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 Augusta chiropractic spine pain patients - and now have it. Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic is the Augusta back pain specialty center for spine pain, back pain, neck pain, arm pain and leg pain relief for Augusta veterans and Augusta back pain patients. Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic offers relieving Augusta chiropractic care to any Augusta back pain patients wanting back pain relief!
WHAT HAPPENS TO THEIR SPINES?
According to Veterans’ Administration (VA) data, “diseases of the musculoskeletal system/connective system” like back pain are the chief problems for veterans returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. (1) To what is it attribute? Most of us would think it is due to carrying heavy backpacks and weapons. (2) One study reports that back pain is found more in military construction and law enforcement personnel. (3) Reason for back pain for non-military folks like Augusta 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 sustained during active military duty experienced intermittent radiation of numbness and tingling involving the right lower extremity distal to the knee. Chiropractic care provided him a 25% decrease in low back pain severity and a 22% reduction in his disability. The course of conservative, chiropractic management incorporated 10 treatments of lumbar flexion/distraction and activity modification in 8 weeks. Even though he had had this pain a long time, he gained relief. (4) After 20 years, such decreases in pain and disability would clearly be appreciated by Augusta back pain sufferers, too.
BENEFICIAL CHIROPRACTIC CARE FOR VETERANS’ SPINES INSTEAD OF OPIOIDS
1999 was the year of the US law authorizing the VA to offer chiropractic care via private sector chiropractors. (5) From 2004 (the year the law was passed that chiropractic was to be accessible in the VA system) to 2015, annual chiropractic VA patients rose by 821%, chiropractic visits by 694%, number of clinics by 9%, chiropractic employees by 21%. (5) Recently, 70 VA facilities have chiropractors on staff. (1) Nearly 100 VA facilities still offer little to no availability. (2) If a VA facility doesn’t have a chiropractor(s) on staff, veterans (if they ask) are able to obtain a referral to a local chiropractor like yours at Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic for care. Many do not know about this benefit or that they can be helped with chiropractic care. Chiropractic as a profession and your Augusta chiropractic persist in educating 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 struggling with prescription opioid pain drugs. (6) The opioid epidemic is everywhere; chiropractic care may help curb its effects for military veterans as it does for general population Augusta 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 direct the care of veterans with low back pain, with or without mental health comorbidity, within Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care facilities. (7) Recently, the US House endorsed expansion of chiropractic services in the VA. Availability is to grow to at least two medical centers/clinics in each Veterans Integrated Service Network by December 31, 2019, and be at 50% of them by December 31, 2021. (1) Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic values the confidence in chiropractic care this action demonstrates.
CONTACT Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic
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 Augusta chiropractic appointment for yourself or a loved one – military veteran or not. Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic is well prepared to help ease the musculoskeletal spine pain and back pain conditions of all sorts experienced by military personnel and military veterans with chiropractic care.
