Military Personnel Find Relief from More Chiropractic Care Available in the VA
The spines of our veterans need suitable care. Veterans need access to chiropractic care - just like their fellow La Grande chiropractic spine pain patients - and now can get it. Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC is the La Grande back pain specialty center for spine pain, back pain, neck pain, arm pain and leg pain relief for La Grande veterans and La Grande back pain patients. Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC offers relieving La Grande chiropractic care to any La Grande back pain patients wanting back pain relief!
WHAT HAPPENS TO THEIR SPINES?
According to Veterans’ Administration (VA) data, “diseases of the musculoskeletal system/connective system” like back pain are the leading problems for veterans returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. (1) To what is it credited? Most of us would think it’s due to carrying weighty backpacks and weapons. (2) One study reports that back pain is reported more by military construction and law enforcement personnel. (3) Causes of back pain for non-military folks like La Grande 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 incurred while on active military duty felt intermittent radiation of numbness and tingling down the right leg to the knee. Chiropractic care delivered him a 25% reduction in low back pain severity and a 22% lessening in his disability. The program of conservative, chiropractic management incorporated 10 treatments of lumbar flexion/distraction and activity modification in 8 weeks. Even though he had had this pain a long time, he gained relief. (4) After 20 years, such drops in pain and disability would surely be welcomed by La Grande back pain sufferers, too.
BENEFICIAL CHIROPRACTIC CARE FOR VETERANS’ SPINES INSTEAD OF OPIOIDS
1999 was the year of the US law authorizing the VA to provide 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 provide little to none. (2) If a VA facility does not have a chiropractor(s) on staff, veterans (if they ask) are allowed to get a referral to a local chiropractor like yours at Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC for care. Many don’t know about this benefit or that they can be helped with chiropractic care. Chiropractic as a profession and your La Grande chiropractic persist in trying to get the word out to 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 having issues with prescription opioid pain drugs. (6) The opioid epidemic is everywhere; chiropractic care may assist in reducing its effects for military veterans as it does for general population La Grande 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 direct the care of 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 approved expansion of chiropractic services in the VA. Availability is to rise 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. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC is grateful for the confidence in chiropractic care this action demonstrates.
CONTACT Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC
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 La Grande chiropractic appointment for yourself or a loved one – military veteran or not. Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC is well prepared to help alleviate the musculoskeletal spine pain and back pain conditions of all sorts faced by military personnel and military veterans with chiropractic care.
