NSAID medications such as Ibuprofen; how safe is this medication when compared to the chiropractic visit

Many people have never visited a chiropractor because of fears of safety, yet, they have little trouble taking Ibuprofen either because they took it without instruction or their doctor may have recommended it.

Ibuprofen has a proven record of safety, but what does that mean, since drug companies are experts at marketing and image creation? Compare this with the Chiropractic profession whose standing with the public has improved markedly, especially with athletes across the globe (Chiropractic is the profession of choice with athletes, both professional and non).

Here is an article written by Anthony Rosner PhD, LLD [Hon.], LLC, who has studied this comparison and has written a realistic and unbiased review comparing chiropractic safety vs. NSAIDs (Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory). For years, the medical profession had successfully labeled competitors as quacks and acted as the judge and jury on the effectiveness of other health professions, which worked on most professions (which is why Naturopaths, Napropaths, and others are barely existent in the USA). The truth is, the chiropractic profession, helped by their loyal patients beat the odds, but the reputational stigma has stuck with some people. Dr. Rosner puts this comparison into perspective.

Most people are unaware that chiropractors enjoy malpractice premiums that are among the lowest in the industry based on safety and have also been shown to have the highest levels of satisfaction as per Consumer Reports. This is a great argument for visiting a chiropractor first for any musculoskeletal problems since by their nature, will look for non-surgical solutions that are drug-free first, which in most cases, resolves painful problems more quickly and within a lower cost level than all other healthcare professions.

Check out Dr. Rosner’s article here

NSAID: ‘Nuff Said on the Issue of Toxicity

By Anthony Rosner, PhD, LLD [Hon.], LLC

What am I missing? How nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have essentially obtained a free pass, largely escaping the wrath that has come down upon chiropractors for performing cervical adjustments, is beyond what one customarily calls “rational.” Against the approximately one death in 3 million manipulations associated in a literature review by the RAND Corporation,¹ we have the oft-cited 16,500 annual mortality rate attributed to NSAID use as reported by Wolfe in nothing less than The New England Journal of Medicine.² That is slightly larger than the number of individuals fatally dispatched by infamous Boston mobster Whitey Bulger.

I would bet the ranch that if the number of deaths associated with spinal manipulation came within an order of magnitude of the NSAID death rate, we would have heard about spinal manipulation death rates in headlines even larger than those attributed to Mr. Bulger. Clearly, we have not.

But the story goes far deeper. Dabbs and Lauretti, in 1995, assessed comparative risk-of-death rates from neck manipulation and the use of NSAIDs from the literature, concluding that the latter was 160 times greater than the former.³ And this particular estimate was based upon the most catastrophic estimate of death rates attributable to cervical manipulation from Dvorak,⁴ which put the figure at one death per 400,000 manipulations – or 7.5 times higher than the RAND estimate. Using the RAND figure for cervical manipulations would thus mean that the risk of dying from NSAIDs is actually 1,200 times greater.

At about the same time, other reports appeared which detailed the toxicity of NSAIDs in at least three areas: gastrointestinal: GI bleeding, ulceration, and perforation;⁵ renal: reduced glomerular filtration rate, possibly leading to glomerulonephritis, interstitial nephritis, papillary necrosis, or acute tubular nephrosis;^5-7 and hepatic: hepatitis and other damage.^5,7