Chiropractic & Older Adults

We highlight how Chiropractic Care can benefit older adults who tend to favour more traditional medical practice. We take a closer look at a couple of recent studies that indicate Chiropractic care can have a protective role in preserving functional ability.

A transcript of the video follows.

Chiropractic & Older Adults Studies

Chiropractic care can be great for older adults. Research is showing us that it can really make a difference to your health function and quality of life as you age. With age comes wisdom, but age can also come with problems. Older adults may face memory loss, frailty, falls, arthritis, visceral and metabolic disorders, depression and anxiety, hearing and vision impairments, functional decline, and a host of other problems.

But it doesn’t have to be an inevitable downhill health spiral. There is such a thing as healthy aging. Your choices and actions can postpone or even reduce some of the undesirable effects of aging. The goal of healthy aging is to maintain physical and mental health, avoid diseases and disorders, and maintain active and independent. Healthy aging does require some effort on your part.

But the results can be very rewarding and give you more control over your aging experience. Chiropractic care is an essential cornerstone of healthy aging. This is because chiropractors are in a unique position to help you maintain and even improve your overall function, health and quality of life.

Let’s take a closer look at a couple of recent studies that indicate chiropractic care can have a protective role in preserving functional ability and self-rated health conducted at the University of Iowa and published in 2014.

These two studies looked at older adults and their ability to carry out activities of daily living, such as eating, bathing, dressing, grooming, using the phone, handling finances, housekeeping, cooking, shopping, using transportation, walking across the room and taking medication. As we age, it can become more difficult to carry out these sorts of tasks due to a decline in physical and cognitive function.

Thousands of older adults with back conditions were followed up over several years.

Those who had received chiropractic care were compared with those who were seeing medical doctors for their healthcare needs. To see if these two groups were different, the researchers compared their general health status and their ability to carry out these activities of daily living.

The researchers found that people who had received chiropractic care, maintained their ability to carry out these activities and had a higher self-rated health status compared to people who received medical care. The older adults who saw chiropractors maintained their ability to live independently, look after themselves, and preserve their health.

Those who did not see chiropractors saw a notable decline in these areas.

These studies suggest that older adults who receive chiropractic care are in a better position to maintain their ability to live independently and look after themselves, and they also feel healthier. So it’s very likely that chiropractic care really can add life to our years.

Choose chiropractic care for yourself and your family and reap the benefits of healthy living and healthy aging.

References

1. Weigel PA, Hockenberry J, Bentler SE, et al. The comparative effect of episodes of chiropractic and medical treatment on the health of older adults. J Manipulative Physiol Ther 2014;37(3):143-54.
2. Weigel PA, Hockenberry JM, Wolinsky FD. Chiropractic use in the Medicare population: prevalence, patterns, and associations with 1-year changes in health and satisfaction with care. J Manipulative Physiol Ther 2014;37(8):542-51.
3. Holt, K. R., Haavik, H., Lee, A. C. L., Murphy, B., & Elley, C. R. (2016). Effectiveness of chiropractic care to improve sensorimotor function associated with falls risk in older people: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of manipulative and physiological therapeutics, 39(4), 267-278.

© Haavik Research

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