Chronic Pain Syndrome and Todays Chiropractic

When Drugs Fail: The Science of Why Chiropractic Wins Against Chronic Pain

A landmark study compared medication, acupuncture, and chiropractic for long-term spinal pain. The results shocked the medical world—and they might just save your life.

By Dr. Graham Jenkins

Introduction: The Neurology of Hope

Two years ago, I was sitting in a seminar hall in Toronto, listening to a man named Dr. Dan Murphy.

If you don’t know Dr. Murphy, he is a legend in our field. He is brilliant. His specialty is neurology—the study of the brain and nervous system. When he speaks, you listen, because he doesn’t just give opinions; he brings the receipts. He brings the research.

During his talk, he projected a slide that made the entire room go quiet.

It was a summary of a randomized clinical trial on chronic spinal pain. This wasn’t a small, insignificant study. It was a head-to-head comparison of the three most common ways people try to handle back pain:

1. Medical Care: Pills and prescriptions.

2. Acupuncture: Needles and energy work.

3. Chiropractic: Spinal adjustments.

The results were not just interesting—they were life-changing. They explained exactly why so many of you are suffering right now, and more importantly, they showed the way out.

If you have been to doctors, therapists, and specialists and you are still in pain, this blog post is for you. I am going to share the story of a patient named “Alyssia” (name changed for privacy), whose life mirrors this research perfectly.

And I am going to show you why, when it comes to chronic pain, the “medical route” is often a dead end, and why structure is the key to your freedom.

The Study That Changed Everything

Let’s look at the science first.

The study Dr. Murphy presented was published in the prestigious medical journal Spine. It was conducted by researchers Giles and Muller. [1]

They took patients who had been suffering from chronic spinal pain and divided them into three groups.

• Group 1: Took medication (specifically Celebrex or Vioxx—more on that later).

• Group 2: Received needle acupuncture.

• Group 3: Received chiropractic spinal manipulation (adjustments).

Here is the kicker: The chiropractic group actually started with the worst odds. On average, the patients in the chiropractic group had been suffering from chronic pain for 8.3 years. The medication and acupuncture groups had been suffering for much less time (around 4.5 to 6.4 years).

You would expect the group that had been sick the longest to have the worst results, right?

Wrong.

The results showed that the highest recovery rate was in the chiropractic group.

• Chiropractic: 27.3% of patients became completely asymptomatic (pain-free).

• Acupuncture: Only 9.4% became pain-free.

• Medication: A dismal 5% became pain-free.

Think about that. The drug that your doctor prescribes as the “standard of care” only worked for 1 in 20 people. Meanwhile, chiropractic was over 5 times more effective, even for people who had been in pain for nearly a decade.

The “Alyssia” Story: From Defeated to Thriving

This research isn’t just numbers on a page. It is real life.

This was exactly the situation with Alyssia. Alyssia came into the 100+ Living Health Centre about six months ago. When she walked through our doors, she didn’t look like someone looking for health; she looked like someone looking for a life raft.

She was completely defeated.

She had been to the medical doctors. She had been to the physios. She had tried the counselors. And yet, she was still suffering.

Reading over her history was disturbing. It was a tragic mix of abuse, trauma, failed relationships, depression, and physical pain.

We often separate “mental health” from “physical health,” but in our Mind (Mindset & Purpose) tenet, we know they are the same thing. Depression is incredibly common with chronic pain syndromes. Why? Because pain is exhausting. It steals your energy. And if you suffer for long enough—like the 8 years in the study—your hope disappears.

By the time Alyssia got to me, her hope was all but gone.

She told me, “Dr. Jenkins, I don’t think this is going to work. Nothing else has.”

But somehow, she mustered up the courage to try “one more doctor.” And since that day, she hasn’t looked back.

The Transformation

We didn’t give Alyssia a pill. We didn’t try to numb her pain. We looked at her structure.

We used Chiropractic BioPhysics (CBP) to analyze her spine. We found that her nervous system was under massive tension because her posture had collapsed. We started a plan of corrective adjustments and specific exercises.

Fast forward three months.

Here is a quote from a progress exam questionnaire Alyssia filled out for us recently:

“I have noticed phenomenal improvement in body alignment during my exercises at the gym as well as overall reduced pain. Others that I work out with have also commented on how great my posture has improved. I initially saw Dr. J with complaints of neck, shoulder, and back pain. Three months later it has resolved. My mood and clarity has also improved drastically, leaving me feeling happier and healthier after every adjustment.”

Did you catch that?

“My mood and clarity improved drastically.”

This is the power of the Body-Mind Connection. When we took the pressure off her spine, her brain finally got the chance to relax. The pain signals stopped, and the “happy” signals could finally get through.

Why Medication Fails (and Can Be Dangerous)

Why did the medication group in the study do so poorly?

It comes down to the difference between Symptom Relief and Correction.

Medication is like putting a piece of black tape over the “Check Engine” light in your car. It hides the light, but it doesn’t fix the engine. The problem is still there, getting worse in the dark.

Furthermore, the drugs used in the study (Celebrex and Vioxx) are heavy hitters. In fact, Vioxx was eventually pulled from the market because it was causing heart attacks and strokes.

Let’s look at another table from Dr. Murphy’s summary of the research: [1]

Treatment Group	Medication (Celebrex/Vioxx)	Acupuncture	Chiropractic Adjustments
Years of Chronic Pain	4.5 or 6.4 years	4.5 or 6.4 years	8.3 years (Longest Suffering)
Percent Pain-Free (9 weeks)	5%	9.4%	27.3% (Winner)
Adverse Events (Side Effects)	6.1%	0%	0% (Safest)
Improvement in General Health	18%	15%	47% (Best Overall Health)

Key Takeaways:

1. Chiropractic worked best, even though they had the hardest cases.

2. Chiropractic was safest. 6% of the drug group had bad side effects. 0% of the chiropractic group did.

3. Chiropractic improved “General Health.” This is huge. 47% of the chiropractic patients said their overall health (energy, sleep, mood) got better. Only 18% of the drug group said the same.

The 100+ Living Difference: Structure Dictates Function

Why did the chiropractic group see improvements in their general health, not just their back pain?

Because of our Body Tenet: “Function dictates lifespan.”

Your spine is not just a coat rack for your body. It is the armor for your central nervous system. When your spine is misaligned, it puts stress on the spinal cord. This is called dysautonomia—a fancy word meaning your automatic nervous system is glitching.

When we adjust the spine, we aren’t just moving bones. We are changing the input to the brain. We are switching your body from “Fight or Flight” (Sympathetic) to “Rest and Digest” (Parasympathetic).

This is why Alyssia’s depression lifted. This is why her clarity returned. We didn’t treat the depression; we removed the interference that was causing it.

Don’t Wait 8.3 Years

The saddest stat in that study is the “8.3 years.”

That represents nearly a decade of lost life. A decade of missed family events, poor sleep, and depression.

At 100+ Living, our Prevent tenet is all about catching these problems before they steal a decade of your life.

If you are currently managing your pain with pills, you are likely in that “5% success” bracket. The odds are not in your favor. And while you wait for the pills to work, your spine is degenerating.

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Stop Suffering in Silence

Does Alyssia’s story sound familiar? Are you tired of being told that your pain is “normal” or that you just need to take more medication?

There is a better way. Authentic healing is possible, but you have to fix the root cause.