New Survey Shines Light on Chiropractic

A magazine not normally shown to be favorable to chiropractic, Consumer Reports, (CR), conducted a survey of its readers to determine their views on what they called "Alternative Medicine." Although the term does not really fit chiropractic, since we are not a medicine, CR did include chiropractic into that category. The results of the survey were favorable toward alternatives in general and chiropractic in particular. Here are some of the results.

• Over 60 % of CR readers who used an "alternative" did tell their MD about it. Years ago this number would have not been even close to that.
• Over 35% of those in the survey had used an alternative. Most of these went because they did not get help from other means with their health problem.
• Over 25% of those in the survey who used alternatives used chiropractic.
• Respondents who used chiropractic with back problems rated chiropractic more effective than medications or physical therapy.
• When the respondents told their MDs about going for "alternative" care only 5% got a negative response, while 40% got a neutral response and an amazing 55% expressed approval.
• Of those surveyed 9% said they used alternative care before trying medical care.

In addition to the Consumer Reports survey they mentioned that several national telephone surveys showed that over half of all North Americans ages 35 to 49 have tried "alternatives". In a recent survey in Minnesota, 48% said they had tried what that survey called "complementary therapy", (again a poor choice of terms to include chiropractic). Of that number a full 70% said they used chiropractic.

Considering the growing number of people who go to chiropractors, and considering the high level of patient satisfaction, maybe it is time to reconsider what type of care is actually alternative? Chiropractic, by every measure, is now in the main-stream.