Military Personnel Find Relief from More Chiropractic Care Available in the VA
The spines of our veterans need beneficial care. Veterans need access to chiropractic care - just like their fellow Georgetown chiropractic spine pain patients - and now have it. Dr. Butwell is the Georgetown back pain specialty center for spine pain, back pain, neck pain, arm pain and leg pain relief for Georgetown veterans and Georgetown back pain patients. Dr. Butwell offers relieving Georgetown chiropractic care to any Georgetown back pain patients wanting 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 foremost problems for veterans returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. (1) To what is it credited? Most of us would think it is due to carrying weighty backpacks and weapons. (2) One study points out that back pain is found more in military construction and law enforcement personnel. (3) Causes of back pain for non-military folks like Georgetown 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 down the right leg to the knee. Chiropractic care provided him a 25% decrease in low back pain severity and a 22% decrease in perceived disability. The program of conservative, chiropractic management included 10 treatments of lumbar flexion/distraction and activity modification in 8 weeks. Despite the fact that he had had this pain a long time, he gained relief. (4) After 20 years, such decreases in pain and disability would clearly be cheered by Georgetown 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 deliver chiropractic care via private sector chiropractors. (5) From 2004 (the year the law was passed that chiropractic was to be available the VA system) to 2015, annual chiropractic VA patients grew 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 does not have a chiropractor(s) on staff, veterans (if they ask) are allowed to obtain a referral to a local chiropractor like yours at Dr. Butwell for care. Many don’t know about this perk or that they can be helped with chiropractic care. Chiropractic as a profession and your Georgetown chiropractic continue to educate the public about how it can relieve 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 Georgetown pain patients.
ACCESS TO CHIROPRACTIC EXPANDS IN THE U.S.
Chiropractic researchers attempt 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) Recently, the US House sanctioned expansion of chiropractic services in the VA. Availability is to increase 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) Dr. Butwell values the confidence in chiropractic care this action shows.
CONTACT Dr. Butwell
Listen to this PODCAST from The Back Doctors’ Podcast about a military veteran with multiple spinal issues whose local chiropractor helped him experience relief.
Schedule a Georgetown chiropractic appointment for yourself or a loved one – military veteran or not. Dr. Butwell is well prepared to help alleviate the musculoskeletal spine pain and back pain conditions of all sorts felt by military personnel and military veterans with chiropractic care.
