Governor Proclaims North Carolina Chiropractic Health Month 2023

WHEREAS, doctors of chiropractic (DC), or chiropractors, are physician-level providers who focus on the whole person in their conservative approach to health care, and have particular expertise in the prevention, care, and rehabilitation of neuromusculoskeletal injuries and conditions; and

WHEREAS, chiropractors are educated in nationally accredited, four-year doctoral graduate school programs through a curriculum that includes a minimum of 4,200 hours of classroom, laboratory, and clinical internship, with the average DC program equivalent in classroom hours to allopathic and osteopathic medical schools; and

WHEREAS, chiropractors are recognized worldwide for their pain-relieving, health-enhancing, and injury-prevention services; and

WHEREAS, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as many as one in four patients who receive prescription opioids long-term for non-cancer pain struggle with addiction, and from 1999-2020 more than 260,000 people in the United States died from overdoses involving prescription opioids; and

WHEREAS, with an increase in chronic pain, there has been a simultaneous rise in opioid use, which has been associated with adverse outcomes, including addiction, overdose, and insufficient pain relief; and

WHEREAS, Chiropractic Health Month serves as a reminder to North Carolinians that non-drug treatments for low-back pain provided by chiropractors, such as spinal manipulation, can help to lessen or eliminate the need for riskier, potentially addictive treatments;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, ROY COOPER, Governor of the State of North Carolina, do hereby proclaim October, 2023, as “NORTH CAROLINA CHIROPRACTIC HEALTH MONTH” in North Carolina, and commend its observance to all citizens.