Medical Study Demonstrates Chiropractic Safety for Neck Adjustments

A study published in the scientific medical journal “Spine” notes the safety of chiropractic. The article published in the October 2007 issue of the journal was titled, “Safety of Chiropractic Manipulation of the Cervical Spine: A Prospective National Survey”. The study was a prospective national survey designed to, “estimate the risk of serious and relatively minor adverse events following chiropractic manipulation of the cervical spine by a sample of U.K. chiropractors.”

The authors admitted that the risk of any serious side effects to chiropractic care was relatively unknown to them and the medical community. The chiropractic profession has long noted that the malpractice rates for the chiropractic profession at large, a possible indicator for injury from care, were considerably lower than any other medical health care providers.

This study looked at the outcomes from 19,722 chiropractic patients who had received some form or another of neck adjustments that they referred to as “chiropractic manipulation of the cervical spine.” The researchers reviewed a total of 50,276 neck adjustments and looked to see if there were any serious side effects from the chiropractic care. They defined serious effects to be those that resulted in the need to be referred to a hospital, or that caused a worsening of symptoms immediately after treatment and/or resulted in persistent or significant disability or incapacity.

The results as quoted in the study were that, “There were no reports of serious adverse events.” Researchers did not find any serious adverse effects in any of the subjects they studied. They also noted that this is the first medical study of its kind by stating, “Safety of treatment interventions is best established with prospective surveys, and this study is unique in that it is the only prospective survey on such a large scale specifically estimating serious adverse events following cervical spine manipulation.”

Researchers noted the safety advantage between chiropractic care and drug care by saying, “The risk rates described in this study compare favorably to those linked to drugs routinely prescribed for musculoskeletal conditions in general practice.” They summed up their findings when they stated, “On this basis, this survey provides evidence that cervical spine manipulation is a relatively safe procedure when administered by registered U.K. chiropractors.”


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One response to “Medical Study Demonstrates Chiropractic Safety for Neck Adjustments”

  1. Juan Avatar

    Aloha Matthew, We coach lots of upper cervical docs. And this tatolly works. Start by connecting with their Chief Concern i.e. low back. Connect that to C1. In your pre visit 1 video or as you transition into the exam you just let them know the difference between C1 subluxation and compensations. Then in your TTAT just say, often times if you have a compensation from a C1 subluxation down here at L5 it can cause that type of low back pain. Is it tender there? And if you do have that compensation at L5 we may notice pain, numbenss, tingling, weakness down the leg. Do you have that? And if you do have that we may also notice PMS, do you ever get that? Well that makes sense because when there is a compensation at this area we will notice those things because Now if you do have a compensation right here at L5 we almost always find a subluxation here at C1. Now palpate C1, find the subluxation, connect it to motor, sensory and autonomic. Now go back down the entire spine and nervous system to connect all other compensations.Now some people like to just connect L5 to the low back, then go right to C1, then go back to L5 to discuss motor, sensory and autonomic it all works For C1 docs i like a marianette puppet. You can just pull on one of the strings at the top and show them how that pulls the leg up. When you are subluxated up here, everything else compensates hope that helps!