We advocate for expanding the role of chiropractic care in public health initiatives. Chiropractic benefits the “whole-being” due to its focus on patient education, lifestyle changes and neuromusculoskeletal health—including spinal alignment. All of these factors can improve many physical and mental health conditions.
The effectiveness of chiropractic in preventive care and chronic pain management supports the public health’s goal to reduce the chronic disease burden.
By striving for changes that will place chiropractors in full and equal collaboration with other healthcare providers, doctors of chiropractic (DCs) are better positioned for patients as advisors and guides who walk the journey alongside them.
As things stand, we continue to see patients getting needlessly sicker because they and their primary care physicians operate under the assumption that surgeons and cardiologists are the first ones to call. However, research has shown, and the CDC has recommended chiropractic as a first-line approach. More public awareness and education campaigns promoting chiropractic as a primary care option as an appropriate step are needed.
It’s human nature to want to ignore the red light on our dashboard and hope that the engine doesn’t malfunction. People often do the same thing when pain alerts them of a health concern.
Waiting until pain is intolerable and then heading to the emergency room is not a safe cost-effective choice . Seeking appropriate and timely preventive treatment is effective in “compressing morbidity,” which means we limit the time we spend in worsening health.
Chiropractic Treatment of Anxiety, Depression, and Chronic Pain
Chronic pain is a leading cause of disability worldwide, and standard treatments have often been heavy-handed in the use of prescription medications, including opioids, which carry risks of addiction.
Chiropractic offers a drug-free alternative for pain management, can alleviate physical discomfort associated with withdrawal symptoms and is part of some federally funded opioid alternative programs. However, it remains an underused weapon in defense of public health.
Chiropractic already improves life for many people with chronic pain, anxiety and depression. Recent research discussed in JAMA Network Open revealed that depression and anxiety were comorbid in approximately 40% of chronic pain patients who were tracked in a massive study.
Imagine the improvements that might be made in patients’ lives around the world if chiropractic care, which has the highest satisfaction rate and is conducive to a consistent approach, featured more prominently in public health. Picture a seesaw where overall public health soars and chronic illness and healthcare costs plummet.
In addition to collaborative care, it’s time to further integrate the roles chiropractic plays in the following:
- Employee benefits and workplace health
- Government policy and public health programs
- Legislative and policy level discussions
Whole-Being and Integrated Care
The Global Health and Purpose Summit convened in New York in May 2025. Among its goals was collaborating with nongovernmental organizations and business leaders to transform healthcare, climate, and environmental sustainability.
Healthcare has missed many opportunities to pivot from crisis intervention care toward integrated, “whole-being” care focused on prevention and with chiropractic as a central component.
It’s essential that public perceptions shift to consider chiropractic care a priority. Reducing the need for surgery, hospitalization and medication is a cost-effective solution. Seeking chiropractic care before pain becomes unbearable minimizes lost work and increases people’s healthspans, keeping them well longer.
In these ways, they avoid the higher costs associated with health conditions that chiropractors could have managed but became chronic instead.
In 2018, the Nordic Maintenance Care Study showed that over a one-year period, patients receiving chiropractic “maintenance care” (regularly scheduled treatments) reported fewer days with lower back pain compared to those who were treated only when pain bothered them. The study supports the case that chiropractic care can be a cost-effective investment.
It is our mission to continue to work towards a system that is better educated on the benefits of chiropractic care both to improve personal healthspan and savings in healthcare costs.
