responds to the treatment I provide by reducing their "other symptoms" first. I find for deep healing to occur, rather than just superficially covering up symptoms, we must respect the needs to the body. While this maybe frustrating at first, it usually provides encouragement for the person to know that positive change is happening and to be "patient" while the body does its healing work. After all, the need to be patient is is a very old word for people with health issues.

The body will often be able to minimise or even resolve the minor symptoms more easily and faster than resolving the primary symptoms. This then provides encouragement to the person to persists with chiropractic care long enough for their more stubborn primary symptoms to have a chance to improve.

A Danish study of over 2000 people seeing chiropractors observed that for those with low back pain, there is a 20 - 49% chance that they would also have other health conditions. These issues would include things like fitness, strength, endurance, balance and chronic health issues along with the pain that was usually the primary motivation to come in and see a Chiropractor.

More symptoms tends to decrease the rate of healing.

Comorbidity is the term used when a patient is suffering from multiple health issues at the same time. If you have a comorbidity, then you are more likely to require more treatment over a longer period of time. The Danish study reported that “patients with high lower back pain intensity combined with multimorbidity showed a poorer recovery than patients without chronic diseases.” This doesn’t mean improvement isn’t possible, however it does indicate it may take longer to achieve the desired outcomes because of the complications of having multiple health issues.

It’s interesting and helpful to note that the researchers also found that “generally speaking, people with multimorbidity and co-occurring musculoskeletal pain report high levels of disability, as well as more mental health problems, physical inactivity and obesity.” It’s not clear if the low physical activity and obesity caused

the low back pain, or if the low back pain caused the low physical activity and obesity. However, if we stop to think about it, we know that it can go either way, and can start a downward spiral towards poor health. Therefore, reducing pain while increasing strength, flexibility and endurance using chiropractic care and gentle exercise can be a very effective way to improve health and quality of life for those with multiple symptoms. To see the full study, please feel free to click here.

Dr Jason W. Barritt B.Sc (Hons) DC
Chiropractor

Move better. Feel better. LIVE BETTER.

Reference: Rafn, B.S., Hartvigsen, J., Siersma, V. et al. Multimorbidity in patients with low back pain in Danish chiropractic practice: a cohort study. Chiropr Man Therap 31, 8 (2023).