Jeff Williams - evidence-based chiropractor

Acupuncture For IBS & How Chronic Pain Develops

June 15, 2023 chiropracticforward 00:24:27 0 Comments

CF 284: Acupuncture For IBS & How Chronic Pain Develops

Today we’re going to talk about Acupuncture For IBS & How Chronic Pain Develops

But first, here‘s that sweet sweet bumper music

Purchase Dr. Williams’s book, a perfect educational tool and chiropractic research reference for the daily practitioner, from the Amazon store TODAY!

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We’re the fun kind of research. Not the stuffy, high-brow, look down your nose at people kind of research. We’re research talk over a couple of beers.

I’m Dr. Jeff Williams and I’m your host for the Chiropractic Forward podcast. I’m so glad you’re spending your time with us learning together.

Chiropractors – I’m hiring at my personal clinic. I need talent, ambition, drive, smart, and easy to get along with associates. If this is you and Amarillo, TX is your speed, send me an email at creekstonecare@gmail.com

If you haven’t yet I have a few things you should do.

Go to Amazon and check our my book called The Remarkable Truth About Chiropractic: A Unique Journey Into The Research. It’s excellent educational resource for you AND your patients. It saves you time putting talks together or just staying current on research. It’s categorized into sections so the information is easy to find and written in a way that is easy to understand for everyone. It’s on Amazon. That’s the Remarkable Truth About Chiropractic by Jeff Williams.
Then go Like our Chiropractic Forward Facebook page,
Join our private Chiropractic Forward Facebook group, and then
Review our podcast on whatever platform you’re listening to
Last thing real quick, we also have an evidence-based brochure and poster store at com

You have found yourself smack dab in the middle of Episode #283.

Now if you missed last week’s episode, we talked about The Rate of Chronic Pain in the US & Adolescents And Cannabis Use. Make sure you don’t miss that info. Keep up with the class.

On the personal end of things…..

Welcome to this week, happy to have you and happy to be here. Numbers in the clinic are still coming back up a bit and I’m digging it.

Let’s talk about the difference in the providers in the medical world vs. our world for a sec. We are integrated here in my clinic. It’s me, a nurse practitioner, an acupuncturist, and 2-3 massage therapists depending on what day you’re asking.

Here’s what I have discovered. Those in the medical world are not entrepreneurial by general rule. They are used to going into a clinic and patients are there waiting on them. They treat and then they go home. So nurse pracs, PAs, and PTs are not out beating the streets.

So if you think you’re going to hire one of these providers and they’re going to be out and about helping your clinic grow, as a general rule, that is not going to happen. They’re show up and they’re going to learn fast and do a wonderful job. But they’re not going to build your practice by actively marketing. So don’t expect it.

I’ve seen acupuncturists build their clientele but not mine. Until the VA came on board, that was a barren wasteland for us and I couldn’t tell that there was any effort on that end of things.

Massage therapists…..if it’s theirs, they’ll build it. Some will push it a bit in their circles but it’s rare for them to be out beating the streets.

But chiropractors…..look guys and gals…..we are one of a freaking kind my friends. We, for the most part, are owners and marketers and builders and entrepreneurs. Not to mention driven and ambitious.

Some are too ambitious to be honest with you. Some want to make money and grow so badly to the detriment of their patients. So keep an eye on that. Don’t sell multilevel marketing to your patients. Don’t look like a street corner huckster. That’s not a good look folks.

So kudos on your entrepreneur game. Keep crushing it in an evidence-informed, patient centered way.

Crack Addicts: have you seen the new TV series on TLC yet? I believe it comes on on Wednesday nights. It’s Dr. Alessandra Colon somewhere in Florida. For me, there are some cringy things like in one episode she said, “The power is on!” after an adjustment. Well, that’s the vitalist saying and I’m just not a fan but that’s my baggage. The rest of the world probably knows nothing about that stuff.

She talks about alignment here and there and we evidence-informed chiros know that alignment isn’t really a thing but, for the most part, I’ll say that she’s doing a good job.

If her job is to walk the line between vitalists and the evidence-informed camps, then she’s doing a pretty good job. I think that the overall score is a net gain for chiropractic in general and we haven’t had a positive light shined on us like this in a long time. If ever. There is so much opportunity with this show for the profession. I hope she knows that and I hope continues to keep it between the lines. So far, I think I’m a fan.

Dr. Kevin Christie and the Mastermind. You’ve been hearing me talk about our Florida Mastermind for a couple of years now. Well, Dr. Kevin Christie has started a West Coast Mastermind. Their meetings will be in San Diego, Denver, Arizona, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Great locations and great learning, bonding, and networking. I cannot tell you how valuable the group has been for me and our Florida group.

I suggest you visit the link I’m putting in my show notes right here at this point in the text. Visit that link and get signed up. He only allows approximately 25 providers into each group so don’t sit around on your butt. Get it going.

https://www.modernchiropracticmarketing.com/mastermind-2024-west?mc_cid=03245907d3&mc_eid=8424d1275e

Alright, that’s it, let’s get into the research.

Item #1

The first one today is called “Acupuncture for the Treatment of Diarrhea-Predominant Irritable Bowel Syndrome” by Ling-Yu Qi, MM; Jing-Wen Yang, PhD; Shi-Yan Yan, PhD and published in JAMA Network Open on December 29, 2022. Dayum. That’s hot.

Why They Did It

To preliminarily test the feasibility of using US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)–recommended end points to evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture in the treatment of IBS.

How They Did It

This pilot, multicenter randomized clinical trial was conducted in 4 tertiary hospitals in China from July 1, 2020, to March 31, 2021, and 14-week data collection was completed in March 2021.
Individuals with a diagnosis of IBS with diarrhea (IBS-D) were randomized to 1 of 3 groups, including 2 acupuncture groups

What They Found

Ninety patients were enrolled, with 30 patients in each group.
There were substantial improvements in the primary outcomes for all groups although the difference between them was not statistically significant

The response rates of adequate relief at week 4 were 64.3% in the specific acupoints group, 62.1% in the nonspecific acupoints group, and 55.2% in the nonspecific acupoints group

Adverse events were reported in 2 patients (6.7%) in the specific acupoints group and 3 patients (10%) in nonspecific acupoints or nonspecific acupoints group.

Wrap It Up

In this pilot randomized clinical trial, acupuncture in both the specific acupoints and nonspecific acupoints groups showed clinically meaningful improvement in IBS with diarrhea symptoms, although there were no significant differences among the 3 groups. These findings suggest that acupuncture is feasible and safe; a larger, sufficiently powered trial is needed to accurately assess efficacy.

Before getting to the next one,

Next thing, go to https://www.tecnobody.com/en/products That’s Tecnobody as in T-E-C-nobody. They literally have the most impressive clinical equipment I’ve ever seen. I own the ISO Free and am looking to add more to my office this year or next. The equipment you’re going to find over there can be marketed in your community like crazy because you’ll be the only one with something that damn cool in your office.

When you decide you can‘t live without those products, send me an email and I‘ll give you the hookup. They will 100% differentiate your clinic from your competitors.

I have to tell you, Dr. Chris Howson, the inventor of the Drop Release tool re-activated the code! Use the code HOTSTUFF upon purchase at droprelease.com & get $50 off your purchase. Would you like to spend 5-10 minutes doing pin and stretch and all of that? Or would you rather use a drop release to get the same or similar results in just a handful of seconds. I love it, my patients love it, and I know yours will too. droprelease.com and the discount code is HOTSTUFF. Go do it.

Item #2

Our last one this week is called, “Mechanisms behind the Development of Chronic Low Back Pain and Its Neurodegenerative Features” by Abdullah Mosabbir published in Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms in Neurodegenerative Diseases on 28 December 2022. Hot potato!

Why They Did It

To understand and update the current state of knowledge of the pathophysiology of back pain in educating patients as well as guiding the development of novel therapeutics.

How They Did It

Many clinicians, caregivers and researchers aim to help educate patients about their pain and try to help them live a better quality of life despite their condition. This may include using strategies such as pain neuroscience education (PNE) and cognitive behavior therapy

What They Found

A systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrated that PNE can have a significant effect in reducing pain catastrophizing as well as kinesiophobia. This is highly beneficial in pain management, as reduced catastrophic thinking can help orient a person away from their pain and towards living their life, and reduced fear helps patients to be more open to active interventions like physical therapy and exercise.

Wrap It Up

cLBP is complex and there is no guarantee that treating its potential causes will cause the pain to go away. Therefore, rather than attempting to “cure” chronic pain, many clinicians, caretakers and researchers aim to help educate patients about their pain and try to help patients live a better quality of life, despite their condition. Understanding and updating our current state of knowledge of the pathophysiology of cLBP is important in educating patients as well as guiding the development of novel therapeutics.

The current understanding of the source of cLBP stems from damage to the ligamentous structures of the body due to prolonged poor posture, sub-failure injury, or major trauma. These contribute to abnormal forces acting on the spine, which leads to the degeneration of intervertebral discs and joints that directly or indirectly stimulate a painful sensation.

If these sensations persist, acute pain transitions to a chronic state that sustains the pain independent of the source of the initial damage. Once this occurs, further degeneration occurs in the spinal cord and brain, leading to peripheral sensitization, central sensitization, apoptosis of neurons and the reduction of grey matter in the brain. This ultimately can lead to cognitive impairment among cLBP patients.

Let’s get to the message. Same as it is every week.

Store

Remember the evidence-informed brochures and posters at chiropracticforward.com.

Purchase Dr. Williams’s book, a perfect educational tool and chiropractic research reference for the daily practitioner, from the Amazon store TODAY!

The Message

I want you to know with absolute certainty that when Chiropractic is at its best, you can‘t beat the risk vs reward ratio because spinal pain is primarily a movement-related pain and typically responds better to movement-related treatment rather than chemical treatments like pills and shots.

When compared to the traditional medical model, research and clinical experience show us patients can get good to excellent results for headaches, neck pain, back pain, and joint pain to name just a few.

It’s safe and cost-effective can decrease surgeries & disability and we do it through conservative, non-surgical means with minimal hassle to the patient.

And, if the patient treats preventatively after initial recovery, we can usually keep it that way while raising the overall level of health!

Key Point:

At the end of the day, patients should have the guarantee of having the best treatment that offers the least harm. When it comes to non-complicated musculoskeletal complaints….

That‘s Chiropractic!

Contact

Send us an email at dr dot williams at chiropracticforward.com and let us know what you think of our show and tell us your suggestions for future episodes.

Feedback and constructive criticism is a blessing and so are subscribes and excellent reviews on podcast platforms.

We know how this works by now. If you value something, you have to share it, interact with it, review it, talk about it from time to time, and actively hit a few buttons to support it here and there when asked. It really does make a big difference.

Connect

We can‘t wait to connect with you again next week. From the Chiropractic Forward Podcast flight deck, this is Dr. Jeff Williams saying upward, onward, and forward.

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About the Author & Host

Dr. Jeff Williams – Fellow of the International Academy of Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine (FIANM) and Board Certified Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Professionals (DABFP) – Chiropractor in Amarillo, TX, Chiropractic Advocate, Author, Entrepreneur, Educator, Businessman, Marketer, and Healthcare Blogger & Vlogger

Postoperative Acupuncture & Activity And Depression

February 23, 2023 chiropracticforward 00:14:10 0 Comments

CF 268: Postoperative Acupuncture & Activity And Depression

Today we’re going to talk about Postoperative Acupuncture & Activity And Depression

But first, here’s that sweet sweet bumper music

Purchase Dr. Williams’s book, a perfect educational tool and chiropractic research reference for the daily practitioner, from the Amazon store TODAY!

We’re research talk over a couple of beers. I’m Dr. Jeff Williams and I’m your host for the Chiropractic Forward podcast. I’m so glad you’re spending your time with us learning together.

Go to Amazon and check our my book called The Remarkable Truth About Chiropractic: A Unique Journey Into The Research. It’s excellent educational resource for you AND your patients. It saves you time putting talks together or just staying current on research. It’s categorized into sections so the information is easy to find and written in a way that is easy to understand for everyone. It’s on Amazon. That’s the Remarkable Truth About Chiropractic by Jeff Williams.
Then go Like our Chiropractic Forward Facebook page,
Join our private Chiropractic Forward Facebook group, and then
Review our podcast on whatever platform you’re listening to
Last thing real quick, we also have an evidence-based brochure and poster store at com

You have found yourself smack dab in the middle of Episode #268 Now if you missed last week’s episode, we talked about Pain Reprocessing Therapy & Meditation-Based Therapy For Chronic Pain. Make sure you don’t miss that info. Keep up with the class.

On the personal end of things…..

Things are steadily picking back up here at Jeff Central. One of our new hires is having a Zoom meeting with our social media crew from the UK this week to get their heads together on TikTok stuff, YouTube ads, and all of that fun stuff. Some of the older guys will fondly remember the days when all you had to do was place an ad in the YellowPages, an ad in the town newspaper, and if you were really fancy, an ad on the radio. Then join Lion’s Club or the Rotary Club. From there…..you were pretty good to go. No other effort really required.

Not only that but reimbursements were better, co-pays cheaper, deductibles less, and premiums cheaper. It’s just dumb to be a healthcare provider these days when you think about it sometimes. You damn well better be in it for the right reasons. That’s for sure. If it’s all about the money, you’re in the wrong place, pal. Now, we have social media, podcasts, content marketing, website SEO, keywords, Google ranking, and all of the other BS that comes along with it. It’s a bunch of crap. But, it’s a bunch of necessary crap if you want to compete and build a business in 2023. Damnit.

Those that have better systems and better people helping them with it all are just naturally going to do better. I’ve tried doing it myself for years. I’m an early adopter. But, it’s gotten too difficult. I’m trying to gather a team of helpers because, honestly, my practice can be so much larger with the right team in place. We’re working on it. Stay tuned. And, in the meantime, if you know of an associate that wants to come to Amarillo and is certified in acupuncture, or can be, send them my email and tell them to get hold of Ol’ Uncle Jeffro at creekstonecare@gmail.com

Item #1 Speaking of acupuncture.

The first one today is called, “Wrist–Ankle Acupuncture as Additional Therapy for Postoperative Multimodal Analgesia in Orthopedic Surgery: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis” by Ning Xu and published in Pain Medicine on 28 April 2022. Dayum. That’s hot.

Why They Did It The present meta-analysis analyzed the efficacy and safety of wrist–ankle acupuncture (WAA) as an additional therapy for postoperative multimodal analgesia after orthopedic surgery.

How They Did It

Electronic databases, including Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, CNKI, SinoMed, Wanfang, and VIP, were searched to identify randomized controlled trials and cohort studies that reported details of WAA as an additional therapy for postoperative multiple analgesia in orthopedic surgery before October 1, 2021.

Analyzed outcomes included time points of the visual analog scale, use of patient-controlled intravenous analgesia (PCIA), and postoperative adverse events. Subgroup analysis was performed according to time points and complication type.

What They Found

Eleven randomized controlled trials and one cohort study were included in the meta-analysis. Among a total of 845 patients, there were 422 patients in the wrist–ankle acupuncture groups and 423 patients in the control groups.

The wrist–ankle acupuncture groups showed a better analgesic effect, lower use of patient-controlled intravenous analgesia, and lower occurrence of postoperative adverse events than did the control groups.

Wrap It Up Wrist–ankle acupuncture as an additional therapy for postoperative multimodal analgesia in orthopedic surgery showed advantages over control treatment in terms of pain relief, use of patient-controlled intravenous analgesia, and occurrence of postoperative adverse events.

Item #2 Our last one this week is called, “Association Between Physical Activity and Risk of Depression” by Matthew Pearce, PhD and published in JAMA Psychiatry on April 13, 2022. Hot potato!

Why They Did It To systematically review and meta-analyze the dose-response association between physical activity and incident depression from published prospective studies of adults.

How They Did It

They used information from PubMed, SCOPUS, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and the reference lists of systematic reviews retrieved by a systematic search up to December 11, 2020, with no language limits. The date of the search was November 12, 2020.

They included prospective cohort studies reporting physical activity at 3 or more exposure levels and risk estimates for depression with 3000 or more adults and 3 years or longer of follow-up.

Data extraction was completed independently by 2 extractors and cross-checked for errors. A 2-stage random-effects dose-response meta-analysis was used to synthesize data. Study-specific associations were estimated using generalized least-squares regression and the pooled association was estimated by combining the study-specific coefficients using restricted maximum likelihood.

What They Found

This systematic review and meta-analysis of 15 prospective studies including more than 2 million person-years showed an inverse curvilinear association between physical activity and incident depression, with greater differences in risk at lower exposure levels. Adults meeting physical activity recommendations (equivalent to 2.5 h/wk of brisk walking) had lower risk of depression, compared with adults reporting no physical activity.

Wrap It Up This systematic review and meta-analysis of associations between physical activity and depression suggests significant mental health benefits from being physically active, even at levels below the public health recommendations. Health practitioners should therefore encourage any increase in physical activity to improve mental health. Alright, that’s it. Keep on keepin’ on. Keep changing our profession from your corner of the world. The world needs evidence-based, patient-centered practitioners driving the bus. The profession needs us in the ACA and involved in leadership of state associations. So quit griping about the profession if you’re doing nothing to make it better. Get active, get involved, and make it happen. Let’s get to the message. Same as it is every week.

Store Remember the evidence-informed brochures and posters at chiropracticforward.com.

Purchase Dr. Williams’s book, a perfect educational tool and chiropractic research reference for the daily practitioner, from the Amazon store TODAY!

The Message I want you to know with absolute certainty that when Chiropractic is at its best, you can’t beat the risk vs reward ratio because spinal pain is primarily a movement-related pain and typically responds better to movement-related treatment rather than chemical treatments like pills and shots. When compared to the traditional medical model, research and clinical experience show us patients can get good to excellent results for headaches, neck pain, back pain, and joint pain to name just a few. It’s safe and cost-effective can decrease surgeries & disability and we do it through conservative, non-surgical means with minimal hassle to the patient. And, if the patient treats preventatively after initial recovery, we can usually keep it that way while raising the overall level of health!

Key Point: At the end of the day, patients should have the guarantee of having the best treatment that offers the least harm. When it comes to non-complicated musculoskeletal complaints…. That’s Chiropractic!

Contact Send us an email at dr dot williams at chiropracticforward.com and let us know what you think of our show and tell us your suggestions for future episodes. Feedback and constructive criticism is a blessing and so are subscribes and excellent reviews on podcast platforms. We know how this works by now. If you value something, you have to share it, interact with it, review it, talk about it from time to time, and actively hit a few buttons to support it here and there when asked. It really does make a big difference.

Connect We can’t wait to connect with you again next week. From the Chiropractic Forward Podcast flight deck, this is Dr. Jeff Williams saying upward, onward, and forward.

Website https://www.chiropracticforward.com

Social Media Links https://www.facebook.com/chiropracticforward/

Chiropractic Forward Podcast Facebook GROUP https://www.facebook.com/groups/1938461399501889/

Twitter https://twitter.com/Chiro_Forward

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtc-IrhlK19hWlhaOGld76Q

iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/chiropractic-forward-podcast-chiropractors-practicing/id1331554445?mt=2

Player FM Link https://player.fm/series/2291021

Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-chiropractic-forward-podcast-chiropractors-practicing-through

TuneIn https://tunein.com/podcasts/Health–Wellness-Podcasts/The-Chiropractic-Forward-Podcast-Chiropractors-Pr-p1089415/

About the Author & Host Dr. Jeff Williams – Fellow of the International Academy of Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine (FIANM) and Board Certified Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Professionals (DABFP) – Chiropractor in Amarillo, TX, Chiropractic Advocate, Author, Entrepreneur, Educator, Businessman, Marketer, and Healthcare Blogger & Vlogger

Bibliography

Ning Xu, M., Lu-lu Liu, BN, Wei Rong, MD (2022). “Wrist–Ankle Acupuncture as Additional Therapy for Postoperative Multimodal Analgesia in Orthopedic Surgery: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” Pain Medicine 23(10): 1654-1669.
Pearce M, G. L., Abbas A, (2022). “Association Between Physical Activity and Risk of Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.” JAMA Psychiatry.

Communicating Imaging Findings & Acupuncture For Acute Pain

October 20, 2022 chiropracticforward 00:18:21 0 Comments

CF 251: Communicating Imaging Findings & Acupuncture For Acute Pain Today we’re going to talk about Communicating Imaging Findings & Acupuncture For Acute Pain But first, here’s that sweet sweet bumper music

Purchase Dr. Williams’s book, a perfect educational tool and chiropractic research reference for the daily practitioner, from the Amazon store TODAY!

OK, we are back and you have found the Chiropractic Forward Podcast where we are making evidence-based chiropractic fun, profitable, and accessible while we make you and your patients better all the way around. We’re the fun kind of research. Not the stuffy, high-brow, look down your nose at people kind of research. We’re research talk over a couple of beers. I’m Dr. Jeff Williams and I’m your host for the Chiropractic Forward podcast. I’m so glad you’re spending your time with us learning together. Chiropractors – I’m hiring at my personal clinic. I need talent, ambition, drive, smart, and easy to get along with associates. If this is you and Amarillo, TX is your speed, send me an email at creekstonecare@gmail.com If you haven’t yet I have a few things you should do.

Go to Amazon and check our my book called The Remarkable Truth About Chiropractic: A Unique Journey Into The Research. It’s excellent educational resource for you AND your patients. It saves you time putting talks together or just staying current on research. It’s categorized into sections so the information is easy to find and written in a way that is easy to understand for everyone. It’s on Amazon. That’s the Remarkable Truth About Chiropractic by Jeff Williams.
Then go Like our Chiropractic Forward Facebook page,
Join our private Chiropractic Forward Facebook group, and then
Review our podcast on whatever platform you’re listening to
Last thing real quick, we also have an evidence-based brochure and poster store at chiropracticforward.com

You have found yourself smack dab in the middle of Episode #251 Now if you missed last week’s episode , we talked about Night Owls Diabetes And Heart Disease & Medical Marijuana And Pain. Make sure you don’t miss that info. Keep up with the class.

On the personal end of things…..

It’s been a tough one. My mother in law passed away last week. My wife’s parents live about an hour and 45 minutes to the North of Amarillo in our hometown of Perryton, TX. So, we’ve been back and forth and back and forth so many times I lost track. And there will be lots more back and forths to settle the estate and get Meg’s dad situated in a new town down around Longview TX. Lots of distractions coming up but I’ll do my best to keep this podcast on point, educational, and interesting. It’s like I’m trying to teach my kids right now. My daughter did not want to go to school today, which is a Monday. Her grandmother passed away Wednesday evening. She missed school Thursday and Friday. The memorial will be this Friday so she’ll miss another Thursday – fortunately, they’re out of school Friday. The day of the memorial. My point to her was this; life deals us blows.

We have loss and setbacks that get us down, make us sad, and give us the blues. But we have to do what we can to shoulder obligations, most of the time, give us an opportunity to move forward and take our minds off of our problems. Work can keep us from our lives in a good way as well as in a bad way. Sometimes, work keeps us from being able to enjoy our lives and engage in some of the things we are wanting to do more of. Me, I’m not able to spend time writing songs, playing music, sculpting, or painting and things like that. That’s work getting in the way in a bad way. But, then there’s the work that keeps our minds busy and occupied so that we’re not buried and consumed by worry and fret and the big bad blues life sometimes casts us into. So, for this week and the next, we go to school, we go to work, we occupy our minds, and let time take care of the rest. That may be a Gen X way of going about it but I’m Gen X and that’s what we do. Keep the nose down, work, and life will sort it out. Be upset, mourn, and take care of business, one foot in front of the other. Sorry to be so gloomy on the personal side of it all this week but, I’m always honest with you all and that’s what’s happening on the personal side. I’m certain next week’s episode will be a bit on the brighter side! Now, onto the research!

Item #1 Our first one today is called “Acupuncture Therapy as an Evidence-Based Nonpharmacologic Strategy for Comprehensive Acute Pain Care: The Academic Consortium Pain Task Force White Paper Update” by Nielsen et. al. (Arya Nielsen 2022) and published in Pain Medicine on June 17, 2020 and we got as hot one, people! These researchers by the way, are Phds and MDs. I think that’s notable.

Why They Did It A crisis in pain management persists, as does the epidemic of opioid overdose deaths, addiction, and diversion. Pain medicine is meeting these challenges by returning to its origins: the Bonica model of multidisciplinary pain care. The 2018 Academic Consortium White Paper detailed the historical context and magnitude of the pain crisis and the evidence base for nonpharmacologic strategies. More than 50% of chronic opioid use begins in the acute pain care setting. Acupuncture may be able to reduce this risk. This article updates the evidence base for acupuncture therapy for acute pain with a review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses on postsurgical/perioperative pain with opioid sparing and acute nonsurgical/trauma pain, including acute pain in the emergency department.

How They Did It

To update reviews cited in the 2018 White Paper, electronic searches were conducted in PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials with additional manual review of titles, links, and reference lists.
There are 22 systematic reviews, 17 with meta-analyses of acupuncture in acute pain settings, and a review for acute pain in the intensive care unit. There are additional studies of acupuncture in acute pain settings.

Wrap It Up

The majority of reviews found acupuncture therapy to be an efficacious strategy for acute pain, with potential to avoid or reduce opioid reliance.
With an extremely low risk profile, acupuncture therapy is an important strategy in comprehensive acute pain care.

We see it every week in my clinic. The VA send over their vets regularly and our acupuncturist is like a golden laced angel to these veterans. It’s been impressive. Before getting to the next one, Go to https://www.tecnobody.com/en/products That’s Tecnobody as in T-E-C-nobody.

They literally have the most impressive clinical equipment I’ve ever seen. I own the ISO Free and am looking to add more to my office this year or next. The equipment you’re going to find over there can be marketed in your community like crazy because you’ll be the only one with something that damn cool in your office. When you decide you can’t live without those products, send me an email and I’ll give you the hookup. They will 100% differentiate your clinic from your competitors.

Item #2

Our last one today is called “Integrating Epidemiological Information into MRI Reports Reduces Ensuing Radiologic Testing Costs Among Patients with Low Back Pain: A Controlled Study” by The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety 2020 by Weeks et. al. This was brought to me by Spine Care Partners who released a wonderful graphic that I got from Parker President, Dr. William Morgan, and shared in our Chiropractic Forward Facebook private group. The graphic showed what percentages in each age group that you can find ASYMPTOMATIC changes like degenerated discs, facets, bulges, herniations, etc. It was excellent. If you’re not in our private group on Facebook, go do that about right now.

This is more of a review so, let’s review about it shall we? They say, “Research has demonstrated that including epidemiological data along with the standard MRI results report has resulted in reduced opioid prescribing by the provider who ordered the study, as well as reduced referral to spine specialists. This new study includes an assessment of costs when frequency of common findings are included with the standard MRI results report.

The information included data on the prevalence of certain conditions over each decade of life in asymptomatic individuals. For example, degenerative disc disease findings in asymptomatic patients are seen in 68% in those 40-50 years of age, 80% in those 50-60, 88% if 60-70 years old, and 93% of 70-80 year olds. Totally asymptomatic! Which is amazing news for patients. Not great news for predatory providers that use rad findings to scare this holy living schnikees out of their patients so they’ll be forced to come see them a million times. Bad news for those asshats.

Great news for patients though. They say that their study showed that MRI reports with the addition of the prevalence of common findings triggered a downstream costs savings averaging $330 per report when compared to the standard MRI results report of the control group which meant there was no epidemiological charge included with the report. Best of all, repeat MRI use, spinal injection, opioid use, and surgery all decreased in the study group compared to the control group, while muscle relaxers and chiropractic utilization had a slight increase. They point out that one explanation for these findings is that the common language used in spine imaging reports, without statistical reference, is both fear invoking and inappropriately supportive of pathoanatomical understanding of back pain, as compared to the more clinically sound biophyschosocial model.

To put that in you and me speak, chiropractors are still relying heavily on the pathoanatomical model. Here’s the lesion, I’ll pop it, patient fixed. Cancer? Pop it. Bad hearing?? Pop it. Stomach ache? Pop it. COVID? Pop it. That’s so far from factual and being based in the evidence of literature that I cannot even begin to describe it.

They’re saying that chiropractors find stuff on the rad images and scare the crap out of their patients. Either because they’re not educated enough to know, or worst of all, because they’re predatory and miserable human beings that take advantage of their patients’ lack of education. All in order to get more visits and make that boat payment or that second house in the mountains or on the beach payment.

They’re also saying, start leaning into the BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL construct of pain, do right by your patients every day, and the money will just take care of itself. Treat others as you like to be treated. Kindergarten stuff. I don’t want myself or my family being taken advantage of so don’t do it to others. Get educated or get left behind.

Alright, that’s it. Keep on keepin’ on. Keep changing our profession from your corner of the world. The world needs evidence-based, patient-centered practitioners driving the bus. The profession needs us in the ACA and involved in leadership of state associations. So quit griping about the profession if you’re doing nothing to make it better. Get active, get involved, and make it happen. Let’s get to the message. Same as it is every week.

Store Remember the evidence-informed brochures and posters at chiropracticforward.com.

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Connect We can’t wait to connect with you again next week. From the Chiropractic Forward Podcast flight deck, this is Dr. Jeff Williams saying upward, onward, and forward.

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Bibliography Arya Nielsen, P., Jeffery A Dusek, PhD, Lisa Taylor-Swanson, PhD, Heather Tick, MD, (2022). “Acupuncture Therapy as an Evidence-Based Nonpharmacologic Strategy for Comprehensive Acute Pain Care: The Academic Consortium Pain Task Force White Paper Update.” Pain Med 23(9): 1582-1612.

Manual & Passive Therapies For The Neck and Acupuncture For Post-Surgical Pain

December 30, 2021 chiropracticforward 00:22:22 0 Comments

CF 210: Manual & Passive Therapies For The Neck and Acupuncture For Post-Surgical Pain

Today we’re going to talk about Manual & Passive Therapies For The Neck and then we’ll talk about Acupuncture For Post-Surgical Pain But first, here’s that sweet sweet bumper music

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Go to Amazon and check our my book called The Remarkable Truth About Chiropractic: A Unique Journey Into The Research. It’s a great resource for patient education and for YOU. It saves you time in putting talks together or just staying current on research. It’s categorized into sections and written in a way that is easy to understand for you and patients. Just search for it on Amazon. That’s the Remarkable Truth About Chiropractic by Jeff Williams.
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You have found yourself smack dab in the middle of Episode #210 Now if you missed last week’s episode, we talked about Chiropractic Cost-Effectiveness & Early MRIs Lengthen Disability. Make sure you don’t miss that info. Keep up with the class.

On the personal end of things…..

Just getting ready for Christmas. We talked a little last week about marketing and how we’re trying to set up our nurse practitioner for success. I am currently going through a couple of different Fiverr sellers and creating a sales funnel. We are going to test it on our hormone pellets. Let’s keep our fingers crossed because if a sales funnel works on hormone pellets, then why wouldn’t it work for IV Therapy? PRP injections? Car Wreck patients? Spinal decompression patients? Just regular ol’ family practice patients? And on and on and on.

You could conceivably and easily figure out your services that offer the highest ROI and then you could create a sales funnel for each.

Or….as in my case, have a Fiverr salesperson that knows more about it create it. Wouldn’t that be amazing if you could spend maybe $1000 per month on all of these ads funneling people into your different systems? Then they get the automated email trickles for whichever Funnell they happen to be in? And then they start calling and making appointments?

As we all know, this is a very real thing in lots of industries. Including healthcare. I’m certain I’m not the first to consider it but it’s kind of new thinking for me personally and I’m hoping that my hormone pellet funnel test bears fruit because if it does, it’s on like Donkey Kong.

I’ll be all over it and I’ll already have the people in place that can help me do it. So, that’s exciting.

No interns from Parker picked our office here in Amarillo, TX to come to visit for the Spring so looks like we’re on our own for the first 1/3 of 2022. But that’s OK, I’ve been on my own for like 24 years so I think we’ll be alright.

On the side gig part of things, voice-over is still absolutely killing it. I never would have imagined what was possible for me in the voice-over industry. I’m still small potatoes when compared to what some of the guys make but for someone that’s only been in it for about a year, it’s been a game-changer when you consider keeping my life the same and still being able to fund other interests like real estate investing.

This year’s voice-over activities more than doubled the down payment we made on the investment property we just closed on in Lubbock, TX. If you ever need a voice-over for your phone system, an online ad, podcast, TV/Radio ad, just holler. I got you. Send me an email at dr.williams@chiropracticforward.com or visit my voice-over website at www.jeffwilliamsvoice.com and we’ll connect.

Speaking of investment property, if you’ve been listening, we bought a small house in Lubbock, TX, and closed on it last week. We are turning it into a short-term rental, we’ll call it an STR for short. That’s an Airbnb or Vrbo house. And they pay very well.

Now, why live an hour and a half away from your STR? Won’t that be difficult? The answer to the first question is because, while I love my hometown of Amarillo, TX, we don’t have a Division I college with a medical school and a law school.

Lubbock has Texas Tech there so they have the concerts and the graduations and the big football games and sports and traveling professors and all of that good stuff. Things that Amarillo just doesn’t have. And it’s only an hour and a half from here so we can still get there to handle any issues. Besides that, most issues are not truly emergencies so as long as you have a dependable cleaner and a dependable handyman to be your eyes and ears on the ground and to take care of things when necessary, you don’t need to live in the same market.

People live in Ohio and self-manage their STRs in Florida or the Smokie Mountains. Self-managing remotely should not be difficult at all. The ones doing it say that it takes about 15-20 minutes per week per house to self-manage. If there’s a plumbing issue, you’d call a plumber just like you would for your own house, give them the door code to get in and handle things, and voila!

These days they have smart houses. Wireless thermostats, deadbolts, external property cameras, and water controls for the garden. You don’t have to have any contact with anyone. Just give them the code to the door. That goes for the guests as well. You can buy STRs already furnished, which is my preference. This one was not so we’re having to purchase everything new for the house. They say count on $10,000 per bedroom if you’re furnishing it. So a 3 bedroom house, we would budget $30,000 in furnishings.

Truthfully, I think we’re coming in at about 1/3 lower than that benchmark. Because I have shopper of a wife and she knows how to find the deals.

Anyway, we spent Saturday down in Lubbock setting it up and building furniture and all that good stuff. We didn’t even get close to getting it ready but we got further than we were. We’ll head back down this weekend and keep grinding until we can get it up and running and ready for our guests to have an excellent experience.

Then, we have a long-term rental here in Amarillo that we used to live in ourselves. Once we moved out, we just held onto it and rented it out. We are refinancing it currently. We will take out the money that is there with the increased value of the home and we’ll put that down on an STR in the Florida area. We’re getting our system of self-management down with this closer Lubbock property. Then we’re taking the show on the road and going bigger.

People will always go to the beach and they’ll always go to Disney so that’s the plan. Keep listening in for updates. I tend to share everything with y’all so you know I’ll be talking about it.

Now on with it.

Item #1

Let’s start off with this one called “Are manual therapies, passive physical modalities, or acupuncture effective for the management of patients with whiplash-associated disorders or neck pain and associated disorders? An update of the Bone and Joint Decade Task Force on Neck Pain and Its Associated Disorders by the OPTIMa collaboration” by Wong et. al. (Wong JJ 2016) and published in Spine Journal in December of 2016, As a side note, this may be the longest of any title anywhere. They should work on their naming prowess.

Why They Did It

In 2008, the Bone and Joint Decade 2000-2010 Task Force on Neck Pain and Its Associated Disorders (Neck Pain Task Force) found limited evidence on the effectiveness of manual therapies, passive physical modalities, or acupuncture for the management of whiplash-associated disorders (WAD) or neck pain and associated disorders (NAD). This review aimed to update the findings of the Neck Pain Task Force, which examined the effectiveness of manual therapies, passive physical modalities, and acupuncture for the management of WAD or NAD.

How They Did It

This was a systematic review and best evidence synthesis.
The sample includes randomized controlled trials, cohort studies, and case-control studies comparing manual therapies, passive physical modalities, or acupuncture with other interventions, placebo or sham, or no intervention.
They systematically searched five databases from 2000 to 2014
Studies with a low risk of bias were stratified by the intervention’s stage of development (exploratory vs. evaluation) and synthesized following best evidence synthesis principles.
They screened 8,551 citations, and 38 studies were relevant and 22 had a low risk of bias.

What They Found Evidence from seven exploratory studies suggests that

for recent but not persistent NAD grades I-II, thoracic manipulation offers short-term benefits;
for persistent NAD grades I-II, technical parameters of cervical mobilization (eg, direction or site of manual contact) do not impact outcomes, whereas one session of cervical manipulation is similar to Kinesio Taping; and
for NAD grades I-II, strain-counterstrain treatment is no better than placebo.

Evidence from 15 evaluation studies suggests that (1) for recent NAD grades I-II, cervical and thoracic manipulation provides no additional benefit to high-dose supervised exercises, and Swedish or clinical massage adds benefit to self-care advice; (2) for persistent NAD grades I-II, home-based cupping massage has similar outcomes to home-based muscle relaxation, low-level laser therapy (LLLT) does not offer benefits, Western acupuncture provides similar outcomes to non-penetrating placebo electroacupuncture, and needle acupuncture provides similar outcomes to sham-penetrating acupuncture; (3) for WAD grades I-II, needle electroacupuncture offers similar outcomes as simulated electroacupuncture; and (4) for recent NAD grades III, a semi-rigid cervical collar with rest and graded strengthening exercises lead to similar outcomes, and LLLT does not offer benefits.

Wrap It Up

Our review adds new evidence to the Neck Pain Task Force and suggests that mobilization, manipulation, and clinical massage are effective interventions for the management of neck pain. It also suggests that electroacupuncture, strain-counter strain, relaxation massage, and some passive physical modalities (heat, cold, diathermy, hydrotherapy, and ultrasound) are not effective and should not be used to manage neck pain I don’t know what to think about this one, to be honest.

In one part it seems they don’t assign any effectiveness to manipulation but then in the conclusion, they say it’s an effective intervention. What gives? Who the hell knows. All I have access to is the abstract. I can tell you that while anecdotal, you can’t convince me that manipulation doesn’t provide significant relief. Sometimes immediately. You’ve seen them come in with a locked up neck and one adjustment increases their range of motion immediately and pain levels are reduced fairly quickly. Combined with some exercise and strain/counterstrain, they leave the office skipping down the street and singing along with Louie Armstrong on ‘What a wonderful world.” I know systemic reviews are high-level research. I’ve just seen so many other papers showing impressive effectiveness that this one doesn’t really move me one way or the other.

Item #2

Last one today is called, “Effects of Acupuncture on Postoperative Pain After Total Knee Replacement: Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis” by Ko et. al. (Hsing Fang Ko 2021) and published in Pain Medicine on June 21, 2021…damnit….so hot.

Why They Did It They wanted to identify the analgesic effectiveness of acupuncture after total knee replacement by systematic review.

How They Did It

A search of randomized controlled trials was conducted in five English medical electronic databases and five Chinese databases.
Two reviewers independently searched in five English medical electronic databases and five Chinese databases.
Two reviewers independently retrieved related studies, assessed the methodological quality, and extracted data with a standardized data form.
Meta-analyses were performed with all-time-points meta-analysis.
A total of seven studies with 891 participants were included.

What They Found

The meta-analysis results indicated that acupuncture had a statistically significant influence on pain relief.
The subgroup analysis results showed that acupuncture’s effects on analgesia had a statistically significant influence.
Electroacupuncture frequency ranged between 2 and 100 Hz.

Wrap It Up

As an adjunct modality, the use of acupuncture is associated with reduced pain and the use of analgesic medications in postoperative patients. In particular, ear acupuncture 1 day before surgery could reduce analgesia. Alright, that’s it. Keep on keepin’ on. Keep changing our profession from your corner of the world. The world needs evidence-based, patient-centered practitioners driving the bus. The profession needs us in the ACA and involved in the leadership of state associations. So quit griping about the profession if you’re doing nothing to make it better. Get active, get involved, and make it happen. Let’s get to the message. Same as it is every week.

Store Remember the evidence-informed brochures and posters at chiropracticforward.com.

Purchase Dr. Williams’s book, a perfect educational tool and chiropractic research reference for the daily practitioner, from the Amazon store TODAY!

The Message

I want you to know with absolute certainty that when Chiropractic is at its best, you can’t beat the risk vs reward ratio because spinal pain is primarily a movement-related pain and typically responds better to movement-related treatment rather than chemical treatments like pills and shots. When compared to the traditional medical model, research and clinical experience show us patients can get good to excellent results for headaches, neck pain, back pain, and joint pain to name just a few. It’s safe and cost-effective can decrease surgeries & disability and we do it through conservative, non-surgical means with minimal hassle to the patient. And, if the patient treats preventatively after initial recovery, we can usually keep it that way while raising the overall level of health!

Key Point:

At the end of the day, patients should have the guarantee of having the best treatment that offers the least harm. When it comes to non-complicated musculoskeletal complaints…. That’s Chiropractic!

Contact

Send us an email at dr dot williams at chiropracticforward.com and let us know what you think of our show and tell us your suggestions for future episodes. Feedback and constructive criticism is a blessing and so are subscribes and excellent reviews on podcast platforms. We know how this works by now. If you value something, you have to share it, interact with it, review it, talk about it from time to time, and actively hit a few buttons to support it here and there when asked. It really does make a big difference.

Connect

We can’t wait to connect with you again next week. From the Chiropractic Forward Podcast flight deck, this is Dr. Jeff Williams saying upward, onward, and forward.

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About the Author & Host

Bibliography

Hsing Fang Ko, C.-H. C., PhD, Kai-Ren Dong, Hsien-Chang Wu (2021). “Effects of Acupuncture on Postoperative Pain After Total Knee Replacement: Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis,.” Pain Med 22(9): 2117-2127.
Wong JJ, S. H., Mior S, Jacobs C, Côté P, Randhawa K, Yu H, Southerst D, Varatharajan S, Sutton D, van der Velde G, Carroll LJ, Ameis A, Ammendolia C, Brison R, Nordin M, Stupar M, Taylor-Vaisey A, (2016). “Are manual therapies, passive physical modalities, or acupuncture effective for the management of patients with whiplash-associated disorders or neck pain and associated disorders? An update of the Bone and Joint Decade Task Force on Neck Pain and Its Associated Disorders by the OPTIMa collaboration.” Spine J 16(12): 1598-1630.

Western Diet Hurts and Acupuncture

July 15, 2021 chiropracticforward 00:24:07 0 Comments

CF 186: Western Diet Hurts and Acupuncture Today we’re going to talk about new research based on chronic pain and our regular Western diet. Then we discuss But first, here’s that sweet sweet bumper music

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You have found yourself smack dab in the middle of Episode #186 Now if you missed last week’s episode , we talked about high impact chronic pain and we talked about newer research on the use of cannabinoids in adolescence. Make sure you don’t miss that info. Keep up with the class.

On the personal end of things…..

I’m feeling pretty good today, folks. I’m feeling pretty optimistic. If I had known what a process building a medical clinic truly is, I may have thought it through just a little bit more than I did. There really is a solid reason more chiropractors don’t take the steps to do it. And that’s because it isn’t easy. Attorneys, medical directors, hiring the nurse pracs, setting up training, getting the malpractice in place, getting the DEA number of the medical director to have your address on it so your NP can order the things they need, getting your NP credentialed, getting the entities created correctly by the CPAs……it’s a process for damn sure.

I remember when I started this path, my good buddy and consultant on it, Dr. Tyce Hergert in Southlake, TX, he told me get your seatbelt on because the majority of the work is in the first 90 days. I feel like it’s starting to loosen up a bit and the clouds are clearing on this integration deal. Which is exciting. Because then you can go from wading through the paperwork and minutiae and start focusing on their training and growing the word of mouth and actually start working on the business. That’s where my skill level lies. I’m not 100% out of the initial struggle to get it set up and off the ground but I’m getting toward the rear end of it and that’s encouraging. For instance, my morning this morning was setting up an account with a medical supplies company and getting started with my first order of IV equipment, cotton swabs, medipore tape, and things of that nature. Right…..I know…..ugh.

But it’ll be worth it eventually. At least it damn sure better be! Beyond that, last week was better as far as clinic numbers. Moving in the right direction. I believe as a solo practitioner I had about 167. Still not pre-COVID numbers but not awful. I can deal with stuff mentally when I know it’s moving the right direction. It’s when it’s staying slim and there’s no longer rhyme or reason for it that makes me lose my mind.

So, the mind is intact today and I’m looking forward. Onward and upward today. Still no emails from any of you on what you’ve done to help the rest of you get your patients back. So, any help and advice from the think tank here would be good for the rest of the crew. Share. Give. It’ good for you.

Item #1

This first one his an article that appeared in the Seattle Times called “Study finds correlation between high-fat Western diet and pain” by Theresa Braine of the New York Daily News (Braine 2021). It was published on June 24, 2021 and it’s hotter than hot stuff! And on a side note, You’d be in a hell of an awkward position if you last name was Braine but you were an idiot wouldn’t you? Think about that a minute. Your name is brain but you’re basically walking around bumping into walls…..people snickering behind your back…..Brain….right, right. Anyway, that’s a little peak into my brain for you.

Anyway…since it’s an article, as always I just basically summarize and hit the high spots.

They say the Western diet is associate with many ills and now chronic pain might be added to the list.
A new study looks at the potential for omega-6 fats’ influence on neuropathic pain in people with diabetes and other conditions.
Researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio studied the effects of omega-6 fatty acids themselves by measuring the role of these dietary lipids in pain conditions and found that the substances themselves seem to cause pain and inflammation.
Diabetes, autoimmune disorders and cardiovascular diseases are known to be affected by nutritional choices, the researchers said. But excessive consumption of omega-6 fats, which are found largely in commonly consumed processed foods, had not been studied in terms of the acids themselves and their role specifically in pain.
They studied polyunsaturated fatty acids in both mice and humans.
The five-year study was published in the June edition of the journal Nature Metabolism.
Omega-6 fats mainly occur in foods with vegetable oils
“But Western diets associated with obesity are characterized by much-higher levels of those acids in foods from corn chips to onion rings, than healthy omega-3 fats, which are found in fish and sources like flaxseed and walnuts,” the researchers’ statement said. “Generally, unhealthy foods high in omega-6 fats include processed snacks, fast foods, cakes, and fatty and cured meats, among others.”
Reversing those dietary habits and increasing omega-3 fats “greatly reduced these pain conditions,” the researchers found. “Also, the authors demonstrated that skin levels of omega-6 lipids in patients with Type 2 diabetic neuropathic pain were strongly associated with reported pain levels and the need for taking analgesic drugs.”

So, we’re seeing more and more studies like this talking about inflammatory diets, high-fat, and things of that nature. All being related to increased levels of pain. This is something chiropractors can get behind. I can be very honest when I say that the main gap missing in my clinic is weight loss. Diet and nutrition. Things of that nature. As a result, I’m having our nurse practitioner trained in medical weight loss so we can fill that gap and be well-rounded.

CHIROUP ADVERTISEMENT

Item #2

Next up, I’ve been asked to put together a talk based on evidence-based, patient-centered practice and what makes it the future of our profession. The special request was to end the talk with some research-based around acupuncture research. Texas chiropractors continue to go through battles and one of them is against the acupuncturists in the state. So, with that, I’m going to offer up a couple of papers. I’ve got a bunch of good ones but thought I’d just cover a couple here. The first one is called “Clinical Evidence for Association of Acupuncture and Acupressure With Improved Cancer Pain A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis” by He et. al. (He Y 2019) and published in JAMA Oncology on December 19, 2019 and it goes a little sumpin’ like this.

The first thing that jumps out here, especially for those somewhat new to reading through research, is that this is a systematic review and meta-analysis. That is at the top of the research pyramid. For example simple little case studies and animal studies, pilot studies….things of that nature….they live at the bottom, less meaningful or less impactful part of the pyramid. As you climb the pyramid to the more important stuff, you’ll see cohort studies and randomized controlled trials. Then, at the very top, the most meaningful studies are the systematic reviews topped off by the meta-analysis. What I’m saying is that this paper is good stuff. It’s good information. And it appears in a very respected journal. The Journal of the American Medical Association’s Oncology branch. It’s high level from several aspects.

Why They Did It

The authors wanted to answer the question, “Is the use of acupuncture and acupressure associated with improved cancer pain management compared with sham intervention and/or analgesic therapy alone?

How They Did It

It was a systematic review of 17 randomized clinical trials and meta-analysis of 14 trials in the current English-language and Chinese-language literature
Three English-language databases and 4 Chinese-language biomedical databases were searched for RCTs published from database inception through March 31, 2019.
Randomized clinical trials that compared acupuncture and acupressure with a sham control, analgesic therapy, or usual care for managing cancer pain were included.
The quality of RCTs was appraised with the Cochrane Collaboration risk of bias tool
The primary outcome was pain intensity measured by the Brief Pain Inventory, Numerical Rating Scale, Visual Analog Scale, or Verbal Rating Scale.

What They Found

A significant association was found between real (compared with sham) acupuncture and reduced pain, and acupuncture combined with analgesic therapy was associated with decreased analgesic use. However, heterogeneity lowered the level of certainty of the evidence.

Wrap It Up

This study found a moderate level of evidence that acupuncture and/or acupressure was significantly associated with lower pain intensity in patients with cancer compared with a sham control, which suggests a potential for a combination of acupuncture and acupressure to help reduce opioid doses in patients with cancer.

Item #3

This last one is called “Acupuncture for neck disorders (Review for The Cochrane Collaboration)” by Trinh et. al. (Trinh K 2016) and it can be found in the Cochrane Library published in May of 2016 so it’s about 5 years old at this point.

Why They Did It

Acupuncture has been used as an alternative to more conventional treatment for musculoskeletal pain. This review summarises the most current scientific evidence on the effectiveness of acupuncture for acute, subacute and chronic neck pain.
To determine the effects of acupuncture for adults with neck pain, with focus on pain relief, disability or functional measures, patient satisfaction and global perceived effect.

How They Did It

They searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Manual, Alternative and Natural Therapy Index System (MANTIS), the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) and the Index to Chiropractic Literature (ICL) from their beginning to August 2015
They searched reference lists, two trial registers and the acupuncture database Traditional Chinese Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System (TCMLARS) in China to 2005.
We included published trials that used random assignment to intervention groups, in full text or abstract form. We excluded quasi-randomized controlled trials
Of the 27 included studies, three represented individuals with whiplash‐associated disorders (WADs) ranging from acute to chronic (205 participants), five explored chronic myofascial neck pain (186 participants), five chronic pain due to arthritic changes (542 participants), six chronic non‐specific neck pain (4011 participants), two neck pain with radicular signs (43 participants) and six subacute or chronic mechanical neck pain (5111 participants). So there was a big mix of conditions represented with a solid sample size when you add them all up.

What They Found

For mechanical neck pain, we found that acupuncture is beneficial at immediate‐term follow‐up compared with sham acupuncture for pain intensity; at short‐term follow‐up compared with sham or inactive treatment for pain intensity; at short‐term follow‐up compared with sham treatment for disability; and at short‐term follow‐up compared with wait‐list control for pain intensity and neck disability improvement.
This effect does not seem sustainable over the long term. Whether subsequent repeated sessions would be successful was not examined by investigators in our primary studies.

Wrap It Up

Moderate‐quality evidence suggests that acupuncture relieves pain better than sham acupuncture, as measured at completion of treatment and at short‐term follow‐up, and that those who received acupuncture report less pain and disability at short‐term follow‐up than those on a wait‐list. Moderate‐quality evidence also indicates that acupuncture is more effective than inactive treatment for relieving pain at short‐term follow‐up. Alright, for those not yet on the acupuncture train, take another look.

The VA here locally are sending veterans to us right now for our acupuncturist to work with them and these old grizzly vets absolutely love it. Yep, that’s anecdotal as hell but I’m telling you, there’s something to it and research seems to be catching up to it. Patients ask me how it works and I have to be honest……I’m not sure. I have some guesses but it’s a lot like a damn TV. I can’t tell you the exact way a program’s signal gets to my house and shows up when I turn the damn TV on. But I know how to enjoy the results. Alright, that’s it. Y’all be safe. Keep changing our profession from your little corner of the world. Keep taking care of yourselves and everyone around you. Tough times are upon us but, the sun will shine again. Trust it, believe it, count on it. Let’s get to the message. Same as it is every week.

Store

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Purchase Dr. Williams’s book, a perfect educational tool and chiropractic research reference for the daily practitioner, from the Amazon store TODAY!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096RST3WW

The Message

I want you to know with absolute certainty that when Chiropractic is at its best, you can’t beat the risk vs reward ratio because spinal pain is primarily a movement-related pain and typically responds better to movement-related treatment rather than chemical treatments like pills and shots. When compared to the traditional medical model, research and clinical experience show us patients can get good to excellent results for headaches, neck pain, back pain, and joint pain to name just a few. It’s safe and cost-effective can decrease surgeries & disabilities and we do it through conservative, non-surgical means with minimal hassle to the patient. And, if the patient treats preventatively after initial recovery, we can usually keep it that way while raising the overall level of health!

Key Point:

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We can’t wait to connect with you again next week. From the Chiropractic Forward Podcast flight deck, this is Dr. Jeff Williams saying upward, onward, and forward.

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TuneIn

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About the Author & Host

Dr. Jeff Williams – Fellow of the International Academy of Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine – Chiropractor in Amarillo, TX, Chiropractic Advocate, Author, Entrepreneur, Educator, Businessman, Marketer, and Healthcare Blogger & Vlogger

Bibliography

Braine, T. (2021). Study finds correlation between high-fat Western diet and pain. Seattle Times.
He Y, G. X., May BH, (2019). “Clinical Evidence for Association of Acupuncture and Acupressure With Improved Cancer Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” JAMA Oncol 6(2): 271-278.
Trinh K, G. N., Irnich D, Cameron ID, Forget M (2016). “Acupuncture for neck disorders. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2016,.” Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 5.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture For IBS & How Chronic Pain Develops

CF 284: Acupuncture For IBS & How Chronic Pain Develops

Postoperative Acupuncture & Activity And Depression

Communicating Imaging Findings & Acupuncture For Acute Pain

Manual & Passive Therapies For The Neck and Acupuncture For Post-Surgical Pain

CF 210: Manual & Passive Therapies For The Neck and Acupuncture For Post-Surgical Pain

Western Diet Hurts and Acupuncture

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