Spinal Health Week 2017
TLC CEO, chiropractor and researcher Dr. Angela Todd has spent the past 6 years studying and publishing papers on Chiropractic care as it relates to children. As part of Spinal Health Week 2017 (22-28 May), she is raising the awareness of the effect of spinal dysfunction in children and adolescents and how this may be associated with longer term, or chronic pain in adulthood.
Dr Todd has drawn conclusions from her work over the past several years, based on various studies, but a 2013 study published in the journal of BMC Paediatrics, discussed how low back pain was common in children and adolescents and the authors of the paper reported that it was becoming a public health concern (1).
More recently in early 2017 a 3-year Danish study of more than 1000 children aged between 8-15 years of age concluded that whilst most of the children had only one episode of back pain lasting for up to a week, at least one quarter of the whole group had pain lasting for more than 4-5 weeks, and up to four episodes a year (2).
The authors of this paper also discuss the potential health problems in relation to the use of pain killer medication in children with long term pain (3), and how other authors have also found an association between low back pain in adolescence and low back pain into adulthood (4).
Chiropractors are suitably placed to check the function of your child’s spine and as they grow and develop throughout life. Chiropractors undertake a 5-year university qualification and are registered health professionals who use a variety of age appropriate manual therapy treatments, give advice on exercise, nutrition and lifestyle changes, and where needed will refer you to other healthcare providers to assist with your care.
Spinal Health Week serves as a reminder to us all, that it is not just our teeth we need to look after throughout our life, but our spine is equally as important.
TLC Chiropractors are making themselves available to perform spinal screen examinations for your family, so call your local TLC chiropractor to book an appointment during Spinal Health Week 22-28th of May.
1. Prevalence of low back pain in children and adolescents: a meta-analysis. Inmaculada Calvo-Muñoz, Antonia Gómez-Conesa, and Julio Sánchez-Meca BMC Pediatrics 2013, 13:14
2. Spinal pain in Danish school children –how often and how long? The CHAMPS Study-DK Kristina Boe Dissing, Lise Hestbæk, Jan Hartvigsen, Christopher Williams, Steven Kamper5, Eleanor Boyle, and Niels Wedderkopp. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders (2017) 18:67
3. Gobina I, Villberg J, Villerusa A, Valimaa R, Tynjala J, Ottova-Jordan V, Ravens- Sieberer U, Levin K, Cavallo F, Borraccino A, et al. Self- reported recurrent pain and medicine use behaviours among 15-year olds: results from the international study. Eur J Pain. 2015;19(1):77– 84.
4. Hestbaek L, Leboeuf-Yde C, Kyvik KO, Manniche C. The course of low back pain from adolescence to adulthood: 8-year follow-up of 9600 twins. Spine. 2006;31(4):468–72.
