Teenagers: They're in more pain than you think
Although the analogy of "aches and pains" is often used to describe growing older, some researchers from Australia wondered how prevalent these issues are in adolescents. Shockingly, what they found is that our children may be in more pain than we realize.
For the purposes of this study, researchers reviewed a health survey of 404,000 school-aged children between nine and 17 years old. Boys and girls were asked about their experience with headaches, stomach aches, and/or back pain at regular intervals during the course of the previous six months.
The Pain-Filled Results
The results showed that more than half of these youngsters experienced regular headaches (54.1%) with a slightly smaller amount (49.8%) reporting that they had stomach pain. Back pain came in last, but the rate of kids suffering with this type of issue was still high, with 37% of them reporting some sort of pain or discomfort.
What is worse is that a lot of the children had more than one type of pain that they were contending with. For example, 31% had both headaches and stomach aches, 12.1% were dealing with headaches and backaches, and a whopping 35.7% reported experiencing all three types of pain!
The Pain-Free Solution
Chiropractic care can help children and adolescents live a pain-free life by correcting any spinal issues that may be causing them the discomfort that they are obviously feeling at alarmingly high rates. And, the best part is that it doesn't involve the use of potentially harmful drugs, so it is a completely natural solution without negative side effects.
Making our children pain-free should be our ultimate goal, now that we realize that it is a greater issue than we once thought.
Reference
Swain M, et al. An international survey of pain in adolescents. BioMed Public Health 14:447. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-14-447.
