CF 091: 10,000 Steps Myth, Is An Adjustment Neuro Too, Soft Drinks, & It’s OK To Not Adjust

Today we’re going to talk about the 10,000 Steps Myth, Is An Adjustment Neuro Too, Soft Drinks, & It’s OK To Not Adjust 

But first, here’s that sweet sweet bumper music

OK, we are back and you have found the Chiropractic Forward Podcast where we are making evidence-based chiropractic fun and accessible while we make you and your patients better all the way around. Welcome, I’m Dr. Jeff Williams and I’m your host for the Chiropractic Forward podcast.  

You have collapsed into Episode #91

Now if you missed last week’s episode on Healthcare, the Days Of Old,  make sure you don’t miss that info. It was a bit of a brain dump. The week before that was on Decoding Fibromyalgia and we had a great episode before that one called Closing Patients…..we’ve had a lot of beneficial discussion on Facebook come out of that episode and it’s definitely worth checking out. 

We can’t get started without mentioning the sponsor of the first half of our show, 

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In personal practice, I have to say I’m testing. What I mean is that you never have everything as cookie cutter as you’d like do you? I used to have patient time and paper time and life was good. i got plenty done but never seemed to break through as far as patient load. 

I had a new front desk scheduler come on board and she basically ignored my paper time patient time dynamic and, after some time, my practice blew up and went crazy as hell. 

Now, the key is, did the roof blow off because she put the patient preference in regard to the schedule…..did she put their wants first? So they loved it because it was so convenient? Or, was it a natural progression of practice and it happened to simply coincide?

Who the hell knows? I think we do a lot of things right so I don’t know. Here’s what I’m certain of though. If we continued putting patients wherever they wanted to be on the schedule rather than forcing them into a formatted schedule that still takes advantage of peak and most requested times…..if we continue to allow patients to run our practice rather than us running the practice….I’m quitting!! Lol

Here’s the thing, I don’t want to brag about numbers and things of that sort. I’m just telling you that it’s been at a point where, when the patients run the schedule, I have zero time to produce a great podcast, zero time to collect thoughts on anything at all, hell I don’t have time to go to the bathroom. 

So, a couple of weeks ago, I decided it was time to put a foot down. A foot down outfitted with a  steel-toed boot! We will have paper time and we will have new patient time. Period. 

Here we are with week #2 of the schedule playing out and you know what? We are a little slower today than normal. I’ve been in practice long enough to know that is not a big deal. Sometimes, it’s just that way. But there still is that part of me that wonders what in the hell? Is it the new schedule? Is it this is it that? 

Blah…. So, even 21 years later, it can be a rollercoaster. It can be a day to day, week to week, month to month thing and that drives me crazy. Mostly because I believe I have an anxiety disorder. 

Again, I share these more personal problems or issues with you all because I know some are going through the exact same thing and some younger docs WILL. 

I’ve been making plans on being at the Forward Thinking Chiropractic Alliance’s conference called Forward ’19 in St. Louis, MO….actually Chesterfield, MO but had I said that first, you’d have no damn clue where I was talking about and you’d have to get out your Google machine and waste time looking for the damn place and I don’t want to do that to you. OK?

It’s the little things I do for you all right? Anyway St. Louis on the weekend of September 20-22….it’s that weekend. They have Gray Cook as the headlineer. They also have , Greg Kawchuck, Annie O’Connor, Christine Goertz, a guy I got to know a bit through the DACO program and a great speaker and doctor, Dr. Brandon Steele, and several more. It’s a time to not miss. Plus, hell, I’ll be there. 

I’ll be staying at the Drury Inn there in Chesterfield and it’s right next door to a Cheesecake Factory so, honestly, what’s not to love about this weekend that’s coming up on us rather quickly?

They aren’t paying me to tell you about it. In fact, nobody associated with the FTCA has even asked me to mention it. But, I think it’s important and I think attendees will walk away as better doctors. That’s why I’m going. 10% better every day, week, month, and year. 10% better. 

go to https://www.forwardthinkingchiro.com/convention if you’re interested.

Item #1

We have a short one to kick this off with. It’s called ‘For Mortality, Busting The Myth of 10,000 Steps Per Day” by Jennifer Abbasi and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in July of 2019 (Abbasi J 2019), hot cakes, hot stuff. 

Jennifer says the goal of reaching 10,000 steps every day has been a thing for a while now but, in truth, that may not actually be necessary. She said that older women who walked more than their peers and lower death rates in a recent study in JAMA Internal Medicine but….here’s the gotcha part….but the mortality benefit was seen with as few as 4400 steps. 

She says the recommendation of 10,000 steps may be disinclusive – is that a word?I think you know what I mean. She says 10,000 steps can be daunting to many. Especially older people and can actually keep them from walking any more. Whereas 4,400 is much more realistic and the that’s where the benefit is actually seen. 

Interesting stuff right there and definitely worth mention. I’m taking that to my practice. You should too. 10,000 steps may not be the gold standard.

Item #2

This is one called “Spinal manipulation therapy: is it all about the brain? A current review of the neurophysiological effects of manipulation” by Giles Gyer, Jimmy Michael (don’t trust someone with two first names), and James Inklebarger, et. al(Gyer G 2019). It was published in the Journal of Integrative Medicine in September of 2019. Hell, it’s September of 2019 right here right now. Hot potato, hot potato…..

They start out by saying that the the mechanisms underlying the pain modulatory effects of spinal manipulative therapy remain elusive. And although biomechanics and neurophysiological phenomena have been thought to play a role in the effects we see, more and more studies are showing improved outcomes suggesting peripheral, spinal, AND supra spinal mechanisms are playing a part. 

If you listen to our episode with the esteemed Dr. Christine Goertz, she was very clear in saying that we are currently a long way away from being able to say exactly how adjustments get the amazing results they get. That’s frustrating in a way isn’t it? It is for me. I want to know exactly how. 

In describing the article, she says, “The body of literature reviewed herein suggested some clear neurophysiological changes following spinal manipulation, which include neural plastic changes, alteration in motor neuron excitability, increase in cortical drive and many more.”

I have cited this article in case you want to go and find it. It’s in the show notes at chiropracticforward.com so go check it out. But I couldn’t find the whole article. At least not yet. Not until one of you awesome listeners sends it to me at dr.williams@chiropracticforward.com I would be grateful. 

But it is good for discussion. I actually did an episode dedicated to this topic. It was Episode #56 and I’m linking right here at this spot in the show notes so you can hear it. I actually had several people emailing me with some thanks on that one. 

The first reason this one was a big episode is because there were some knucklehead wannabe chiropractic gurus out in California claiming to have reversed spinal arthritis after two weeks of draining a patient’s bank account….errr. cough…I mean….of treating the patient 4x/day for 3 weeks. Which quickly adds up to a whole pile of steaming fresh hot brown….BS.

That episode came with pictures and illustrations in the show notes even. I was really fired up there. Lol. 

Anyway, the main reason I’m talking about that episode right now is that I provided a pretty solid description of the latest research and ideas on what an adjustment just may actually be doing for our patients. 

Basically, 

A recent paper by Anderstt et al. (2018) confirmed that cervical manipulation results in facet gaping.  This force also improves regional motion across multiple spinal levels during and post-manipulation.

“This study is the first to measure facet gapping during cervical manipulation on live humans. The results demonstrate that target and adjacent motion segments undergo facet joint gapping during manipulation and that intervertebral range of motion is increased in all three planes of motion after manipulation. The results suggest that clinical and functional improvement after manipulation may occur as a result of small increases in intervertebral ROM across multiple motion segments.” 

And according to the DACO learning

It appears that manipulation relies upon signaling properties of the muscle spindles that lie embedded in the paraspinal tissues. As the spindle registers rapid lengthening of the muscle it transduces this into a large proprioceptive barrage. 

The unique nature of a manipulation seems to alter the responsiveness of second-order neurons in the dorsal horn and make them less sensitive to incoming nociceptive signals from injured tissues.”

Adjustments are gapping the facets, improving proprioception and sensorimotor function, helping the body and brain know better where everything is and know better how it’s supposed to move thus, improving that movement and function. 

So, until new research comes out that makes us throw all of our best information out the window, that’s what I’m going with and, for evidence-informed practitioners, would suggest you adopt as well. 

Short break here….

It’s good to support the people that support you don’t you think? Well, ChiroUp certainly supports evidence-based practices. 

If you’re a regular listener of our podcast, you know I used it since about June of 2018. Let me tell you about it. 

ChiroUp is changing the way we practice by simplifying patient education and here’s what I mean: 

In a matter of seconds, you can send condition-specific reports to your patients with recommendations for treatment, for their activities of daily living, & for their exercises. 

You can see how this saves you time – no more explaining & re-explaining your patient’s care, because they have access to it at their fingertips. 

You can be confident that your patients are getting the best possible care, because the reports are populated based on what the literature recommends and isn’t that re-assuring? All of that work has been done FOR you. 

There are more than 1000 providers worldwide using ChiroUp to empower their treatments, patients, & practice – Including myself! **Short testimony**

If you don’t know what it’s all about or you’d like to check it out, do yourself a favor and go to Chiroup.com today to get started with your FREE TRIAL – Use code Williams99 to pay only $99/month for your first 6 months

That’s ChiroUp.com and super double secret code Williams99.

Now, Item #3

This one is an obvious one and is called “Association Between Soft Drink Consumption and Mortality in 10 European Countries(Mullee A 2019)” by Amy Mullee, PhD, Dora Romaguera PhD, and Jonathan Pearson-Stuttard, BMBCh whatever the hell that is. 

Brand new info here. They took 451,743 individuals from 10 countries in Europe consuming more sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened soft drinks. 

What they found was that those drinking more of either of those had a higher risk of all-cause mortality. Consumption of artificially sweetened soft drinks was positively associated with deaths from a circulatory disease while those consuming sugar-sweetened soft drinks suffered more deaths from digestive disease. 

So, why not cut them all out? I think water rules the day and NOT tap water by the way. I drink a lot of coffee and tea but I’m doing my best to drink more water. I know I’m supposed to. I get it but dammit it has no umph to it so water just sort of pisses me off and leaves me wanting. Lacking. And basically bitchy. 

Anyway, Item #4

This one is called “Association Between Maternal Fluoride Exposure During Pregnancy and IQ Scores in Offspring in Canada” by Rivka Green, Bruce Lanphear, and Richard Hornung, et al and published in JAMA Pediatrics in August of 2019(Green R 2019). Look out hot stuff everywhere, steamin’ plate…

The question they wanted to answer was, is maternal fluoride exposure during pregnancy associated with childhood IQ in a Canadian cohort receiving optimally fluoridated water?

Their conclusion was as follows “In this study, maternal exposure to higher levels of fluoride during pregnancy was associated with lower IQ scores in children aged 3 to 4 years. These findings indicate the possible need to reduce fluoride intake during pregnancy.”

Interesting stuff. Especially for those of you that make pediatrics and prenatal care such a big part of your practice. Knowledge nuggets all over the place today. You can’t listen today and avoid getting hit in the head with at least one of them. It may slap some sense into the recipient. At least that’s the goal. 

OK, last thing I have on tap today is Item #5

It’s called “Chiropractic conservatism and the ability to determine contra-indications, non-indications, and indications to chiropractic care: a cross-sectional survey of chiropractic students” by Guillaume Goncalves, Marine Demorier, and others. I say and others because I’m not even about to try to pronounce the next name. There would be a verbal murder of probably a perfectly good name and I don’t want to play any part in that. 

It was published in BMC Chiropractic and Manual Therapies in 2019. Once again, too hot to handle, step back one….no two steps…

In the background section of the abstract, they start by saying “While there is a broad spectrum of practice within chiropractic two sub-types can be identified, those who focus on musculoskeletal problems and those who treat also non-musculoskeletal problems. The latter group may adhere to the old conservative ‘subluxation’ model. The main goal of this study is to determine if chiropractic students with such conservative opinions are likely to have a different approach to determine contra-indications, non-indications and indications to chiropractic treatment versus those without such opinions.”

What They Found

• They had 359 student respond out of 536.
• They generally recognized a number of contra-indication as well as indications for treatment
• What the problem was was in identifying non-indications for treatment. 
• The subluxation students were much more willing to treat someone even when there was nothing relevant wrong
• For example, they were much more willing to treat a 5-yr-old kid with no history of back pain or disease to prevent future back pain and to also prevent non-musculoskeletal disease. 

Wrap Up

Their conclusion was “It is concerning that students who adhere to the subluxation model are prepared to ‘operationalize’ their conservative opinions in their future scope of practice; apparently willing to treat asymptomatic people with chiropractic adjustments. The determinants of this phenomenon need to be understood.”

I can help them understand it. It’s BS passed on by wannabe gurus and colleges like Sherman and Life and was once shoveled in large amounts by Palmer and my alma mater, Parker. Although, to my understanding, those discussions are fewer and further between at Palmer and Parker these days. 

Look, I’ve made no secret, I’m not a Subby, a TOR, or a TIC. I’m an evidence-informed chiropractor. Just like Subbys and other evidence-informed chiropractors…..I too get great results for my patients. 

Unlike SOME of my Subby counterparts….not all of them….but certainly SOME of them…….I communicate with the medical field in effective ways that make sense to them, I do not take advantage of my patients, I do not use techniques and recommendations not back in part by evidence and research, I run a patient-centered practice, and don’t treat when I shouldn’t and treat when I should, and I do not try to see how many times I can run a patient through my doors based on the idea that I’m going to prevent some sort of mythical loss of curve issue 30 years in the future. Folks, we’re highly educated. It doesn’t happen that way and in 2019, we damn well know it doesn’t happen that way.

Your bank account might not like it but your patients will and they’ll know you care and they’ll know you’re different than the rest when you’re worried about them and NOT their wallet or their purse. 

The golden rule isn’t just for kiddos. IT’s for everyone regardless of age. Treat others the way you want to be treated. If you want to be treated a million times through your life because you may lose some degree of curvature in your neck, then 10/4, rock on with your bad self. 

I for one have no interest in that for myself so I’d never recommend it to anyone. Why would I? Other than financial motivation of course.

I wouldn’t.  

Before we sign off here, I made some awesome evidence-informed brochures and posters for your offices. Go check them out at the store link at chiropracticfoward.com 

While you’re there, sign up for the newsletter won’t you? We won’t spam you. Just one email per week to remind you when the new episode comes out. That’s it. 

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 instead of chemical treatments like pills and shots.

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

Chiropractic care is safe and cost-effective. It can decrease instances of surgery & disability. Chiropractors normally do this through conservative, non-surgical means with minimal time requirements or hassle to the patient. 

And, if the patient develops a “preventative” mindset going forward from initial recovery, chiropractors can likely keep it that way while raising the general, overall level of health of the patient!

Key Point:

Patients should have the guarantee of having the best treatment offering the least harm.

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 or tell us your suggestions for future episodes. Feedback and constructive criticism is a blessing and so are subscribes and excellent reviews on iTunes and other podcast services. Y’all know how this works by now so help if you don’t mind taking a few seconds to do so.

Help us get to the top of podcasts in our industry. That’s how we get the message out. 

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 – Chiropractor in Amarillo, TX, Chiropractic Advocate, Author, Entrepreneur, Educator, Businessman, Marketer, and Healthcare Blogger & Vlogger

Bibliography

• Abbasi J (2019). “For Mortality, Busting the Myth of 10 000 Steps per Day.” JAMA Open 322(6): 492-493.
• Green R, L. B., Hornung R, (2019). “Association Between Maternal Fluoride Exposure During Pregnancy and IQ Scores in Offspring in Canada.” JAMA Pediatr.
• Gyer G, M. J., Indlebarger J, Tedla JS, (2019). “Spinal manipulation therapy: Is it all about the brain? A current review of the neurophysiological effects of manipulation.” J Integrative Med.
• Mullee A, R. D., Pearson-Stuttard J, (2019). “Association Between Soft Drink Consumption and Mortality in 10 European Countries.” JAMA Open.