Military Personnel Find Relief from More Chiropractic Care Available in the VA
The spines of our veterans need good care. Veterans need access to chiropractic care - just like their fellow McHenry chiropractic spine pain patients - and now can get it. OrthoIllinois Chiropractic is the McHenry back pain specialty center for spine pain, back pain, neck pain, arm pain and leg pain relief for McHenry veterans and McHenry back pain patients. OrthoIllinois Chiropractic offers relieving McHenry chiropractic care to any McHenry back pain patients seeking back pain relief!
WHAT HAPPENS TO THEIR SPINES?
Data from the Veterans’ Administration (VA), “diseases of the musculoskeletal system/connective system” like back pain are the primary issues for veterans coming back from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. (1) To what is it credited? Most of us would think it is because of carrying heavy backpacks and weapons. (2) One study reports that back pain is reported more by military construction and law enforcement personnel. (3) Reason for back pain for non-military folks like McHenry residents apply to military, too, like injury, posture, daily activity, weight, stress, genetic defects, etc.
RELIEF FOR A VETERAN
One military officer with a 20-year history of mechanical back pain secondary to an injury incurred while on active military duty experienced intermittent radiation of numbness and tingling down the right leg to the knee. Chiropractic care provided him a 25% decrease in low back pain severity and a 22% decrease in his disability. The program of conservative, chiropractic management included 10 treatments of lumbar flexion/distraction and activity modification over an eight-week period. Despite the fact that he had had this pain a long time, he gained relief. (4) After 20 years, such reductions in pain and disability would clearly be appreciated by McHenry back pain sufferers, too.
BENEFICIAL CHIROPRACTIC CARE FOR VETERANS’ SPINES INSTEAD OF OPIOIDS
1999 marked the year of the US law empowering the VA to offer chiropractic care via private sector chiropractors. (5) From 2004 (the year the law was voted for that chiropractic was to be available the VA system) to 2015, annual chiropractic VA patients increased by 821%, chiropractic visits by 694%, number of clinics by 9%, chiropractic employees by 21%. (5) Currently, 70 VA facilities have chiropractors on staff. (1) Nearly 100 VA facilities still offer little to no availability. (2) If a VA facility does not have a chiropractor(s) on staff, veterans (if they ask) are able to obtain a referral to a local chiropractor like yours at OrthoIllinois Chiropractic for care. Many do not know about this option or that they can benefit from chiropractic care. Chiropractic as a profession and your McHenry chiropractic continue to educate the public about how it can help musculoskeletal pain, back pain, sciatica, neck pain and arm radiculopathy, how it can help with pain management. Today, many veterans - like many others in the general population - are having issues with prescription opioid pain drugs. (6) The opioid epidemic is everywhere; chiropractic care may assist in reducing its effects for military veterans as it does for general population McHenry pain patients.
ACCESS TO CHIROPRACTIC EXPANDS IN THE U.S.
Chiropractic researchers try to ensure that military personnel have access to chiropractic care. One group developed an integrated care pathway for doctors of chiropractic, primary care providers, and mental health professionals who manage veterans with low back pain, with or without mental health comorbidity, within Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care facilities. (7) Lately, the US House sanctioned expansion of chiropractic services in the VA. Availability is to expand to at least 2 medical centers/clinics in each Veterans Integrated Service Network by December 31, 2019, and be at 50% of them by December 31, 2021. (1) OrthoIllinois Chiropractic appreciates the confidence in chiropractic care this action shows.
CONTACT OrthoIllinois Chiropractic
Listen to this PODCAST from The Back Doctors’ Podcast about a military veteran with multiple spinal issues whose local chiropractor helped him find relief.
Schedule a McHenry chiropractic appointment for yourself or a loved one – military veteran or not. OrthoIllinois Chiropractic is ready to help ease the musculoskeletal spine pain and back pain conditions of all sorts faced by military personnel and military veterans with chiropractic care.
