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Non-Pharma – This Is The Way & Insurance Coverage Trends

CF 171: Non-Pharma – This Is The Way & Insurance Coverage Trends

Today we’re going to talk about insurance coverage for complementary care and we’ll talk about non-pharma treatment. This is the way. 

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, 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 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.  

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

  • Like our Facebook page, 
  • Join our private Facebook group and interact, and then 
  • go review our podcast on iTunes and other podcast platforms. 
  • We also have an evidence-based brochure and poster store at chiropracticforward.com
  • While you’re there, join our weekly email newsletter. 

You have found yourself smack dab in the middle of Episode #171

Now if you missed last week’s episode , we talked about how the medical complex still gets it so wrong when it comes to back pain. Make sure you don’t miss that info. Keep up with the class. 

On the personal end of things…..

Things are still proceeding at the speed of molasses on the medical integration. I’m afraid that’s going to be a theme going forward for a little bit. 

I can tell you that I posted the job with our local Texas Panhandle Nurse Practitioner Association and I posted it on Indeed. I’m getting lots of resumes now too. It’s a little crazy seeing some of these talented individuals. They’re trained in so many things and some are willing to re-locate here from more than 1,500 miles away. It’s a little cool. It’s a little overwhelming. 

But I’m stumbling through with the help of my wife and with the help of my buddy. He’s been on this podcast 3-4 times. Most recently on the episode a couple weeks ago when we spoke about the lawsuit we Texas Chiropractors just won over the Texas Medical Association. Dr. Tyce Hergert has been fully integrated for 4-5 years now I believe. He start consulting on integration and that’s who helping guide me through it. 

So, at least I’m not trudging through it alone or re-inventing the wheel. I always felt like a mentor or at least a guide was the way to go with anything. 

I was doing decent in practice but it wasn’t until I started with a group that provided a network and a mentor for me back around 2011 or so that I really started taking off. I really believe a guide or a mentor is the most reasonable way to go about business of any kind. They shorten the learning curve so much and prevent very costly mistakes. 

Just a little tip from your ol’ Uncle Jeffro. You’re welcome. 

I’m starting the interviews this week. In fact, I’ve already had one interview. I don’t think she’s right for me. She needs a little more decorum in the place and I like a loose feel so that’s already an alarm that’s going off. Super smart though and willing to learn from a dirty ol’ chiropractor. Lol. 

Don’t think I didn’t take the opportunity to tell her about the American College of Physicians and give her the citation for their paper recommending chiropractors. Don’t you think I let that opportunity slip by!!

So I’ve mentioned the voice over thing a few times. It’s been a little nuts. In February I made $2,000 and in March, I’ll probably wrap up the month at around the $1500 mark. That’s $3,500 in two day-um months that I enjoyed doing in my basement and, honestly, it’s low maintenance and I can do the little jobs fairly quickly. It’s amazing. 

I’m still working on getting that book I wrote edited. Dr. Chris Howson from the great state of North Dakota, the inventor or the amazing new chiropractic took called Drop Release is editing if for me as we speak. I’ll keep you updated. 

Something that is a little different on the personal side of things;  I have been coaching my daughter on how to throw the discus. She’s in 7th grade so just learning. I won state in discus and competed in the shot put at state here in Texas. Winning state is a cool part of my past that I’ve always remembered so fondly. 

Well, working with her gave me the itch so now I went and bought me my very own man-sized discus and have started throwing again with the thought, or goal, of competing in a master’s tournament sometime in 2022. 

It’ll give me a goal to work toward physically. I absolutely love going to throw the discus. If I never actually get the nerve to go compete, I’mm still walking, getting my steps in and getting that exercise. 

It’s a win/win. And I looked up the results of the nationals back in 2018. It was held at Easter Washington State in Spokane, Washington and the throws I had after just practicing a little bit for a week would have gotten 4th place so……I think I’m just going to do it. Outside of potential injury, there really are no downsides to it. So, be looking for ol man Uncle Jeffro lobbing a discus around town in a year or so. I tell ya, I have to keep it interesting folks. I have to. 

Let’s get to it.

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Item #1

This one is called, “Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain: Nonpharmacologic, Noninvasive Treatments” by Flynn et. al. (1) and was published in American Family Physician on October 15, 2020. 

Shiiiizah

Why They Did It

Here’s what they come out of the gates bucking with: 

A chronic musculoskeletal pain disorder is the underlying diagnosis for 70% to 80% of those living with chronic pain. 

Among the top 12 causes of disability in the United States, musculoskeletal disorders cause more than one-third of years lived with disability and are among the leading causes of disability worldwide. 

Chronic low back pain, neck pain, hip and knee osteoarthritis, and fibromyalgia are the most common types of chronic musculoskeletal pain.

You’ve heard me mention close to a million times about how the American College of Physicians updated their recommendations in 2016. In that recommendation, they set first-line treatment for acute and chronic low back pain. In those recommendations were spinal manipulative therapy, exercise, massage, acupuncture, heat, low level laser, yoga, cognitive behavioral therapy, and tai chi. 

Now, this seems to be the similar, and supporting document by the American Family Physicians. 

Here is what it says. 

Because no individual therapy has consistent benefit, a multimodal treatment approach to chronic musculoskeletal pain is recommended. Many nonpharmacologic, noninvasive treatment approaches yield small to moderate improvement and can be used with pharmacologic or more invasive modalities

  • Systematic reviews and guidelines support the effectiveness of various forms of exercise in improving pain and function in patients with chronic pain.
  • Spinal manipulation leads to a small benefit for chronic neck and low back pain. 
  • Cognitive behavior therapy and mindfulness techniques appear to be effective for small to moderate short- and long-term improvement of chronic low back pain. 
  • Cognitive behavior therapy may also be effective for small short- and intermediate-term improvement of fibromyalgia
  • Acupuncture has a small to moderate benefit for low back pain and small benefit for nonpain fibromyalgia symptoms. 
  • Massage or myofascial release yields a small improvement in low back pain, hip and knee osteoarthritis, and fibromyalgia.
  • Low reactive level laser therapy may provide short-term relief of chronic neck and low back pain, and ultrasound may provide short-term pain relief for knee osteoarthritis.
  • Multidisciplinary rehabilitation may be effective for short- and at least intermediate-term improvement in pain and function for chronic low back pain and fibromyalgia. 

Against a vitalist’s best recommendations, they conclude the abstract with this line, “Patients should be encouraged to engage in a variety of therapies aligned with their preferences and motivation.”

You know….because everyone’s different. Everyone heals differently. Everyone responds to different therapies differently. Not everyone just needs a 30 second adjustment and sent out the door. 

All just a part of trying to get our profession to level up. That’s all. 

Item #2

Item number 2 today is called “Trends in Insurance Coverage for Complementary Health Care Services” by Whedon et. Al. (2) and published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine on October 8 of 2020 and that’s just hot enough for our favorite soundbite folks. 

Why They Did It

Complementary health care professionals deliver a substantial component of clinical services in the United States, but insurance coverage for many such services may be inadequate. The objective of this project was to follow up on an earlier single-year study with an evaluation of trends in reimbursement for complementary health care services over a 7-year period.

How They Did It

  • The authors employed a retrospective serial cross-sectional design to analyze health insurance claims for services provided by licensed acupuncturists, chiropractors, and naturopaths in New Hampshire (NH) from 2011 to 2017.
  • They restricted the analyses to claims in nonemergent outpatient settings
  • They evaluated by year the likelihood of reimbursement, as compared with primary care physicians as the gold standard.

What They Found

  • The total number of clinical services claimed was 26,725 for acupuncture, 8317 for naturopathic medicine, 2,539,144 for chiropractic, and 1,860,271 for primary care.
  • Initially, likelihood of reimbursement for naturopathic physicians was higher relative to primary care physicians, but was lower from 2014 onward
  • Odds of reimbursement for both acupuncture and chiropractic claims remained lower throughout the study period
  • In 2017, as compared with primary care the likelihood of reimbursement was 77% lower for acupuncturists, 72% lower for chiropractors, and 64% lower for naturopaths.

Wrap It Up

The likelihood of reimbursement for complementary health care services is significantly lower than that for primary care physicians in NH. Lack of insurance coverage may result in reduced patient access to such services.

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

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

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

Bibliography

1. Flynn DM. Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain: Nonpharmacologic, Noninvasive Treatments. Am Fam Physician. 2020 Oct 15;102(8):465-477. PMID: 33064421

2. James M. Whedon, Serena Bezdjian, Justin M. Goehl, and Louis A. Kazal.The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.Oct 2020.966-969.http://doi.org/10.1089/acm.2020.0078

 

 

 

They Still Have Low Back Pain Management WRONG

CF 170: They Still Have Low Back Pain Management WRONG Today we’re going to talk about some personal observations from two different patients I saw today and we’ll cover a new article on what should be done with low back pain patients. Hint, many are still getting it wrong over there in the medical profession.  But first, here’s that sweet sweet bumper music

Chiropractic evidence-based products

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

  • Like our Facebook page, 
  • Join our private Facebook group and interact, and then 
  • go review our podcast on iTunes and other podcast platforms. 
  • We also have an evidence-based brochure and poster store at chiropracticforward.com
  • While you’re there, join our weekly email newsletter. 

You have found yourself smack dab in the middle of Episode #170 Now if you missed last week’s episode , we talked about living with chronic pain, screen time for the kiddos, and low back pain delivery. Make sure you don’t miss that info. Keep up with the class. 

On the personal end of things…..

The wheels turn slow on the medical integration front. Which is probably a good thing honestly. You don’t want to get out over your skis too far now, do you?? It’s like wading into the water a little at a time so you can get used to it. Some people just jump right out into the middle of it all. I’m a gradual guy. I like to slowly get in and get the lay of the land. That’s kind of how this integration is proceeding right now.  We have the medical director.

He’s been a long time friend of mine and was actually a chiropractor back before he went to medical school. He’s an excellent human being and should be a great fit with me and my way of approaching healthcare.  I got to see a veteran today as a new patient. This is a guy that has had chronic pain that has suffered for years. He just got out of the Army in 2019. He’s been in it for 25 years so you can imagine.  He gets cortisone shots 3-4 times per year. He’s never been told about yellow flags. Warned against allowing doctors to treat from an MRI. He’s only been given shots and turned loose every time he has a flare-up.

He has slipped into fear avoidance.  Now, I had the opportunity to teach him about fear avoidance, about CNS upregulation, about how over 60% of asymptomatic in his age group have disc-related findings on their MRI that means nothing, I got to teach him about stabilizing his low back instead of always popping hit on his own for through a chiropractor. I got to teach him about the difference between hurt and harm. I got to give him a recommendation for Back In Control by Dr. David Hanscum. I got to teach him McGill’s Big 3. I got to teach him how the medical doctors are still turning the treatment tree upside down when they do shots and medication first instead of movement, exercise, manipulation, massage, and all of that good stuff. I think…..I THINK….I got to help give him a roadmap to change his life today.  For an appointment that could have taken 30 minutes, I probably spent well over an hour with him.

First, because he was a really pleasant dude and I instantly liked him on a personal level.

Secondly, he’s a vet and that’s just amazing. But beyond that, I knew it would take some time to change his life. After all….that’s what we’re here for, right? Some time ago, I did an episode of the podcast that had to do with a vitalist nut job from Oklahoma City that posted on social media that he had treated 99 patients and 9 new patient exams within 3 hours. One table, one doctor, blah blah vitalist BS blah blah. Then telling others he could teach them how to do the same if they pay him as a consultant/mentor/guru.  I broke down the time constraints in that episode but I believe it boiled down to about 10 minutes per new patient.

For a vitalist that believes the source of all of the Earth’s imperfections boils down to a subluxation, I suppose you could bounce around down the spine and find 6 sore spots, hammer ‘em back down and go on about the day. I suppose a new patient could take even less than 10 minutes if done that way, quite honestly.  But, in my opinion, and compared to evidence-based docs in the profession, you’d be a piss poor doctor.

One I wouldn’t want anything to do with. One I’m embarrassed is in my profession. 

You have to take the time it takes to fully evaluate someone orthopedically, neurologically, and cognitively. There is no way around it if you’re going to be a next-level practitioner. It’s not optional. Ever. And 10 minutes won’t get it. It just won’t.

I had to adjust a couple of patients that showed up and then return to the vet to keep talking and teaching but we got it done. He’s my new project. It was cool to see him nodding his head and understanding what I was telling him.  I think I saw the light bulb come on. And that’s just pretty damn cool. I’m a little jazzed. A little energized that I think I can take this lifelong veteran and lifelong pain sufferer and turn his situation into a positive one.  We shall see but it should be a lot of fun if my plan comes together. I guess the point is; be a doctor. Be their advocate. Take the time that it takes. Their lives depend on us to function on a higher level than just pounding down the sore spots. 

On a separate note, I had a young girl come in for a consult. I’ve known her and her family for several years. She had a car wreck 9 months ago and fractured L1. You could see where the posterior/superior corner of the vertebra was broken off and the spinous process was broken off completely.  No paralysis, no dysfunction neurologically.  A neurosurgeon fused her spine. Not just 2 segments. Or 3 segments. He fused 5 segments. He told them it was because it was the T/L junction and fusing that many would give it more stability.

Now….who am I to argue about that?? I’m not a surgeon. But it seems drastic. Once that is stabilized and healed, can they go and remove some of the fused areas? I have no idea. But damn. 5 vertebrae when only one was fractured? Beyond that, he told her no twisting. Her understanding was forever. He has her in a back brace with no recommendations on when to quit wearing the back brace. He has the crap scared out of her as far as moving and having any activity really. It’s been popping down low lately and that kind of hurts.

He told her to go on 6 weeks of bed rest.  I think I’m dealing with incompetence here. That’s what I’m building up to. 6 weeks of bed rest for and 18-year-old girl that is functional. Bracing with no end in sight. Scaring her out of even twisting. She was afraid to do nerve flossing for her leg and low back. Fusing 5 segments instead of 2 or 3.  So, I’ll never pretend to be the smartest dude on the planet but can I really know more than a freaking neurosurgeon? Certainly not about surgery specifically. But the follow-up, the rehab, and the future…..yeah, I think we can actually know quite a bit more than they do.  And now here we have another patient from today that we are charged with changing their lives. I’m all about spinal manipulative therapy but this one will be through exercise, movement, biomechanics, cognitive work, confidence building, support, and most importantly, through finding an orthopedic expert for the second set of eyes and another set of recommendations. Except I’m going to be the one picking this one out. We have to save these people.

Don’t get me wrong. The medical complex saves lives every day all day. Thank God for them. But we can save their lives too. When they hurt too bad to go shopping or play a part in their own lives, that’s no life at all is it? When we turn that around, on some level, we absolutely save their lives. We keep them from slipping into depression, pills, chronic pain, fear avoidance, inactivity, and everything that goes along with all of it.  We save lives too and every chiropractor knows exactly what I’m talking about.  Let’s get on with it, shall we?

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Item #1 This first one is called “Pathways for managing low back pain. The collaborative effort of four PM PIs Yield a Paper and a call to action.” (1) and published in Pain in December of 2020. Hotter than Hell.  First, Dr. Christine Goertz was cited at the end for further reading. Because she’s amazing and awesome and a chiropractic treasure if you ask me. if you don’t know of and absolutely adore Dr. Christine Goertz, then you are insane or don’t value chiropractic research. 

Second, this is an article so we’ll do what we do and hit the high spots.  They start by saying that many of the best practice guides for low back pain involve evidence-based therapy that is not typically integrated into a single clinical setting.  They bring up the examples of physical therapy and chiropractic and mention how they are typically delivered outside of the majority of first-line access points in the US.  They say this leads patients to fall through the gaps. Which is understandable.

We, chiropractors, see this all of the time. Every week. Think about it, they mention here how PCPs will order tests and imaging but the pain is complex and harder to coordinate the diagnosis and effective treatment and care management outside of an integrated setting.  Now, pay attention to the last line in this quote from the paper, “All of the Pain Management Collaboratory trials are focused on delivering non-drug options to effectively ease the experience of pain in Veterans and Active service members. No matter the type of patient, or where the patient enters the system for their pain, treatment options need to be organized and delivered in such a way that it is easy for patients to receive and comply with treatments, and for providers to follow up.  Hastings, a clinician with a focus on geriatric care as well as a researcher, poses the question, “Is it really realistic for every individual primary care provider to be the expert on how to access all of these different types of therapies, you know, in his or her community?”

They go on to say, “This is where the authors propose a health navigator—a local resource expert who is trained in how to factor in an individual’s previous experiences and preferences when making recommendations—for developing a pain pathway for the individual.  A pain care navigator could be a chiropractor, a nurse, a physical therapist or other health care provider that one might see as the first step in seeking help for their pain. “We are really testing this idea of individualization so that we ensure optimal adoption of therapies for pain,” says Dr. Hastings.  Developing an effective treatment model for pain that takes into account patient preferences, lifestyle, and current needs and is more than just a “cookbook kind of an approach.” This approach acknowledges that patients enter the healthcare system from many different starting points, and so there is a need to train providers from a number of different disciplines to organize, plan, and deliver individualized care options.”

Does that sound anything like the Primary Spine Practitioner program? Yes, it does. It also sounds like the paper we covered some time back where they did a study in a Stanford area ER where the DCs directed the musculoskeletal pain ER patients. They had so much success that they expanded the program.  This really is, in my opinion, the way to do this, y’all. This is the way to effectively treat pain. 

Then our very own Dr. Goertz comes down with the People’s Elbow when she says, “In addition to navigating through different treatment modules, other barriers to effectively managing a pain treatment plan include cost, the need for more providers, and appropriate delivery of treatments.  “One of the biggest barriers right now has to do with payers who are willing to pay high dollars for spine surgeries or injections but are less willing to cover guideline-concordant treatments such as spinal manipulation, acupuncture, cognitive behavioral therapy, and yoga,”  “I think until we are better at embracing payment models that put an emphasis on conservative care and reward all of those involved, we’re going to continue to struggle. Fortunately, I see some signs that our healthcare system is changing in this direction.”

Dr. Goertz addresses the biopsychosocial aspect a bit when she says, ““It’s really important to have the patient involved in the process [of developing a pain management plan],” “When it comes to low back pain, we know that people who are more frightened by their pain can have worse outcomes. Anything that can help patients better understand their pain can paradoxically lead to less pain in the future, which is why patient education is really important.”  Additionally, healthcare providers need to be well-versed in effective communications techniques to ensure that patients understand, feel supported, and are involved in the decision-making process.  Conversations should focus on lessening the experience of pain and increasing understanding, as opposed to exacerbating fear.  “This is important with healthcare delivery in general, but especially important with people who have low back pain,” Goertz says. “

There’s really going to be no reason for y’all to read this yourself because I’m basically going line for line but every line is solid and true so they kind of leave me no choice.  The article continues, “Dr. Goertz also pointed to a Gallup study that asked individuals which types of providers they thought were the safest and most effective for managing back and neck pain.  Participants indicated that physical therapists and chiropractors were the safest and most effective; however, when asked which provider they would see for pain management, more than half said that they’d prefer to see a medical doctor first. “It is crucial that clinicians are aware of coordinated care guidelines for back and neck pain and are able to facilitate access to that care for their patients,” Goertz asserts. “For instance, the American College of Physicians recommends that patients and their clinicians consider nonpharmacological treatments including acupuncture, massage, yoga, Tai Chi and spinal manipulation before prescription medication for low back pain.” 

Historically, these treatments have had less emphasis during clinical training for many health care providers, and facilitating access and coordinating the follow-up can be challenging.  Additionally, a patient’s insurance may not cover all the recommended considerations.” Here’s the last paragraph and pay attention again to the very last line, “At the center of evaluating pathways for pain management is a call to action to put more thought and organization into what happens to patients when they first seek care for pain and the long term consequences of the patient’s earliest experiences with the health care system.  “It takes a really intentional effort to say, ‘What are the first set of decisions that need to be made? And then what are the next decisions that need to be made?’” observes Dr. Fritz. 

To avoid the early intensification of pain care, which results in greater expense and invasiveness escalating rapidly, we need to ensure that the evidence-based guidelines are getting put into practice, and patients understand that managing pain isn’t a linear process where a person goes in to see a provider, gets a diagnosis, gets a treatment, and the pain goes away.

Communication among patient and providers is essential to get on the right pathway for pain management. “If we can be more aligned in our messaging around back pain in the community—before individuals become patients, where they may not yet be experiencing back pain, or before it affects their ability to function—it can help set expectations and set up the conversation with care providers when they do come in,” says Dr. Hastings.  “The first thing we ought to be reaching for are these non-drug therapies, and reserving imaging for specific cases since it’s not going to change what we do in the majority of cases.”” Amen. Researchers and authors, please for the love of everything, keep writing these papers.

Over and over again until it finally starts filtering down to the doctor in the field. The PCP, the VA doc that used to just give pills and shots, the surgeon that is still telling an 18-year-old girl to go on 6 weeks of bed rest and wear a brace while never twisting. Forever.  This garbage has to stop, y’all. There’s little wonder why low back pain is still #1 in the world for global disability. It’s because the primary stakeholders and medical industry can’t get their crap together. Or, worst-case scenario, don’t want to get their crap together due to financial considerations. Why get your crap together if it means you do fewer surgeries and make less money through the year? There’s no financial incentive to do the right thing. 

I got it….Pay them MORE for the NECESSARY surgeries to offset the loss of income when they quit performing the UNNECESSARY surgeries.  There you go. I just fixed the world.

Bam, snap, thwack, kow-a-pow! 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 Remember the evidence-informed brochures and posters at chiropracticforward.com.     

Chiropractic evidence-based products

Integrating Chiropractors

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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

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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

  1. Pathways For Managing Low Back Pain. Pain. December 2020. https://painmanagementcollaboratory.org/pathways-for-managing-low-back-pain/?fbclid=IwAR1r5H4ZRvQr4Gw9wmIGYbJGSMr9e9aaPybvLujtdjEoE06Q6ppehNEGol8

 

w/ Dr. Bobby Maybee – Everything Evidence-Based Chiropractic, Insight, Instruction, & Inspiration (Part One)

CF 161: w/ Dr. Bobby Maybee – Everything Evidence-Based Chiropractic, Insight, Instruction, & Inspiration (Part One)

Today we’re going to be joined by Dr. Bobby Maybee who is involved in so many things chiropractic but most notably he’s the leader of the Forward Thinking Chiropractic Alliance and co-founder of the Chiropractic Success Academy. This is going to be an excellent episode folks. Full of insight, instruction, and inspiration.  But first, here’s that sweet sweet bumper music.

Chiropractic evidence-based products

Integrating Chiropractors

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

  • Like our Facebook page, 
  • Join our private Facebook group and interact, and then 
  • go review our podcast on iTunes and other podcast platforms. 
  • We also have an evidence-based brochure and poster store at chiropracticforward.com
  • While you’re there, join our weekly email newsletter. 

You have found yourself smack dab in the middle of Episode #161 Now if you missed last week’s episode , we talked about lumbar spinal fusion surgery. This was new, current, and very much in favor of conservative, non-pharmacological, nonsurgical care.. Keep up with the class.  On the personal end of things….. I’d like to hear how some of you are busier than normal or how some of you have only dropped off a bit during COVID. I wrapped up my stats from 2020 and it was a bit of a blood bath around my joint if I’m being honest and I’m always honest with you all. That’s they only way we move forward. Honesty.  So, let’s cover a few of the key stats. By the way, if you’re not keeping good stats and measuring all of your office metrics, I can’t tell you what a mistake it is that you’re making. My office turned around when I started accurately tracking my metrics. How can you know where you’re going or measure success in a quantifiable way if you’re not measuring it? As you’ll find out more and more in the coming months, I’m very big on keeping stats because it turned my office around. I know the value. Anyway, let’s get to some of my take-aways from my 2020 stats. 

  • One of the big kickers for me is that my new patients were down 36.1% from 2019. Yeah, that hurt like hell, folks. That’s in spite of picking up in our marketing efforts, posting and boosting about our cleaning and disinfecting efforts, and growing our social media following. Our area was hit hard with COVID. On the New York Times site, Amarillo, TX at different times and even recently has been #13 nationwide in areas hit the hardest. At one time, we were #2 on their list of the areas with the most new cases. People just did not feel comfortable going anywhere around here at different times during the year. Some times were more comfortable than others of course but overall….uncomfortable.
  • As a result of the new patient issue, my overall visit numbers suffered and were down 33.8%. So, we saw 33.8% less visits over the course of the year in 2020. When you consider the value of one visit in my office, well…..let’s just say that adds up to a considerable amount of income lost.
  • You’ll start to see a theme here when I tell you that my total services billed were down 36.6% and net services when we remove our write-offs sat at about 40% down. Ugh, right? But, we worked hard on our billing, of course. When you have extra time, you turn to billing and collections efforts. As a result, our total collections were only down 25.4%. Funny how that happens. 
  • We could go through a whole bunch of different metrics but I have an amazing guest today we need to get to. The most important stat is the final overall total. When we include all of the things that make us money like chiropractic, rehab, laser, decompression, acupuncture, massage, and on and on….when we combine it all, our total collections across the board were down 25.4% in 2020. While that’s a tough pill, I’m not alone. Many of you have had the same difficulties. Many of you have had it worse. And I’m sorry. It’s been difficult for us all. But the good news is that I think it’s lightening up and if improvement and progress makes us all feel good, it won’t take much to improve and show progress over 2020. Will it? I think not so here’s to all good things in 2021. Let’s get all of our practices back on track and help some folks get out of pain and avoid surgery. 

Now, without further adieu, let’s get to our guest today.  Today we are joined by the always interesting and talented Dr. Bobby Maybee hailing from the Pacific Northwest. Portland, Oregon to be exact. Dr. Maybee initially began the Forward-Thinking Chiropractic Alliance (FTCA) in 2014 as an attempt to change the landscape and conversation of the chiropractic profession of social media.   

Since then the FTCA has gone on to create evidence-based content in a grass roots nature.  This content is typically for the internet, and in an educational format through continuing education courses, and is staunchly evidence based.   Dr. Maybee hosts “Forward, The Podcast of the Forward-Thinking Chiropractic Alliance.”  As well, he was just elected Chair of the Oregon Board of Chiropractic Examiners Peer Review Committee, and is a member and supporter of the American Chiropractic Association.  

Dr. Maybee is a 2004 graduate of Western States Chiropractic College.  In his free time, he co manages a household of 5 children, 2 dogs Jett and Abbie, and a cat named Goober. And the best reason we can ever have to thank someone for something, Dr. Maybee is a veteran of the US Air Force which no doubt lends itself to him being such a good and effective leader. 

Welcome to the show Bobby, tell me how Portland is this morning.

How’s the weather? 

Introduction

  • Tell me your chiropractic story. Why chiropractic for you?
  • Tell me what got you to the place where you are the expert in the clinic that you are. What experiences or certifications built that person?
  • Tell me about your practice in Portland
  • With as many kiddos as you have and as many things as you’re involved in, what does a typical week look like for you.
  • How did the FTCA get started?
  • I see here and there online that some vitalists have really started to make the term ‘evidence-based’ a keyword, a trigger word, or a point of conterntion. Have you noticed that as well and how do you think a healthcare profession come to mock evidence and research?
  • What is your vision for the FTCA and what does the group to to move closer and closer to accomplishing them?
  • I was at the Forward 19 event in St Louis and really enjoyed it. Tell us about what goes into creating something like that? How do you pull it off?
  • Recently, I have been on a rant. I see vitalists say kooky stuff and I’m physically and mentally unable to ignore it. I have a recent episode on a guy that wants to teach other chiropractors how to treat 9 new patients and 99 established patients within three hours. Then I had an episode on the shake up of the WFC Research committee. As I mentioned in the episode, you were there in Berlin when it all started going sideways. Can you walk us through it all as far as you know it to be?
  • I think I’ve seen you vacillate on the topic of unity or not. Where do you stand on the whole deal? Is it possible the two sides can continue to live together? Or do you see groups like the Primary Spine Practitioner start to gain steam?
  • Tell us about the CSA that you and Dr. Kevin Christie have put together.

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

Chiropractic evidence-based products

Integrating Chiropractors

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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 preventativly 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/

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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  

The Failure Of Lumbar Fusion Surgery

CF 160: The Failure Of Lumbar Fusion Surgery

Today we’re going to be talking all about lumbar fusion surgery and my growing disdain for the procedure. 

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, 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 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.  

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

  • Like our Facebook page, 
  • Join our private Facebook group and interact, and then 
  • go review our podcast on iTunes and other podcast platforms. 
  • We also have an evidence-based brochure and poster store at chiropracticforward.com
  • While you’re there, join our weekly email newsletter. 

You have found yourself smack dab in the middle of Episode #160

Now if you missed last week’s episode, we talked about setting yourself apart in the way you treat migraines. This was an excellent episode that has no choice but to make you better. Make sure you don’t miss that info. Keep up with the class. 

On the personal end of things…..

I watched an ESPN 30 For 30 the other night. It was on Jim Valvano and his North Carolina State Wolfpack that won the national championship in basketball in 1983 I believe. It was such an unlikely story and some of his techniques were a bit wonky. 

For example, he used to make the team practice cutting down the nets from the goals after winning the championship. Far before it was ever even in the realm of possibility. The players said that was more than a little weird at first but that they came to enjoy it and it was just a part of goal-setting and visualizing. 

Visualization is such a big part of a mental process we can, and should, partake in. I myself forget to think to do it. Even though I know how impactful visualization can be. 

I can give you a personal example where visualization came in handy for me. I was a mediocre discus and shot put thrower in high school. OK, probably above average to be honest but I don’t want to pump my own tires too much. 

I ended up my junior year at 150’. That throw might win district but won’t do a lot for a guy at a regional meet. 

When my senior year came around, in the early Spring, I began getting recruited by a lot of colleges. Mostly DII colleges. One of the coaches recruiting me knew about my discus and shot put throwing. He recommended a book. It was called Peak Performance: Mental Training Techniques Of The world’s Greatest Athletes by Charles A. Garfield. 

This book was about relaxation and visualization techniques of the top athletes in the world. It was like nothing I’d ever read. Now, this was back in 1990. They may have improved visualization and relaxation techniques since then but I’m telling you, this book punted me into a different stratosphere on this stuff. I’ll put a link to it on biblio.com in the show notes for this episode. Go check it out. 

https://www.biblio.com/book/peak-performance-mental-training-techniques-worlds/d/1362768092?aid=frg&currency_id=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAlsv_BRDtARIsAHMGVSZ40_eKAIMbAHTRPRIUrdGXJN5c6n4SG74XgCEYiPpihaJGbuny2QgaAmgHEALw_wcB

Anyway, while I was throwing in the low 160s in the discus and low 50-foot range in the shot put, when I got this book it was toward the middle of the season so it was a bit rushed. But I dove in immediately. 

Within two weeks I was at 168’ and then at the end of the season, I won state in Texas (not an easy feat with a state of 25 million people)  with a personal meet best of 176’ 4 1/2 inches. I beat my best throw of my junior year by 26’. Not only that but I went to state in the shot put. Most definitely my weak event and threw my personal best there. It was my best throw by about a foot which is a huge jump in that event ending up at 55’. Just a couple of inches from our school record. Not an accomplishment that would have ever happened without this book. 

i apologize. I went out on a tangent a bit there but I’m talking about this book and this visualization topic because it’s real and I know it can make a difference in your life and your practice. 

Listeners of this podcast know I’m not a hippy-dippy kind of dude. This isn’t a hippy-dippy thing. It’s real and I’ve experienced it. This book is meant for business as well. I encourage you to check it out yourself. 

That 30 For 30 is my favorite. It’s very inspiring and he has some great quotes in the show. You can Google his quotes as well to save some time. But, in one part, he was quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson and the quote was, “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”

For many of us, 2020 and COVID stole our enthusiasm. If you take Emerson at his word here, then that would mean that 2020 and COVID also stole our greatness. 

I want to encourage the listeners of the Chiropractic Forward Podcast to get your enthusiasm back. Get your greatness back. Do it right now. Make it a priority. Make it a foundation of your practice this month and let’s see what happens. 

Pass it down to your staff. Keep them pumped up. Even when or if numbers are down. My numbers are down. I’ve made no secret about that. But around here, we’re going to make enthusiasm a key ingredient of our values. Along with honesty, integrity, ethics, love, fun, and being evidence-based and patient-centered. When we add enthusiasm into that mix, I think we have a winning concoction. 

This discussion portion was meant to only deal with enthusiasm but I got to talking about Jimmy V and his visualization efforts and like an ADD guy, I saw a squirrel and just went that direction. Thank you for indulging me. I hope you found something helpful in it all. 

 em today. I first want to say that I am not against surgery for the right person and the right issue. If it’s needed and the last resort, well why the hell not? But a stat I came across a year or so ago said that out of the 56 million back pain sufferers in our country, only about 5% of them actually, truly, clinically need surgery. 

Then, as you’ll see, when you have something as invasive and impactful on life as lumbar fusion being performed so often with no improved overall outcomes on the back end of it all….well, don’t you have to be responsible and step back and take another look at that and ask yourself, what are we as surgeons doing this for, and should we continue?

Item #1

This first one today is called “Is Lumbar Fusion Necessary for Chronic Low Back Pain Associated with Degenerative Disk Disease? A Meta-Analysis” by Xu et. al. (Xu W 2020) and published in World Neurosurgery on November 27, 2020. 

Hot potato, hot potato, get ‘em while they’re good and hot!

Why They Did It

The authors wanted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of lumbar fusion versus nonoperative care for the treatment of chronic low back pain associated with degenerative disk disease.

Remember this is a meta-analysis. It’s right up there at the top of the research pyramid with systematic reviews. Meaning….it’s good stuff.

How They Did It

  • They did a comprehensive duplicate electronic database search that included PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure. 
  • They took studies published up to June 30, 2020
  • The main outcomes including clinical results, complications, and all-cause additional surgeries were presented in the form of short and long-term follow-up results. 
  • Six prospective studies involving 159 patients for short-term follow-up and 675 for long-term follow-up were included.

What They Found

  • The 2 interventions exhibited little difference in regard to short- and long-term Oswestry Disability Index and visual analog scale scores for back and leg pain, 
  • Lumbar fusion might bring about lower additional surgery rate 
  • Lumbar fusion might bring about a higher complication rate in the long term.

Wrap It Up

“The present meta-analysis determined that fusion surgery was no better than nonoperative treatment in terms of the pain and disability outcomes at either short- or long-term follow-up. It is necessary for clinicians to weigh the risk of complications associated with fusion surgery against additional surgeries after nonoperative treatment. Considering lax patient inclusion criteria in the existing randomized clinical trials, the result needs to be further confirmed by high-quality research with stricter selection criteria in the future.”

So, since we know systematic reviews and meta-analyses are like computers, then we know that they are only as good as the data you put into it. What you put into it determines what you get out of it. If they haven’t done a lot of quality research on low back fusions, well then they won’t have a lot of good quality information to assemble a meta-analysis. Right? 

When we look at 6 studies with 159 patients for the short-term part and we have 675 patients for the long-term…..I’m not a researcher but, to me, that sure doesn’t seem like a huge sample size. Certainly not when you consider the number of lumbar fusions happening around the world every single day. For such an expensive and invasive surgery, you’d sure think there’d be more to go on out there for a project like this. Is it just me?

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Item #1 was a new paper. Now I want to re-visit a couple of papers we have covered on the podcast before. One in episode 144 and one all the way back in Episode 54. 

Item #2

Item #2 is titled “Lumbar Spine Fusion: What Is The Evidence?” by Harris et. al(Harris I 2018). and published in the Journal of Internal Medicine in 2018. 

Basically, in this paper, they say that lumbar spinal fusion is common and associated with the high cost and a risk of serious adverse events. They state that they aim to summarize systematic reviews on the effectiveness of lumbar spine fusion for most diagnoses. 

Of important note is where they say that they found NO high-quality systematic reviews and the risk of bias of the randomized controlled trials they found was generally high. For something as serious as lumbar fusion surgery. Where they cut into the body, take two vertebrae that usually aren’t unstable on each other, and then drive screws into them and affix hardware to fuse them together forever and ever amen. 

No high-quality systematic reviews for lumbar fusion surgery and the RCTs out there generally carry a high risk of bias. 

Doesn’t that just give you a warm fuzzy feeling inside when a surgery like lumbar fusion doesn’t have a lot backing it?

They go on to say that the available evidence doesn’t support a clinical benefit from lumbar fusion surgery compared to non-operative treatment or stabilization without fusion for thoracolumbar burst fractures. 

They say that surgical intervention for metastatic carcinoma of the spine associated with spinal cord compromise improves mobility and neurological outcome. That was based on a single trial. 

Item #3

This one we covered in episode 144 is called, “Surgery for chronic musculoskeletal pain: the question of evidence” authored by Harris et. al(Harris IA 2020). and published in Pain Journal in September of 2020.

Why They Did It 

They say that globally, the most common reasons surgery is performed relate to the musculoskeletal system, and outside of injury, the most common reasons pertain to arthritis and back or neck pain. AKA – chronic pain. Chronic pain has become a special interest of mine after going through the orthopedic diplomat last year. It’s fascinating. 

They say, “Although the surgical treatment of chronic pain generally relies on attributing pain to objective, often visible changes on imaging studies, the causes of chronic pain are more complex and are strongly influenced by psychosocial factors.” 

Things like Yellow Flags. Go look up yellow flags and Annie O’Connor’s book called World Of Pain please and thank you.  Annie will be speaking at the Texas Chiropractic Association’s Winter Conference on March 5-6. I encourage you to be watching out on www.chirotexas.org for more info because you’ll be able to take this seminar from anywhere in the world. And I recommend you do because my hero, Dr. Anthony Nicholson from Australia will be one of the presenters. Dr. Carlo Amendolia, I will be a speaker at this thing, Dr. Brandon Steele, and Dr. Jay Greenstein as well. This is quite the conference getting put together, folks. So make your plans. 

They say that surgeries like debridement of degenerative joints and things of that nature ignore the complexity of chronic pain. They look at surgery as purely mechanistic in nature with little to no involvement otherwise and the procedures often rely on observational evidence only, rather than rigorous, comparative trials.  

In addition, they say that when the trials have actually been performed for these surgeries have been mostly subjective and measurements are usually not blinded to reduce the bias of the outcomes.  

Who really wants to go under the knife for anything other than having a mole cut off when the procedures have not been thoroughly investigated, researched, and tested? 

Uh hell no. No thank you. 

This paper was written to demonstrate that observational evidence is not adequate when you consider the costs and risks of surgical intervention. They advocate that surgical procedures should undergo randomized controlled trials with blinding and showing statistical and clinically important symptomatic improvement when compared to no surgery at all.  

Well no duh. Who on Earth would put something into widespread use….surgically that is…..without doing their due diligence through research? Well…..evidently everyone in the medical profession from this.  

Ultimately in this paper, the goal here was to quantify what kind of support exists in the literature for some common procedures.  

How They Did It

  • The first thing to do was to identify the common procedures performed for chronic pain
  • Secondly, they had to identify the number of published RCTs comparing each procedure to a control group treated without that procedure
  • They did a search of the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials
  • Each paper was reviewed by two independent authors

What They Found

  • A very low proportion of the RCTs on the selected procedures compared the procedure to not performing the procedure. 64 from the more than 6,735 studies. Less than 1% if you’re keeping track. Is that not stunning? And infuriating?
  • Of those 64, only 9 were favorable to surgery. 
  • When considering individual surgical procedures, the majority of comparative trials did not favor surgery 
  • None of the studies using patient blinding for any procedure found it to be significantly better than not having the surgery at all. 

Wrap It Up We conclude that many common surgical procedures performed for musculoskeletal conditions causing chronic pain have not been subjected to randomized trials comparing them to not performing the procedure. 

Based on the observation that when such studies have been performed, only 14% (on average) showed a statistically significant and clinically important benefit to surgery; there is a need to produce such high-quality evidence to determine the effectiveness of many common surgical procedures.  

Furthermore, the production of high-quality evidence should be a requirement before widespread implementation, funding or professional acceptance of such procedures, rather than the current practice of either performing trials after procedures have become commonplace, or not performing comparative trials at all.” 

Wouldn’t you like to know that your mom’s spinal surgery procedure was fully vetted? It was researched against not doing it at all? They haven’t done that? 

Make memes and/or infographics from the sound bites I’ve given you here. You can use all of this stuff if you have a little imagination. 

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

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

Subscribe Button

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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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

  • Harris I, T. A., Stanford R, (2018). “Lumbar spine fusion: what is the evidence?” Internal Med J.
  • Harris IA, S. V., Mittal R, Adie S, (2020). “Surgery for chronic musculoskeletal pain: the questions of evidence.” Pain 161(9): S95-S103.
  • Xu W, R. B., Luo W, Li Z, Gu R, (2020). “Is Lumbar Fusion Necessary for Chronic Low Back Pain Associated with Degenerative Disk Disease? A Meta-Analysis.” World Neurosurg 146: 298-306.

Primary Spine Care, Frozen Shoulder, & Evidence-Based Chiropractic & Cost

CF 158: Primary Spine Care, Frozen Shoulder, & Evidence-Based Chiropractic & Cost

Today we’re going to talk about Evidence-Based Chiropractic, We talk about the primary spine care model integrated into a primary care setting. What happens when that’s the mode of treatment? Then we’re going to talk about some Frozen Shoulder (adhesive capsulitis) research in JAMA recently.   But first, here’s that sweet sweet bumper music  

Chiropractic evidence-based products

Integrating Chiropractors

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

  • Like our Facebook page, 
  • Join our private Facebook group and interact, and then 
  • go review our podcast on iTunes and other podcast platforms. 
  • We also have an evidence-based brochure and poster store at chiropracticforward.com
  • While you’re there, join our weekly email newsletter. 

You have found yourself smack dab in the middle of Episode #158 Now if you missed last week’s episode, we talked about chiropractors that spread misinformation, we talked about patients needing movement, and we talked about love. I’m a softy at heart believe it or not. Make sure you don’t miss that info. Keep up with the class. Evidence-Based Chiropractic is catching on!

On the personal end of things….. We are sitting here on a Monday 12/21 as of the typing up of this episode. Christmas is upon us. Nothing crazy special going on beyond that.  There are a couple of things I’ll mention. The first is that I got the Mirror gym you hang on a wall. It’s basically like having a trainer in your living room. Lots of you are already used to this sort of a deal with products like Peloton but it’s new to me and it’s pretty awesome. I’m doing stuff like Tai Chi, yoga, boxing, kickboxing, and stuff like that.

Stuff I’d never do otherwise and it’s pretty darn cool.  We turned what used to basically be a dog room into a small gym and it’s been pretty cool so far. I’m enjoying it. I’ve always been a skinny dude stuck in a big dude’s body. So, now that I’m down 33 lbs on weight watchers, and I’ve added the home gym to the mix, I feel like I’m on the way to realizing the skinny dude. Eventually. Lots of work left to do first though. 

Secondly, I’m getting the vaccine in a day or two if everything works out. I have mentioned several times on the podcast that I have very positive relationships with a lot of folks in my local medical community. Through that network, my wife and I will be getting ours this week. I’m ready to get that dude and start moving on with life. 

No, I’m not worried about it. Understanding I have some level of influence and some level of leadership with my friends, family, and patients, I feel it’s important to get out front and set an example on this deal.  Especially being a chiropractor. When you see so many of us disenfranchised because of the vitalists in our profession out there preaching the harms of vaccines when they wouldn’t know how to make it through a research paper on the vaccine to save their lives…..well, wouldn’t it be refreshing to see evidence-based chiropractors stepping up and leading the way on this vaccine? Here’s my stance on it. Maybe it helps you if you’re on the fence. Maybe it doesn’t but here it is anyway.  I’m not an epidemiologist or a maker of vaccines. I have researched masks, COVID, the transmission of Covid, and things like that. Not as much on the vaccine on the vaccine itself though. 

Scientists understand so much more about that sort of research than I’ll ever know. A Fox Poll says 61% of Americans will get the shots while only 23% are strictly against taking it. There were 16% unsure. Probably the ones waiting to see if everyone does OK with it before they step up. And I don’t think that’s unreasonable.  The point is, those getting it like me…..I’m not the minority on it. For me, it’s not only about life or death. I have a 20-something-year-old patient that can’t go back to work because she’s still positive 6 weeks later. I know a nurse that was positive for over nine weeks. I know Patients that had to go to physical therapy for weeks. Long haulers is a real deal. In the end, it’s an easy decision for me. I’m not worried at all really.

There’s risk crossing the road. If I get sick, I have to close my office for at least 2 weeks if not more. That means I lose a lot of money, there will be patients drop off of the schedule, we’ll miss new patients, and I’ll be sick AND anxious the entire time. If COVID doesn’t make me nauseous, the destruction of my business while I’m out sick will.  Besides myself, I have 13 or so other employees and their families depending on my presence. My business depends on my presence and does not run when I’m not there. That’s a little different than a lot of other folks. I’m not doing that if I can prevent it. If a vaccine allows me to prevent it, well then, a vaccine it is.

We chiropractors work within inches of people’s faces and in close contact with them. That puts us at more risk than the average Joe and, if we have it, puts our patients at serious risk of getting it from us.  If you’re like me, we work with a lot of elderly and immunocompromised patients. I’m not willing to put them at risk like that when all I had to do was trust in science and just get the damn vaccine. They ran human trials on 35000-45000 or so people with no unacceptable issues. That’s a huge sample size. I’ve seen this thought on the FTCA group before. It’s probably a Bobby Maybee special quote but, back before Facebook, people would have just taken the vaccine.

They weren’t worried about this stuff back before Facebook told them to worry about it.  No matter what’s out there these days, you have people casting doubt on it for zero reasons. Maybe it’s a call for attention at all costs. Who knows? But it’s to the point now where science and experts are constantly doubted and discounted. And that’s about as dumb and dangerous as can be.  It was OK to cure smallpox and polio but COVID……nah bruh.

If there were real questions, would basically the entire medical complex be in line taking it? My guess is that they wouldn’t.  What if someone can afford to be out of work or out of their office for 2-4-6 weeks and they want to wait to get it? I think it’s reasonable if someone wants to wait to see if anyone has adverse effects before they take it. I don’t think that’s unreasonable at all. But I think that it’s just delaying the fact that almost everyone is going to do fine with it and most people are going to end up getting it.

They started it in England two weeks ago. Nothing has happened. Because they already did the test trials to make sure nothing would happen. Considering the success of the testing, I think the people not getting it are at far more risk than the people that are getting it. Besides all that, I’m ready to get back in my life. Traveling, doing fun stuff, having a life…..important stuff. Like seeing my mom and step pops and being able to visit my dad in the nursing home for the first time since March.

More power to those that have been doing those things all along but for the above-mentioned reasons, we have not.

So that’s where I’m at. We are all on our own walk and we all need to do what we think is best. Staying healthy, staying open and available, and continuing to provide for my family, my staff, and my patients are what I think is best.  So, I’m out front on this. It’ll be good for my patients and family to see a picture of me getting my vaccine on social media. It’ll be good for my patients to see it.

And it’ll be good for those in the medical community that is friends with me to see it. It’ll reaffirm that no….I’m not one of THOSE chiropractors.  I encourage you to be out front with it if you get one. Be a leader and blaze the trail.  And Merry Christmas, Dammit. 

Item #1 The first one today is called “Implementation of the Primary Spine Care Model in a Multi-Clinician Primary Care Setting: An Observational Cohort Study” by Whedon, et. al. (Whedon JM 2020) and published in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics on September 1, of 2020. And that’s a blistering blast of hotness.  If you don’t recognize the Whedon name, he is very prolific in chiropractic research. 

Why They Did It

The objective of this investigation was to compare the value of primary spine care with usual care for the management of patients with spine-related disorders within a primary care setting.

How They Did It

  • They retrospectively examined existing patient encounter data at 3 primary care sites within a multi-clinic health system
  • Designated clinicians serve in the role as primary spinal care as the initial point of contact for spine patients, they coordinated the care, and they followed up for the duration of the episode of care
  • A primary spinal care doctor may be a chiropractor, PT, or medical or osteopathic physician trained in primary spinal care for spine-related disorders
  • They had sites where the primary spinal care was implemented as well as control sites where they just stuck with the usual care model
  • They examined clinical encounters occurring over a 2 year period from February 2016 to March 2018. 

What They Found

  • Primary spine care was associated with reduced total expenditures compared with usual care for spine-related disorders
  • At site one, the average per-patient cost was $162 in a year and $186 in year two. 
  • That is compared to site II, a control site, where the cost in year one was $332 and $306 in year two. And in site three, also a control site offering only usual care, where the cost in year one was $467 and year two was $323

Wrap It Up

Among patients with SRDs included in this study, implementation of the PSC model within a conventional primary care setting was associated with a trend toward reduced total expenditures for spine care compared with usual primary care. Implementation of PSC may lead to reduced costs and resource utilization but may be no more effective than usual care regarding clinical outcomes.

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Item #2

Our second item today is called “Comparison of Treatments for Frozen Shoulder: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis” by Challoumas, et. al. (Challoumas D 2020) and published in JAMA Open on December 16, of 2020 and it does not get one degree hotter than that people!

Why They Did It

The authors here wanted to know the answer to the question, “Are any treatment modalities for frozen shoulder associated with better outcomes than other treatments?”

How They Did It

  • It was a meta-analysis of 65 studies with 4097 participants
  • They searched Medline, EMBASE, Scopus, and CINHAL in February 2020.
  • Studies with a randomized design of any type that compared treatment modalities for frozen shoulder with other modalities, placebo, or no treatment were included.
  • Data were independently extracted by 2 individuals
  • Pain and function were the primary outcomes, and external rotation range of movement (ER ROM) was the secondary outcome
  • Length of follow-up was divided into short-term (≤12 weeks), mid-term (>12 weeks to ≤12 months), and long-term (>12 months) follow-up.

What They Found

  • Despite several statistically significant results, only the administration of intra-articular (IA) corticosteroid was associated with statistical and clinical superiority compared with other interventions in the short-term for pain
  • Subgroup analyses and the network meta-analysis demonstrated that the addition of a home exercise program with simple exercises and stretches and physiotherapy (electrotherapy and/or mobilizations) to the intra-articular corticosteroid may be associated with added benefits in the mid-term

Wrap It Up

The findings of this study suggest that the early use of intra-articular corticosteroid in patients with frozen shoulder of less than 1-year duration is associated with better outcomes. This treatment should be accompanied by a home exercise program to maximize the chance of recovery.

Item #3

Now, on to Evidence-Based Chiropractic. Our third and final one this week is called “Cost comparison of two approaches to chiropractic care for patients with acute and sub-acute low Back pain care episodes: a cohort study” by Whedon et. al. (Whedon JM 2020) and published in the Chiropractic and Manual Therapies on December 14, 2020. Get your red hots right here, get ‘em hot right here.  I told you Whedon was prolific. That’s two papers in this one episode that he’s the lead author on and I did not do that on purpose. I didn’t realize who the authors of the papers were until I started typing. He’s on his A-game. 

Why They Did It

The abstract for our Evidence-Based Chiropractic talk leads off by saying, “Low back pain (LBP) imposes a costly burden upon patients, healthcare insurers, and society overall. Spinal manipulation as practiced by chiropractors has been found to be cost-effective for the treatment of LBP, but there is wide variation among chiropractors in their approach to clinical care, and the most cost-effective approach to chiropractic care is uncertain. To date, little has been published regarding the cost-effectiveness of different approaches to chiropractic care. Thus, the current study presents a cost comparison between chiropractic approaches for patients with acute or subacute care episodes for low back pain.” How They Did It

  • It was a retrospective cohort design to examine the costs of chiropractic care among patients diagnosed with acute or subacute low back pain.
  • The study time period ranged between 07/01/2016 and 12/22/2017
  • They compared cost outcomes for patients of two cohorts of chiropractors within the health care system: Cohort 1) a general network of providers, and Cohort 2) a network providing conservative evidence-based care for rapid resolution of pain.
  • They used generalized linear regression modeling to estimate the comparative influence of demographic and clinical factors on expenditures.
  • A total of 25,621 unique patients were included in the analyses

What They Found

  • The average cost per patient for Cohort 2 (mean allowed amount $252) was lower compared to Cohort 1 (mean allowed amount $326
  • Patient and clinician related factors such as health plan, provider region, and sex also significantly influenced costs.

Wrap It Up In general, providers in Cohort 2 were found to be significantly associated with lower costs for patient care as compared to Cohort 1. Utilization of a clinical model characterized by a patient-centered clinic approach and standardized, best-practice clinical protocols may offer lower cost when compared to non-standardized clinical approaches to chiropractic care.

So….just who the hell do you all know that’s been preaching this until his face is about to explode? That’s right, listeners of this podcast. One word, two syllables…..Day-um.  Evidence-based and patient-centered care is the future of chiropractic. It is first and foremost, treating our patients with respect and the best care and that’s what they deserve.  Secondly, it’s speaking the language of the medical community. Which is the language of research. When you’re using their language, you’re starting to communicate more effectively.  I think it’s time for superhero sound effects….boom, pow, snap, kawachow!

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

Chiropractic evidence-based products

Integrating Chiropractors

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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/

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

Bibliography

  • Challoumas D, B. M., McLean M, (2020). “Comparison Of Treatments For Frozen Shoulder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” JAMA Open 3(12): e2029581.
  • Whedon JM, B. S., Dennis P, Fischer VA, Russel R, (2020). “Cost comparison of two approaches to chiropractic care for patients with acute and sub-acute low Back pain care episodes: a cohort study.” Chiropr Man Therap 28(68).
  • Whedon JM, T. A., Bezdijan S, (2020). “Implementation of the Primary Spine Care Model in a Multi-Clinician Primary Care Setting: An Observational Cohort Study.” J Man Physiol Ther 43(7): P667-674.

 

Spinal Instability Clinical Pearls & Degeneration and Facets

CF 152: Spinal Instability Clinical Pearls & Degeneration and Facets

Today we’re going to talk about Spinal Instability Clinical Pearls & Degeneration and Facets 

But first, here’s that sweet sweet bumper music

Chiropractic evidence-based products

Integrating Chiropractors

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

  • Like our Facebook page, 
  • Join our private Facebook group and interact, and then 
  • go review our podcast on iTunes and other podcast platforms. 
  • We also have an evidence-based brochure and poster store at chiropracticforward.com
  • While you’re there, join our weekly email newsletter. No spam, just a reminder when the newest episodes go live. Nothing special so don’t worry about signing up. Just one a week friends. Check your JUNK folder!!

Do it do it do it. 

You have found yourself smack dab in the middle of Episode #152

Now if you missed last week’s episode , we talked about chiropractors integrating into a medical setting. Make sure you don’t miss that info. Keep up with the class. 

While we’re on the topic of being smart, did you know that you can use our website as a resource? Quick and easy, you can go to chiropracticforward.com, click on Episodes, and use the search function

On the personal end of things….. We shall see if we are climbing back after the three day ice storm and the resurgence of COVID has hit us in the last two weeks. We are starting the week, I’m writing this on a Monday….with 120 on the schedule. Of course, we haven’t filled in all of Wednesday or Friday appointments….we have fresh injuries that will see us all three days so those will fill in quite a bit more and I’m hoping to at minimum get back up to the 145 mark that has been our average since Rona began. 

Which is way down from my weekly appointment average of 182 from last year. But 145 is decent and I can roll with that until people are more comfortable in getting out and going into public spaces and businesses. Right now, they just aren’t. And that’s understandable. 

Many of you live in places where there is widespread mask use and they take social distancing seriously. Well, Amarillo, TX would not be one of those places. We have some of the kindest and most giving folks on the planet here in Amarillo but there is a reason we’re number 2 on the New York Times list of places that are about to go through a bad time with the Rona. 

People here just don’t want to wear masks and by golly aren’t going to be told to wear them either. It’s disappointing. For example, just today, my wife and I went to a restaurant we know is not typically busy and we have a little table we can usually sit in where nobody else is around us. That table for the first time was not open today. But there was a table I could see that had nobody near it. 

We go to this restaurant often enough that the servers know us and they know we are taking the Rona very seriously. So they sit us away from everyone. We are sitting there eating and when we’re about to finish up, they sit a group of about 7 dudes one table away from us. Not a damn one of them come in wearing a mask. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. I was disappointed that they didn’t make a choice to wear the masks and I was disappointed that the restaurant didn’t enforce the state mandate to wear them. I was also very disappointed that they chose to sit them next to us. But….while I love my town and I love my people, that’s this area of the country for you. 

It’s frustrating as hell. Our hospitals are full. FEMA is here helping us. They’ve brought in over 750 helpers from outside of our area. Our hospitalization rate is almost 40% right now. Yeah….that bad. And we still have people walking around like it’s a hoax and not wearing masks. It’s insane to me. 

It’s spiking out there everywhere though. Not just here in Amarillo. Stay safe people. Stay vigilant. It’s our responsibility not only to ourselves and our families but to our elderly and immunocompromised patients and our staff. You may be young and athletic yourself but if you get it, even if all you have is a low grade temp or a minor headache and that’s it…..you still have to stay home and lose income for two weeks minimum. 

Be smart. Don’t be one of these vitalists out there thinking they’re freaking superman because they got their adjustment this week. That’s the most insane of all. Sorry vitalists. It’s true. 

Yes….dammit….I’m a bit gripey today!! Why do you ask? 

I’m just done with it honestly. I’m over it. I’m over the election. I’m over everyone being offended about everything. I’m over riots and violent protests. I’m over so much these days and I can’t imagine that you’re any different. 

We’ll get through it. Just hold on. Be kind and be brave. Be kind and be brave. We don’t need much more than that do we?

Item #1

This one is called “Relationship Between Endplate Defects, Modic Change, Facet Joint Degeneration, and Disc Degeneration of Cervical Spine” by Lee et. al(Lee S 2020). and published in Neurospine on June 30, 2020, and it sizzles as it sits!!

Why They Did It

The “disc degeneration precedes facet joint osteoarthritis” hypothesis. in cervical spine degeneration, the multifactorial analyzes of disc degeneration (DD), Modic changes (Mcs), facet degeneration, and endplate degeneration (ED) is still limited. 

How They Did It

Retrospectively recruited 62 patients from 60-70 years old

They evaluated the following: 

  • disc height, 
  • segmental angle, 
  • ossified posterior longitudinal ligament, 
  • endplate degeneration, 
  • facet joint degeneration, 
  • uncovertebral joint degeneration, 
  • disc degeneration, 
  • spinal stenosis, 
  • Modic changes, and 
  • cord signal change 

What They Found

  • The interrelationship of degenerative parameters showed close relation between uncovertebral joint degeneration, spinal stenosis, disc degeneration, ossified posterior longitudinal ligament, Modic change. endplate degeneration, and cord signal change has partial relation with degenerative finding. 
  • Facet joint degeneration only has relation with uncovertebral joint degeneration and Modic changes.

Wrap It Up

They conclude, “Our results may indicate that facet joint degeneration that occurs independently, rather than as a result of other degenerative factors. 

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Item #2

This one is called “A Screening Tool for Patients With Lumbar Instability: A Criteria-related Validity of Thai Version” by Chatprem et. al.(Chatprem 2020) and published in Spine Journal on November 1, 2020, the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire. 

Why They Did It

The aim of this study was to examine the performance characteristics and validity of an existing lumbar instability questionnaire as a screening tool for lumbar instability among chronic low back pain (CLBP) patients.

How They Did It

Lumbar instability screening tool responses and x-ray assessments were reviewed from a sample of 110 patients with CLBP (aged 20-59 years).

What They Found

  • Fourteen (12.73%) patients had radiological lumbar instability. These patients reported a higher mean lumbar instability questionnaire score than those without radiological lumbar instability.
  • A questionnaire score of at least 7 had a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 26.04% for detecting lumbar instability when compared with x-ray examination.
  • A lumbar instability screening tool total score of at least 7 was ruled out lumbar instability in CLBP patients. This cutoff score may be used as a marker of conservative treatment response.

Now just to expand on that idea a bit here; many chiropractors have a mental block when it comes to spinal instability.. What I mean is that many are so subluxation-minded that they do not understand that spinal instability is not good and that adjusting too much too often can actually be the cause of spinal instability. 

If I’m speaking to a vitalistic, philosophy-minded chiropractor, I’m going to say, “You’re not always slaying subluxations, Mr. Vitalist. Many times, you’re so eager for the almighty dollar and the awesome sound of pops over and over again that you create the very problem that you hoped to fix in the first place. 

That is the reason our profession has developed scaled back guidelines for treatment. Have you ever encountered a neck self-adjuster? I used to be one when I was kid. It starts off pretty darn difficult to adjust your neck. Then, with repetition, it gets more and more loose to the point that all you have to do is turn your head and it starts popping. 

That is essentially what many vitalists are doing with patients when they see them repeatedly time and time again month after month, year after year. What the hell else would you expect. 

Then the instability causes chronic pain that they think just needs more adjustments which actually cause more instability and more chronic pain. The cycle is perpetual and the vitalist chiropractor isn’t smart enough to figure out why they can’t get this patient feeling better. After all….isn’t it all about the mighty subluxation?

Why do they fuse spinal segments? To reduce the movement in order to reduce the pain. Doesn’t it seem there are patients that benefit more from exercise and support than from adjustments?

It turns out there are. Those that are hypermobile on the Beighton Scale and those that have instability. Just to update your knowledge on spinal segmental instability, the smoking gun of spinal instability would be

  • Vertebral body anterolisthesis
  • Broad-based disc bulging – flat tire vs. aired up
  • Facet joint enlargement
  • Ligamentum flavum hypertrophy
  • Possible Modic changes. 

Facet pain can often get confused with instability as well. A good example is when a patient has pain just to the left of the lumbar spine, over the facet. You push on it and it hurts. You can provoke facet pain by poking on it. But, you can provoke instability by poking on it as well. 

There are a couple of general ways to focus in on what’s going on there and differentiate the two. You can have the patient stand and extend at the waste, the perform extension rotation both ways. If this doesn’t bother the patient, it’s almost certain it’s not a facet issue. Extension rotation is that accurate. 

If when prone, poking on the facet hurts, you can stabilize the low back region temporarily by have the patient perform a super man / reverse plank type of a position and then, while they’re in the position and those low back muscles are good and tight and supportive, poke on the sore spots again. If the reverse plank position helps that pain, there’s a good chance it’s instability. 

Also, if the low back commonly hurts when they roll over in bed, that’s could be a sign of instability as well. You don’t want to adjust instability folks. You want to strengthen it. Make it solid. In my office, we start that by doing McGill’s Big 3, the side plank, modified curl up, and the bird dog exercises. 

Did you learn something? I hope, if you were lacking in this, I was able to shed some light on it for you. If you have any questions on this feel free to email me at dr.williams@chiropracticforward.com so we can discuss. 

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

 

Chiropractic evidence-based products

Integrating Chiropractors

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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

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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

  • Chatprem, T., Puntumentakul R, Boucaut R, Wanpen S, Chatchawan U, (2020). “A Screening Tool for Patients With Lumbar Instability: A Criteria-related Validity of Thai Version.” Spine (Phila Pa 1976) 45(21): E1431-E1438.
  • Lee S, S. D., Lee JS, Sung SK (2020). “Relationship Between Endplate Defects, Modic Change, Facet Joint Degeneration, and Disc Degeneration of Cervical Spine.” Neurospine 17(2): 443-452.  

Common Surgeries Aren’t Well-Researched & Chiropractic Wins Again

CF 144: Common Surgeries Aren’t Well-Researched & Chiropractic Wins Again Today we’re going to talk about how some of the most common musculoskeletal surgeries aren’t very well-researched and we’ll talk about how chiropractic performs when lined up with multidisciplinary treatment.  But first, here’s that sweet sweet bumper music  
Chiropractic evidence-based products

Integrating Chiropractors

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  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 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.   If you haven’t yet I have a few things you should do. 
  • Like our Facebook page, 
  • Join our private Facebook group and interact, and then 
  • go review our podcast on iTunes and other podcast platforms. 
  • We also have an evidence-based brochure and poster store at chiropracticforward.com
  • While you’re there, join our weekly email newsletter. No spam, just a reminder when the newest episodes go live. Nothing special so don’t worry about signing up. Just one a week friends. Check your JUNK folder!!
Do it do it do it.  You have found yourself smack dab in the middle of Episode #144 Now if you missed last week’s episode, we talked about a new paper that came out in JAMA that said spinal manipulative therapy doesn’t work and what our research experts have to say about that and what my big mouth has to say about it. Make sure you don’t miss that info. Keep up with the class. There may come a time you need to take a stance on that.  While we’re on the topic of being smart, did you know that you can use our website as a resource? Quick and easy, you can go to chiropracticforward.com, click on Episodes, and use the search function to find whatever you want quickly and easily. With over 100 episodes in the tank and an average of 2-3 papers covered per episode, we have somewhere between 250 and 300 papers that can be quickly referenced along with their talking points.  Just so you know, all of the research we talk about in each episode is cited in the show notes for each episode if you’re looking to dive in a little deeper.  On the personal end of things….. I’m trudging through the designated doctor program here in Texas to assess the extent of the injury, return to work, and all of that fun fun stuff. I’m not even sure why I’m doing it. Just to have back up plans. I like multiple streams and I like options. If I get as busy as I was in 2019, I’ll never have the need for it. If it stays where I’m at – 75% of where I was, well it may be something I entertain.  Either way, will it make me a better doctor for personal injuries, work comp, and all patients in general? Hell yeah, it will. Even if I never use it for a DD exam, I’ll be a better doc after going through it. Guaranteed. Even if I don’t pass the damn test!! Which I hear is stupid and has nothing to do with the curriculum. Even if I fail the test, I’ll be better.  It is slowly cooling off here in the Texas Panhandle. While I realize we just went through the longest Spring and Summer known to mankind, I’m going to miss it. Despite all that went into making it the longest Spring and SUmmer ever….I’m going to miss the aspect of time slowing down, sitting on the back patio with my wife, dinner outside in the outdoor kitchen, swimming in the pool, and just being warm in general.  Oh, how I despise the cold weather. Lol. Here’s where you Northerners call me a pansy but….it’s like needles when the cold wind blows. I grew up a couple of hours north of where I live now and there was a difference in weather. At times, it would get bone-chilling cold growing up. I would take a shower in the morning before school, drive there and park, and walk into the school. My wet hair from showering would freeze before I got into the building. Now that’s cold, folks.  I grew up with that, yes, even in Texas. My hometown is called Perryton, TX and it’s only 7 miles from the tiny little strip of Oklahoma and it’s about 45 miles from Kansas. So, it’s not deep in the heart of Texas. It’s way up North.  My point is, I went to school down in Natchitoches, Louisiana, and then lived in Dallas for about 6 years before relocating back to the Texas Panhandle and Amarillo, TX.  Having not been in the cold cold for 8-10 years got me spoiled to the point that I can’t even tolerate cold weather anymore. At all. For any reason. It borderline pisses me off.  Everything dies, it’s cold, it’s windy, people are all yay about pumpkin spice crap, my bones ache a bit, and I’m bitchy 2/3 of the time.  I’m just warning you all, this is what you get to look forward to dealing with for the next 3-4 months. My whiny butt being all cold-weather fussy. But here’s the saving grace and the best thing since sliced bread; the remote start vehicle.  Yes, as any good Texan, I have a pickup and that dude has remote start with defrost and heated seats. You damn right. This is the ONE thing that has made Winter somewhat tolerable for me and, being a good Christian, I thank God and the car companies on the frigid mornings for blessing us all with such wonderous inventions like the remote start.  Now, I don’t want you North Dakota or Canadian friends of mine rolling your eyes too hard at me here. I’m sure you’d melt down here in TX in the Summers so…..we agree to play to our strengths and roll on down the road. Trust me, go through two-a-days in college in Louisiana and tell me how tough you are. Lol. Something you don’t see on TV when you watch football is the humidity. It’s REAL.  I went from three-a-days at one college playing football here in the Texas Panhandle to two-a-days in Louisiana. Not a problem by anyone in the Panhandle but in Lousiana, it looked like a battlefield with players dropping left and right with cramps and having to get IVs there on the practice field….it was insane. So, I’m cold intolerant but I can handle the other end of it. Don’t be too hard on me. Lol.  What does all of this have to do with chiropractic and research? Not a damn thing. Just a little bit of fun rambling and brain dump.  Let’s get on with the real reason we’re here. Item #1 This first one came to me from Dr. Craig Benton, one of my buddies, down in Lampasas, TX where it’s always a bit balmy almost year-round. It’s called “Integrating a multidisciplinary pain team and chiropractic care in a community health center: an observational study of managing chronic spinal pain” by Prater et. al(Prater C 2020). and published in Journal of Primary Care & Community Health on September 10th of 2020. Holy smokin scorchin’ blaze of newness! Look, y’all should know how I feel about chronic pain by now. This is right down my alley. Not a dark alley. No, one that’s lit up like an airport runway. Bright alley.  Why They Did It They say that chronic pain is one of the most common diseases in the US with the underserved population being most affected for obvious reasons. They say the underserved are at more risk of opioid misuse or overuse since they lack therapeutic access otherwise. For this reason, they are looking for other avenues to provide treatment to chronic pain sufferers.  How They Did It
  • This was a prospective observational pilot study
  • Held at a community health center
  • Measured the effectiveness of two interventions among the underserved population
  • The two interventions were 
  • Multidisciplinary team
  • Chiropractic care
  • The outcomes measured were pain and functional disability measured via the Pain Disability Questionnaire and reduction of opioid dosage at 6 and 12 months. 
  • 35 folks complete baseline and follow-up outcome measures from August 2018 to May 2020
Wrap It Up A key finding was quote, “Participants in the chiropractic team and those completing the study before COVID-19 were found to have significantly greater improvement at follow-up.” Well isn’t that sexy? Indeed.  “This observational study within a community health center resulted in improvement in spinal pain and disability with chiropractic care versus a multidisciplinary pain team. Offering similar services in primary care may help to address pain and disability, and hopefully limit external referrals, advanced imaging, and opioid prescriptions.” This was a pilot study with small sample size. Nothing to do backflips about but it’s a start down this path or thinking and learning so hopefully, we’ll see some very cool and very positive things for the chiropractic profession down the line if papers like this continue to come out. Before we get to the next paper, I want to tell you a little about this new tool on the market called Drop Release. I love new toys! If you’re into soft tissue work, then it’s your new best friend. Heck if you’re just into getting more range of motion in your patients, then it’s your new best friend. Drop Release uses fast stretch to stimulate the Golgi Tendon Organ reflex.  Which causes instant and dramatic muscle relaxation and can restore full ROM to restricted joints like shoulders and hips in seconds.   Picture a T bar with a built-in drop piece.  This greatly reduces the time needed for soft tissue treatment, leaving more time for other treatments per visit, or more patients per day.  Drop Release is like nothing else out there, and you almost gotta see it to understand, so check out the videos on the website. It’s inventor, Dr. Chris Howson, from the great state of North Dakota, is a listener and friend. He offered our listeners a great discount on his product. When you order, if you put in the code ‘HOTSTUFF’ all one word….as in hot stuff….coming up!! If you enter HOTSTUFF in the coupon code area, Dr. Howson will give you $50 off of your purchase. Go check Drop Release at droprelease.com and tell Dr. Howson I sent you. Item #2 I think I got this one from Dr. Craig Benton as well. Dr. Benton is a former guest of this podcast. Sounds like we need to have him back on. He’s my Allstar this week. Thank you, Dr. Benton. For keeping me in business and helping me keep everyone, including myself, educated.  This one is called, “Surgery for chronic musculoskeletal pain: the question of evidence” authored by Harris et. al(Harris IA 2020). and published in Pain Journal in September of 2020. Blisters!!! I got blisters on my fingers!!! You Beatles fans…..you’ll get it.  Why They Did It They say that globally, the most common reasons surgery is performed relate to the musculoskeletal system, and outside of injury, the most common reasons pertain to arthritis and back or neck pain. AKA – chronic pain. Yes, I love me some chronic pain people! Not suffering from it. Learning about it and treating it.  They say, “Although the surgical treatment of chronic pain generally relies on attributing pain to objective, often visible changes on imaging studies, the causes of chronic pain are more complex and are strongly influenced by psychosocial factors.” Things like Yellow Flags. Go look up yellow flags and Annie O’Connor’s book called World Of Pain please and thank you.  They say that surgeries like debridement of degenerative joints and things of that nature ignore the complexity of chronic pain. They look at surgery as purely mechanistic in nature with little to no involvement otherwise and the procedures often rely on observational evidence only, rather than rigorous, comparative trials.  In addition, they say that when the trials have actually been performed for these surgeries have been mostly subjective and measurements are usually not blinded to reduce the bias of the outcomes.  Do you want yourself or loved ones cut into when the procedure has not been thoroughly investigated, researched, and tested? Uh hell no. No thank you.  This paper was written to demonstrate that observational evidence is not adequate when you consider the costs and risks of surgical intervention. They advocate surgical procedures that should undergo randomized controlled trials with blinding and showing statistical and clinically important symptomatic improvement when compared to no surgery at all.  Wouldn’t you expect that they already do this???? Evidently not. At all, really.  Ultimately in this paper the goal here was to quantify what kind of support exists in the literature for some common procedures.  How They Did It
  • The first thing to do was identify the common procedures performed for chronic pain
  • Secondly, they had to identify the number of published RCTs comparing each procedure to a control group treated without that procedure
  • They did a search of the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials
  • Each paper was reviewed by two independent authors
pastedGraphic.png What They Found
  • A very low proportion of the RCTs on the selected procedures compared the procedure to not performing the procedure. 64 from the more than 6,735 studies. Less than 1% if you’re keeping track. Is that not stunning? And infuriating?
  • Of those 64, only 9 were favorable to surgery. 
  • When considering individual surgical procedures, the majority of comparative trials did not favor surgery 
  • None of the studies using patient blinding for any procedure found it to be significantly better than not having the surgery at all. 
Wrap It Up We conclude that many common surgical procedures performed for musculoskeletal conditions causing chronic pain have not been subjected to randomized trials comparing them to not performing the procedure. Based on the observation that when such studies have been performed, only 14% (on average) showed a statistically significant and clinically important benefit to surgery; there is a need to produce such high-quality evidence to determine the effectiveness of many common surgical procedures.  Furthermore, the production of high-quality evidence should be a requirement before widespread implementation, funding or professional acceptance of such procedures, rather than the current practice of either performing trials after procedures have become commonplace, or not performing comparative trials at all.” Wouldn’t you like it in the year 2020, when we hear bragging about the amazing advances of medical wonders and technology, and sometimes rightfully so…..would you like it if these things that should go unsaid are actually done? Wouldn’t you like to know that your mom’s spinal surgery procedure was fully vetted? It was researched against not doing it at all? They haven’t done that? Seriously? Look, ever heard of phantom limb pain? Just in case, it’s where a limb is amputated. Cut off completely. Yet, it still hurts. Why the hell does something that is gone and no longer exists still hurt? It’s because chronic pain lives as much or more in the brain as it lives in a peripheral source.  So, if you go in and do surgery on arthritis for a chronic pain sufferer, what are the real chances that you got rid of that pain? How many people have arthritis that commonly doesn’t bother them much at all beyond the first 15 or so minutes after they wake up? The answer isn’t precise but it’s probably a hell of a lot if I’m placing bets.  Did you know that if a person has surgery and they’re in chronic pain syndrome that even if the surgery goes perfectly, they will still have a 60% chance of developing pain at the new site of surgery? That’s what happens when you have a sensitized or upregulated central nervous system. It’s on high alert and using pain to make your future decisions and to protect you. You have to turn the volume down on the central nervous system if you’re ever going to control the pain in the brain. It’s actually the MOST IMPORTANT aspect of treating chronic pain.  How many people get surgery when they don’t need it because the arthritis isn’t really the issue. When the issue actually lies withing the limbic system in the brain? To be fair, how many people get adjusted by the chiropractor a million times because they’re trying to pop out the pain? Hell, doing that a million times only deepens the issue.  Don’t get me wrong, there’s SMT benefit in regard to proprioceptive input, sensorimotor function, movement dysfunction, blood flow, and pain modulation but…..beyond a certain point, it will create instability and that will deepen the issue.  I tell new chronic patients that we treat this issue through a combined approach. They must be approaching the issue from a cognitive aspect simultaneously with my physical treatment as well as the exercise/rehab. If we have that comprehensive, three-pronged approach to their condition, we are going to stand a much better chance at getting this sucker under control.  If you’re adjusting and sending them out the door, that’s low-level and borderline ineffective at best. At the worst, with too many appointments, you compound the issue by adding spinal instability to the mix. Too many chiropractors and subluxation slayers just do not understand this concept. They think they’re being specific. The research is pretty clear. You’re adjusting segments at a time. Not one. You’re not that good.  Alright, that’s it. Y’all be safe. Keep changing the world and our profession from your little corner of the world. Continue taking care of yourselves and taking care of your neighbors. 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 Remember the evidence-informed brochures and posters at chiropracticforward.com.   
Chiropractic evidence-based products

Integrating Chiropractors

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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 subscribe 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
Home
Social Media Links https://www.facebook.com/chiropracticforward/ Chiropractic Forward Podcast Facebook GROUP https://www.facebook.com/groups/1938461399501889/ Twitter 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 – Chiropractor in Amarillo, TX, Chiropractic Advocate, Author, Entrepreneur, Educator, Businessman, Marketer, and Healthcare Blogger & Vlogger   Bibliography
  • Harris IA, S. V., Mittal R, Adie S, (2020). “Surgery for chronic musculoskeletal pain: the questions of evidence.” Pain 161(9): S95-S103.
  • Prater C, T. M., Battaglia P, (2020). “Integrating a Multidisciplinary Pain Team and Chiropractic Care in a Community Health Center: An Observational Study of Managing Chronic Spinal Pain.” Journal of Primary Care & Community Health.

Nonoperative Disc Treatment, D3 for Depression, & The Biopsychosocial Part Of Chronic Pain

CF 142: Nonoperative Disc Treatment, D3 for Depression, & The Biopsychosocial Part Of Chronic Pain

Today we’re going to talk about Nonoperative Disc Treatment, D3 for Depression, & The Biopsychosocial Part Of Chronic Pain

But first, here’s that sweet sweet bumper music

Subscribe button

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 aro

und. 

We’re the fun kind of research. Not the stuffy, high-brow 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.  

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

  • Like our Facebook page, 
  • Join our private Facebook group and interact, and then 
  • go review our podcast on iTunes and other podcast platforms. 
  • We also have an evidence-based brochure and poster store at chiropracticforward.com
  • While you’re there, join our weekly email newsletter. No spam, just a reminder when the newest episodes go live. Nothing special so don’t worry about signing up. Just one a week friends. Check your JUNK folder!!

Do it do it do it. 

You have found yourself smack dab in the middle of Episode #142

Now if you missed last week’s episode , we talked about the update from the authors on The Lancet low back series and we talked about movement disorders and whether or not they translate into pain. Make sure you don’t miss that info. Keep up with the class. 

While we’re on the topic of being smart, did you know that you can use our website as a resource? Quick and easy, you can go to chiropracticforward.com, click on Episodes, and use the search function to find whatever you want quickly and easily. With over 100 episodes in the tank and an average of 2-3 papers covered per episode, we have somewhere between 250 and 300 papers that can be quickly referenced along with their talking points. 

Just so you know, all of the research we talk about in each episode is cited in the show notes for each episode if you’re looking to dive in a little deeper. 

On the personal end of things…..

Kids still in school. I called it early. I’m giving most of the schools about 4-6 weeks before they decide the numbers are too high. I do not want to be a pessimist. I just don’t see how they’ll keep it under control. I drove by my daughter’s junior high at lunch and they had 100-200 kids out on the playground playing basketball. Right up on each other. Lol. 

I know they’re outside. I know. We’ll see. I know the University of Alabama just reported 1200 positives at the campus. Notre Dame, University of North Carolina. I just see it as a start. 

My son told me a kid in his math class turned up positive so that got him all up in a wrinkle. I told him he’s got a better chance of getting it riding in a car with someone to eat or gathering up in dorm rooms than getting it in a big huge classroom. It’ll hold 300 kids but there’s around 50 or 60 in there all wearing masks and distanced. Minimal risk. 

Then I had a patient in here just last week, I treated her on a Tuesday. No temp, no symptoms at all….she goes home. The next day she feels a little funky. Her husband had the Rona a couple of weeks ago if I remember right. Anyway, she’s on high alert because of her husband so she goes and gets tested and she’s positive. The day after we had her in the clinic. 

Now, she was masked the whole time and my time with her was less than 3-5 minutes, she had no symptoms at the time so the risk, to my knowledge, while certainly not ideal, in the long run is probably minimal. 

Had that happened 3-4 weeks ago, I’d probably have been down at the place getting the tests and all that good stuff. Had Jake had a positive kid in his big ol math class a month ago, they’d probably be doing something more than just saying, hey this happened. Y’all wear a mask. 

Things ahve changed slightly in the past month I believe. I think more and more, we’re seeing we can live with this and it’s not the end of the world like some thought it’d be back in March and April. We still see cases going down but they’re still higher than they were in the first wave. Yet deaths aren’t. They’ve leveled and dropped as well. Which is all great news. 

I’m a nerd so I watch interviews with experts on vaccines and epidemilology and all that stuff done through the Journal of the American Medical Association. One of the experts said that’s it’s just not in the virus’s best interest to kill us off. It’s in its best interest to become more transmissible but less deadly so it can spread easier but not kill us…..so it can survive. Basically. 

That’s an interesting way to look at it. Then, yesterday, the CDC comes out and says that only 6% of deaths are due strictly to COVID. Well now hell. Doesn’t that give fuel to the fire for the science hating conspiracy nut cases? More ammo to confuse other dummies into their way of thinking but the truth is, it changed nothing. It just meant that 94% of COVID deaths have an average of 2.6 co-morbidities. 

Well, no durr Sherlock. That’s one of the few things we’ve all actually known this whole time. The CDC just was finally able to quantify it. That’s all. I’m still overweight. I’m still more at risk than John Workout over there drinking his fruit smoothie after his 6 mile run. No change whatsoever but day-um if the nut cases didn’t jump all over that one. 

Watching science haters just explode and reveal themselves on Facebook over the last 6 months has been such a disappointment. Especially the ones that you respected as doctorate level caregivers. 

Now look, I’ll admit something, in the very beginning, when nobody knew what the hell, how many would die and this and that, I got caught up in some of it. A whole bunch of us did. As more information comes to light, as we learn more about it, as we experience life with it, the danger is still there but, education has lessened any fear that might have been there in the beginning. 

Now, it’s just life and we have to keep living. We have to try to send kids to school. Let’s see what happens. We have to go to work. I’ve been working full time for basically 6 months following guidelines and so far so good. Can you imagine what business would look like if I just took off for months? Nope. Can’t do it. 

And isn’t there something to be said about government over reach on some of this stuff? How can they shut down bars yet allow people to gather up in a church? How can some bars stay open with music and bands but they’re able to stay open because you can buy a hamburger. Yet other bars are closed because they don’t sell a hamburger? How does any of it make sense? It’s a stack of hooey balls. 

I’m a Christian, I want people to want to go to church. So don’t get the wrong idea there. It’s a valid comparison. You can group up in church but not in a bar. It’s silly. 

We’ll know more about the back to school thing in jsut a few weeks. 

Alright, I’m rambling, let’s get to it. 

Item #1

The first article here is called “Effect of Long-term Vitamin D3 Supplementation vs Placebo on Risk of Depression or Clinically Relevant Depressive Symptoms and on Change in Mood Scores. A Randomized Clinical Trial” by Okereke et. al(Okereke O 2020). and published in JAMA on August 4, 2020. Hot tamale, hot tamale….

Why They Did It

The authors wanted to know if long-term supplementation with vitamin D3 prevent depression in the general adult population? What’s your guess? D3 is a bit of a wonder kid, right?

How They Did It

  • 18353 men and women aged 50 years or older 
  • Randomized clinical trial 
  • Randomized testing happened from November 2011 through March 2014
  • Randomized treatment ended on December 31, 2017
  • Randomization was D3 or placebo

Wrap It Up

“Among adults aged 50 years or older without clinically relevant depressive symptoms at baseline, treatment with vitamin D3 compared with placebo did not result in a statistically significant difference in the incidence and recurrence of depression or clinically relevant depressive symptoms or for change in mood scores over a median follow-up of 5.3 years. These findings do not support the use of vitamin D3 in adults to prevent depression.”

Before we get to the next paper, I want to tell you a little about this new tool on the market called Drop Release. I love new toys! If you’re into soft tissue work, then it’s your new best friend. Heck if you’re just into getting more range of motion in your patients, then it’s your new best friend.

Drop Release uses fast stretch to stimulate the Golgi Tendon Organ reflex.  Which causes instant and dramatic muscle relaxation and can restore full ROM to restricted joints like shoulders and hips in seconds.  

Picture a T bar with a built-in drop piece.  This greatly reduces time needed for soft tissue treatment, leaving more time for other treatments per visit, or more patients per day.  Drop Release is like nothing else out there, and you almost gotta see it to understand, so check out the videos on the website.

It’s inventor, Dr. Chris Howson, from the great state of North Dakota, is a listener and friend. He offered our listeners a great discount on his product. When you order, if you put in the code ‘HOTSTUFF’ all one word….as in hot stuff….coming up!! If you enter HOTSTUFF in the coupon code area, Dr. Howson will give you $50 off of your purchase.

Go check Drop Release at droprelease.com and tell Dr. Howson I sent you.

Item #2

This second one here is called “An Assessment of Nonoperative Management Strategies in a Herniated Lumbar Disc Population: Successes Versus Failures” by Lilly et. al(Lilly D 2020). published in Global Spine Journal in July of 2020. Is it hot in here? I need some air!

Why They Did It

To compare the utilization of conservative treatments in patients with lumbar intervertebral disc herniations who were successfully managed nonoperatively versus patients who failed conservative therapies and elected to undergo surgery (microdiscectomy).

How They Did It

  • Clinical records from adult patients with an initial herniated lumbar disc between 2007 and 2017 were selected from a large insurance database.
  • Patients were divided into 2 cohorts: patients treated successfully with nonoperative therapies and patients that failed conservative management and opted for microdiscectomy surgery.
  • Nonoperative treatments utilized by the 2 groups were collected over a 2-year surveillance window.
  • “Utilization” was defined by cost billed to patients, prescriptions written, and number of units disbursed.

What They Found

  • 277 941 patients with lumbar intervertebral disc herniations were included.
  • Of these, 269 713 (97.0%) were successfully managed with nonoperative treatments,
  • 8228 (3.0%) failed maximal nonoperative therapy (MNT) and underwent a lumbar microdiscectomy.
  • failures occurred more frequently in males (3.7%), and patients with a history of lumbar epidural steroid injections (4.5%) or preoperative opioid use (3.6%).
  • A cost analysis indicated that patients who failed nonoperative treatments billed for nearly double ($1718/patient) compared to patients who were successfully treated ($906/patient).

Wrap It Up

“Our results suggest that the majority of patients are successfully managed nonoperatively. However, in the subset of patients that fail conservative management, male sex and prior opioid use appear to be independent predictors of treatment failure.”

Item #3

The last one is called “Biopsychosocial baseline values of 15 000 patients suffering from chronic pain: Dutch DataPain study” by Brouwer et. al (Brouwer B 2020) . and published in Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine in August of 2020….only the freshest for you fresh people. 

Why They Did It

They did this one in an effort to understand multidisciplinary approaches to solving chronic pain. 

How They Did It

  • 11,214 patients suffering from chronic pain
  • The pain was analyzed using relevant Initiative on Methods, Measurement, and Pain assessment in Clinical Trials Instruments. 
  • Most patients were female

What They Found

  • The mean age was 55.6 years old
  • Severe pain was reported by 71.9%
  • Psychological and quality of life values deteriorated when pain severity increased
  • About 36% of them showed severe signs of depression or anxiety
  • 39% had high pain catastrophizing
  • Of all patients, 17.8% reported high values for pain severity, catastrophizing and anxiety or depression 

Wrap It Up

“Based on baseline biopsychosocial values, this study shows the complexity of patients referred to pain centers. Pain management with a biopsychosocial approach in an integrated multidisciplinary setting is indispensable. Above all, adjusted education on chronic pain and attention to its biopsychosocial aspects are deemed necessary.”

It becomes more and more clear that if all you’re doing is adjusting and sending them on their way, you’re wrong. 

If you’re adjusting and doing some exericises and sending chronic pain on its way, you’re partly wrong. 

If you’re adjusting when appropriate, if you’re prescribing patients exercises and teaching them how to self manage at home, addressing yellow flags and building confidence while you encourage addressing the cognitive aspect of chronic pain…..well….now you’re starting to get it. You’re becoming someone that can make a realy difference in your patients’ lives. 

Alright, that’s it. Y’all be safe. Keep changing the world and our profession from your little corner of the world. Continue taking care of yourselves and taking care of your neighbors. 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. 

Key Takeaways

Store

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

Subscribe Button

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 preventativly 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

Home

Social Media Links

https://www.facebook.com/chiropracticforward/

Chiropractic Forward Podcast Facebook GROUP

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1938461399501889/

Twitter

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

Brouwer B, W. S., Jacobs C, Overdijk M, (2020). “Biopsychosocial baseline values of 15 000 patients suffering from chronic pain: Dutch DataPain study.” Reg Anesth Pain Med.

Lilly D, D. M., Eldridge C, (2020). “An Assessment of Nonoperative Management Strategies in a Herniated Lumbar Disc Population: Successes Versus Failures.” Global Spine J.

Okereke O, R. C., Mschoulon D, (2020). “Effect of Long-term Vitamin D3 Supplementation vs Placebo on Risk of Depression or Clinically Relevant Depressive Symptoms and on Change in Mood Scores A Randomized Clinical Trial.” JAMA 324(5): 471-480.

Chiropractors Affected By COVID, 2019 Opioid Overdoses, Insurance Compensation For Chiropractic

CF 139: Chiropractors Affected By COVID, 2019 Opioid Overdoses, Insurance Compensation For Chiropractic

Today we’re going to talk about Chiropractors Affected By COVID, 2019 Opioid Overdoses, Insurance Compensation For Chiropractic

But first, here’s that sweet sweet bumper music

Subscribe button

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 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.  

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

  • Like our Facebook page, 
  • Join our private Facebook group and interact, and then 
  • go review our podcast on iTunes and other podcast platforms. 
  • We also have an evidence-based brochure and poster store at chiropracticforward.com
  • While you’re there, join our weekly email newsletter. No spam, just a reminder when the newest episodes go live. Nothing special so don’t worry about signing up. Just one a week friends. Check your JUNK folder!!

Do it do it do it. 

Chiropractic’s Effect On Strength and More, Status of Muscle Relaxers, And The Best Recovery Posture

 

You have found yourself smack dab in the middle of Episode #139

Now if you missed last week’s episode , we talked about NSAIDs, cognitive behavioral therapy and vitalists ignoring stuff. Make sure you don’t miss that info. Keep up with the class. 

While we’re on the topic of being smart, did you know that you can use our website as a resource? Quick and easy, you can go to chiropracticforward.com, click on Episodes, and use the search function to find whatever you want quickly and easily. With over 100 episodes in the tank and an average of 2-3 papers covered per episode, we have somewhere between 250 and 300 papers that can be quickly referenced along with their talking points. 

Just so you know, all of the research we talk about in each episode is cited in the show notes for each episode if you’re looking to dive in a little deeper. 

On the personal end of things…..

Personal means personal right? Well, I’m still working on getting the whole voice-over gig set up and rocking and rolling. What’s voice over you may ask? Well, the voices you hear on commercials, eLearning, promos, radio bumpers, and even cartoons and stuff like that. That’s voice overwork. 

Here’s my thought and I’ve said it here before; I don’t want to die in my office working on people when I’m 80. God bless those of you that love the daily grind so much that that’s your goal. It takes all sorts, doesn’t it? But that’s not me. I want to hire an associate and mentor them over the course of a certain amount of time and then sell my practice to them eventually. 

I’m a musician/singer/songwriter. I’m a sculptor. A portrait artist, furniture builder, and all kinds of other things. I love to travel as well. So, what kind of work could I do that would allow me some retirement income and can be done literally from anywhere in the world with an internet connection? Voice over of course. So, I started working on it once the Rona showed up. I’m taking some classes and building some skills and equipment and knowledge. 

The thought process is, if I start now, in 5 years it may be a very viable way to add to my weekly income in retirement. I have other things I’m looking at as well but this is the one I’m knee-deep in right now. 

I have friends that tell me they only get 24 hours in a day and I get more like 48. Lol. That’s not true of course but I do keep moving, keep thinking, keep working pretty much non-stop and move from one thing to another fairly quickly trying to multi-task and get it all done on some sort of time scale. 

I adhere to an old saying I try to always remember; time is just time. You’re either investing in it or you’re wasting it. I don’t like to waste time all that much. There’s always time to sit and relax here and there but, in general, I’m not much for wasting it. 

As far as business, we’re marketing like crazy. I’ve put more into marketing in the last 3 months than I have in the last three years and guess what…..80%. We’re still at about 80% of where I was and like I said last week, that’s my new normal and I’m done making myself crazy about it. I’ll take this extra time and I’ll continue to invest in it. 

So I’m anxious to see what happens. I have things working inside chiropractic. I have things working outside chiropractic. Let’s see which mud sticks to the wall. If any of it sticks at all, right? We never know but it’s exciting to be productive. It’s exciting to be creative. And it’s exciting to have the prospect of more income and more options as to your future. 

That’s where I’m at right now. I just turned 48. I  have less time in front than behind. I’m not getting younger so it’s time to step on the gas. And that’s what I’m doing. This pandemic crap isn’t going to last forever and I plan on sitting pretty in time to retire so let’s just get started right now shall we?

Item #1

Speaking of ‘pandemic crap’, here’s a paper called “The impact of COVID-19 on the chiropractic profession: a cross-sectional survey on opinions, professional changes, and personal hardships of US chiropractors” by Neff et. al(Neff S 2020). published in Chiropractic and Manual Therapies posted on 15 of July 2020 and dammit if that’s not hot then I don’t know what is, people. 

Now, before I get going on this one, I recognize three of the authors’ names from the Forward Thinking Chiropractic Alliance group on Facebook. Once again, if you’re considering yourself an evidence-based, patient-centered chiropractor rather than a vitalist, get in that group. You can learn a ton. Anyway, Shawn Neff, Rebecca Deyo who I’ve mentioned on this show before, and Annabelle MacAuley. All very smart, very talented doctors of chiropractic. 

Why They Did It

The research was conducted to collect self-reported data on how COVID-19 has affected U.S. doctors of chiropractic. I’m glad someone is paying attention to us and all. Honestly, chiropractors get the fat end of the bat don’t we? Who got PPE delivered to your office by the state back in April?

Yeah, me either. Anyway……

How They Did It

  • An electronic survey was sent to U.S. chiropractors nationwide via social media and email. 
  • The survey collected 
  • personal and practice demographic information, 
  • office protocols, 
  • changes made during COVID-19, 
  • chiropractic profession opinions/stances, 
  • information related to stress, and 
  • personal beliefs/opinions.
  • Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

What They Found

  • 750 U.S. chiropractors responded. 
  • Just over half of respondents reported moderate levels of stress, and 
  • Just over 30% reported severe levels due to a variety of reasons related to both personal and professional circumstances. 
  • The primary stressors were financial and business concerns. 
  • The highest stress levels were among employers responsible for others. 
  • A majority reported beliefs that the chiropractic profession should not advertise that spinal manipulation provides any immune system benefit. 
  • 13% of the respondents believed chiropractors should be marketing immune benefits during this time. 
  • A shift toward telehealth was reported, with 18% adding it to their services.

Wrap It Up

“Stress levels were high across the population. A range of opinions existed regarding spinal manipulation and immunity benefits. The majority reported there was not sufficient evidence to support such a belief; however, a group of respondents believed that chiropractors should be marketing immune-enhancing benefits to the population. A logical next step would be to study why such beliefs persist. This information may be useful in better understanding how chiropractors have experienced the global effects of COVID-19 across the United States.”

Adjusting Disc Herniations and Bulges

 

So…..if you want to know how many are vitalists and how many are evidence-based or, at minimum….agnostic….then doesn’t this give us some hints? A vitalist would claim to take the pressure off of nerves allowing the innate life force to better express itself rendering you immune to the disease. That sounds like about 13% of chiropractors surveyed. 

That tells me 87% call shenanigans on the rest of it. It’s been a while since I heard a number. We know its the minority but damnit they’re a loud minority, aren’t they? They’ve kept us right here without cultural authority for over 100 years at this point. 87% is pretty high though. Maybe it’s changing. 

I saw another recent survey where only a very small percentage of chiropractors were interested in learning more about chiropractic philosophy. I think it’s fine as a historical thing. Just not as something that keeps controlling our profession and keeps us at the bottom of the barrel. 

Love me or hate me, at least I’m honest and you know where I stand. 

Before we get to the next paper, I want to tell you a little about this new tool on the market called Drop Release. I love new toys! If you’re into soft tissue work, then it’s your new best friend. Heck if you’re just into getting more range of motion in your patients, then it’s your new best friend.

Getting Patients Returning, Shoulder Impingement, Cervical Manipulation, & X-rays and Neurodegenerative Disease

 

Drop Release uses fast stretch to stimulate the Golgi Tendon Organ reflex.  Which causes instant and dramatic muscle relaxation and can restore full ROM to restricted joints like shoulders and hips in seconds.  

Picture a T bar with a built-in drop piece.  This greatly reduces the time needed for soft tissue treatment, leaving more time for other treatments per visit, or more patients per day.  Drop Release is like nothing else out there, and you almost gotta see it to understand, so check out the videos on the website.

It’s inventor, Dr. Chris Howson, from the great state of North Dakota, is a listener and friend. He offered our listeners a great discount on his product. When you order, if you put in the code ‘HOTSTUFF’ all one word….as in hot stuff….coming up!! If you enter HOTSTUFF in the coupon code area, Dr. Howson will give you $50 off of your purchase.

Go check Drop Release at droprelease.com and tell Dr. Howson I sent you.

Item #2

This second one is a report from CNN on opioids called “Drug overdose deaths jump in 2019 to nearly 71,000, a record high, CDC says” by Shelby Lin Erdman on July 16, 2020(Erdman 2020). Hot stuff….come on now. Make way people!

This was an article so we’ll be like a boat on the lake and just skip across the high spots. How about that?

  • Drug overdose deaths in the US jumped last year by about 4.8%. 
  • 2018 was slightly down from 2017
  • 2019 bumped back up to 71,000 overdose deaths. 
  • The former president of the American Medical Association, Dr. Patrice Harris, said the numbers show why it’s important to remove any obstacles to treatment for those addicted to drugs. While I think that’s worthy, I think it’s important to not that there should be no obstacles in place to see alternative practitioners in the first place when some of these folks presented with pain. The White House report in 2016 and The Lancet report on back pain both agreed there are obstacles in place preventing these kinds of patients from seeing chiropractors. 

Item #3

This one is called “Trends in Insurance Coverage for Complementary Health Care Services” by Whedon et. al(Whedon JM 2020). published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine on July 7, 2020. The roof, the roof…it’s on fire. 

Why They Did It

Complementary health care professionals deliver a substantial component of clinical services in the United States, but insurance coverage for many such services may be inadequate. The objective of this project was to follow up on an earlier single-year study with an evaluation of trends in reimbursement for complementary health care services over a 7-year period.

How They Did It

  • The authors employed a retrospective serial cross-sectional design to analyze health insurance claims for services provided by licensed acupuncturists, chiropractors, and naturopaths in New Hampshire (NH) from 2011 to 2017. 
  • They restricted the analyses to claims in nonemergent outpatient settings for Current Procedural Terminology code 99213, which is one of the most commonly used clinical procedure codes across all specialties. 
  • They evaluated by year the likelihood of reimbursement, as compared with primary care physicians as the gold standard. 

What They Found

  • The total number of clinical services claimed was 
  • 26,725 for acupuncture, 
  • 8317 for naturopathic medicine, 
  • 2,539,144 for chiropractic, and 
  • 1,860,271 for primary care. 
  • Initially, the likelihood of reimbursement for naturopathic physicians was higher relative to primary care physicians but was lower from 2014 onward. 
  • Odds of reimbursement for both acupuncture and chiropractic claims remained lower throughout the study period. 
  • In 2017, as compared with primary care the likelihood of reimbursement was 
  • 77% lower for acupuncturists, 
  • 72% lower for chiropractors, and 
  • 64% lower for naturopaths.

Wrap It Up

“The likelihood of reimbursement for complementary health care services is significantly lower than that for primary care physicians in NH. Lack of insurance coverage may result in reduced patient access to such services.”

So when we talk about barriers to seeing safer, non-invasive practitioners, don’t tell me there are none. Don’t piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining. 

What was the Tommy Boy reference? You can get a good look at a t-bone by sticking your head up a bull’s ass but wouldn’t you rather take the butcher’s word for it? Or no…..it’s gotta be YOUR bull. Lol. Great movie. 

Anyway….buncha hullabaloo. Research and surveys are so clear and mostly consistent when they say spinal pain is so bad yet chiropractic is so good at treating it. Not only in terms of effectiveness but also in terms of patient satisfaction and even long term outcomes when compared to traditional treatment. The damn White House report a few years ago said there are barriers. The Lancet said it. I’ve seen it other places that aren’t coming to mind but it’s clear there are barriers in place set up by the stakeholders, the insurance gurus, the medical professionals….. All go 180 degrees from what the research tells them to do. 

And they keep going that way. It feels like it’s not turning around. At all. So…..shenanigans. I’m calling shenanigans. 

Alright, that’s it. Y’all be safe. Keep changing the world and our profession from your little corner of the world. Continue taking care of yourselves and taking care of your neighbors. 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. 

Key Takeaways

Store

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

Subscribe Button

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 preventativly 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

Home

Social Media Links

https://www.facebook.com/chiropracticforward/

Chiropractic Forward Podcast Facebook GROUP

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1938461399501889/

Twitter

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

 

Bibliography

  • Erdman, S. L. (2020) “Drug overdose deaths jump in 2019 to nearly 71,000, a record high, CDC says.” CNN.
  • Neff S, D. R., MacAuley A, Lawrence D, (2020). “The impact of COVID-19 on the chiropractic profession: a cross-sectional survey on opinions, professional changes, and personal hardships of U.S. chiropractors.” BMC Chiro Man Ther.
  • Whedon JM, e. a. (2020). “Trends in Insurance coverage for Complementary Health Care Services.” J Altern Complement Med.

 

Giving, Maintenance Care, Dry Needling, and Vitalism

CF 132: Giving, Maintenance Care, Dry Needling, and Vitalism Today we’re going to talk about Giving, Maintenance Care, Dry Needling, and Vitalism

 

But first, here’s that sweet sweet bumper music  

Chiropractic evidence-based products

Integrating Chiropractors

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Screen-Shot-2018-07-12-at-10.23.22-AM-150x55.jpg

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Screen-Shot-2018-07-12-at-10.23.33-AM-150x55.jpg

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Screen-Shot-2018-07-12-at-10.23.09-AM-150x55.jpg

 

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 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.  

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

  • Like our Facebook page, 
  • Join our private Facebook group and interact, and then 
  • go review our podcast on iTunes and other podcast platforms. 
  • We also have an evidence-based brochure and poster store at chiropracticforward.com
  • While you’re there, join our weekly email newsletter. No spam, just a reminder when the newest episodes go live. Nothing special so don’t worry about signing up. Just one a week friends. Check your JUNK folder!!

Do it do it do it. 

You have found yourself smack dab in the middle of Episode #132

Now if you missed last week’s episode , we talked about 5 principles to change clinical practice. There was some great information in that one all based on a recent paper that came out. Make sure you don’t miss that info. Keep up with the class. 

While we’re on the topic of being smart, did you know that you can use our website as a resource? Quick and easy, you can go to chiropracticforward.com, click on Episodes, and use the search function to find whatever you want quickly and easily. With over 100 episodes in the tank and an average of 2-3 papers covered per episode, we have somewhere between 250 and 300 papers that can be quickly referenced along with their talking points. 

Just so you know, all of the research we talk about in each episode is cited in the show notes for each episode if you’re looking to dive in a little deeper. 

On the personal end of things…..

One foot in front of the other. I’ve been thinking a lot lately. I know this concept but I don’t do it intentionally. Still….I definitely do it. I give away stuff and help others when I like them, their product, or service. I promote them without expecting anything in return. Because I don’t expect anything in return. I do it because of the reasons stated. 

Then, what happens is that through giving to others, things come back around and are given to you. That’s the way it works. Again, I don’t give to get something back.  To me, that’s just not how it works. You have to give because you have a giving heart. Not a greedy heart just giving to get. 

I talk about people that I believe in and things that I use because I like them and I think they’d be useful to you. I talk about other people’s stuff more than I talk about my own stuff. I have some awesome evidence based patient education brochures and posters on our website but I talk more about Forward Thinking Chiropractic Alliance than you hear me talk about my stuff. 

If you’re evidence-based, I firmly believe you need to be a part of the FTCA. It’s that simple. We had Kevin Christie with Modern Chiropractic Marketing Podcast on a couple weeks ago. He does it right. That’s why he was on. I believe in Dr. Christie, I like Dr. Christie, and I support him. 

ChiroUp, not only do I really like the co-owners personally, but I don’t know what I ever did without the product. Honestly, I have no idea. I was less than before I had ChiroUp in my office. 

It’s why you always hear me speak about the diplomate/fellowship through the international academy of neuromusculoskeletal medicine. I’m not sure I’ve ever professionally believed in anything more than the education you get through them. 

It’s why I talk often about involvement with the Texas Chiropractic Association. It’s because I hope you’ll see the value in being active and involved in your own associations. Doing so was one of the key gamechangers in my professional life. You can count on that. 

Same goes for philanthropy. If you’re not giving back to your local non-profits monthly, you really should consider doing so. It’s easy and it’s fun. We’ve made it a cornerstone of my personal business. 

This isn’t a ‘oh look at me and how awesome I am’ thing here. It’s just an honest conversation about something I was thinking the other day. Does any of this come back to benefit me financially? I don’t know. I really don’t have a clue. And honestly, I don’t care. Once again, that’s not why we give. We give because we have a giver’s heart. Not only do I like and believe in the people and the products or the causes, but I also think that our listeners will find value in it. If I’m providing you value, then you know you’ll get the best, most valuable information through this podcast. 

So, maybe, even if others aren’t necessarily talking us up or pumping our tires, it still comes back, huh? Either way, there’s nothing better than giving. At least for me. I came across a quote that made some sense recently. Pablo Picasso said that the meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” That’s a giver’s heart. Exactly what I’m talking about. Seems like it worked out for Pablo. 

I think about give vs. take and I think of people that are takers. Taking money from patients when they don’t need the treatment. But a doctor scared them into a ton of extra visits because it’s good for stats and the bottom line. That’s a taker. 

Being in a position to help but deciding to never do anything to help anyone unless it benefits them personally or financially. That’s a taker. 

Just being in the world to see what you can get out of it instead of what you can contribute. That’s a taker. What can you do to make your space better? How can you spread a little love and kindness? 

Just some random thoughts today. Hope it meant something to you. 

Item #1

Let’s get started with this one called “The Nordic maintenance care program: maintenance care reduces the number of days with pain in acute episodes and increases the length of pain free periods for dysfunctional patients with recurrent and persistent low back pain – a secondary analysis of a pragmatic randomized controlled trial” by andreas Eklund et al(Eklund A 2020) and published in Chirorpactic and Manual Therapies in April 2020. Hot cakes coming up, hot cakes people. 

Why They Did It

Eklund has shown in two previous papers the benefit of treating preventatively but thae benefit varied across psychological subgroups. 

The aims of this study were to investigate 

  1. pain trajectories around treatments, 
  2. recurrence of new episodes of LBP, and 
  3. length of consecutive pain-free periods and total number of pain-free weeks, for all study participants as well as for each psychological subgroup.

How They Did It

A secondary analysis of data from a randomized controlled trial of patients seeking chiropractic care for recurrent or persistent LBP used 52 weekly estimates of days with low back pain that limited activity. 

What They Found

  • Patients receiving maintenance care had flat pain trajectories around each new treatment period and reported fewer days with pain compared to patients receiving the control intervention. 
  • The entire effect was attributed to the dysfunctional subgroup who reported fewer days with activity limiting pain within each new LBP episode as well as longer total pain-free periods between episodes with a difference of 9.8 weeks compared to the control group. 
  • There were no differences in the time to/risk of a new episode of LBP in either of the subgroups.

Wrap It Up

Data support the use of MC in a stratified care model targeting dysfunctional patients for MC. For a carefully selected group of patients with recurrent and persistent LBP the clinical course becomes more stable and the number of pain-free weeks between episodes increases when receiving MC.

Item #2

Item 2 is called ‘Dry needling for spine related disorders: a scoping review’ by Funk et. al(Funk MF 2020). published in Chiropractic and Manual Therapies  in May of 2020…..bringin’ the heat people! Bringing the heat!

Why They Did It

The depth and breadth of research on dry needling (DN) has not been evaluated specifically for symptomatic spine related disorders (SRD) from myofascial trigger points (TrP), disc, nerve and articular structures not due to serious pathologies. Current literature appears to support dry needling for treatment of trigger points. Goals of this review include identifying research published on dry needling treatment for spine related disorders, sites of treatment and outcomes studied.

How They Did It

A scoping review was conducted following Levac et al.’s five part methodological framework to determine the current state of the literature regarding dry needling for patients with spine related disorders.

That sound fine and freaking dandy but what the hell is a scoping review vs. a systematic review? Well, I did the work for you and here’s what we have. Within the framework of research methods, a well- done scoping review is considered at a higher level than a straightforward review of literature or an integrative review, but not as in depth as a Cochrane or Johanna Briggs model systematic review

Researchers may conduct scoping reviews instead of systematic reviews where the purpose of the review is to identify knowledge gaps, scope a body of literature, clarify concepts or to investigate research conduct. While useful in their own right, scoping reviews may also be helpful precursors to systematic reviews and can be used to confirm the relevance of inclusion criteria and potential questions.

Although conducted for different purposes compared to systematic reviews, scoping reviews still require rigorous and transparent methods in their conduct to ensure that the results are trustworthy. 

And now we’ve both learned something so that’s awesome. 

Wrap It Up

Back to the paper here; I’m not even going to get into the meat and taters here on this paper because you’ll zone off and might even tune out. I have it cited in the show notes if you really want to find it and dive in. Getting straight to the conclusion, the authors say, “For spine related disorders, dry needling was primarily applied to myofascial structures for pain or TrP diagnoses. Many outcomes were improved regardless of diagnosis or treatment parameters. Most studies applied just one treatment which may not reflect common clinical practice. Further research is warranted to determine optimal treatment duration and frequency. Most studies looked at dry needling as the sole intervention. It is unclear whether dry needling alone or in addition to other treatment procedures would provide superior outcomes.”

We covered a paper on dry needling last year that suggested it had little use. It appears it does indeed have some use. They just don’t know how to best use it yet. If that makes sense.

Item #3

Our last one today is called ‘Vitalism in contemporary chiropractic:a help or a hinderance?” by J. Keith Simpson and Kenneth J. Young(Simpson J 2020) and published in Chiropractic and Manual Therapies June 11, 2020. See the sizzle on that stacks of steaming sizzlers.  

Why They Did It

Chiropractic emerged in 1895 and was promoted as a viable health care substitute in direct competition with the medical profession. This was an era when there was a belief that one cause and one cure for all disease would be discovered. The chiropractic version was a theory that most diseases were caused by subluxated (slightly displaced) vertebrae interfering with “nerve vibrations” (a supernatural, vital force) and could be cured by adjusting (repositioning) vertebrae, thereby removing the interference with the body’s inherent capacity to heal. DD Palmer, the originator of chiropractic, established chiropractic based on vitalistic principles. Anecdotally, the authors have observed that many chiropractors who overtly claim to be “vitalists” cannot define the term. Therefore, we sought the origins of vitalism and to examine its effects on chiropractic today.

Discussion

Vitalism arose out of human curiosity around the biggest questions: Where do we come from? What is life? For some, life was derived from an unknown and unknowable vital force. For others, a vital force was a placeholder, a piece of knowledge not yet grasped but attainable. Developments in science have demonstrated there is no longer a need to invoke vitalistic entities as either explanations or hypotheses for biological phenomena. Nevertheless, vitalism remains within chiropractic. In this examination of vitalism within chiropractic we explore the history of vitalism, vitalism within chiropractic and whether a vitalistic ideology is compatible with the legal and ethical requirements for registered health care professionals such as chiropractors.

They say that despite the obstacle of vitalism, chiropractic has made extraordinary inroads into the health care system worldwide. Having emerged from the pre-scientific health care era in the United States of America (USA) in the early twentieth century it now has a global footprint with representation in approximately 100 countries. It is the third largest regulated primary contact health care profession in the western world

Conclusion

Vitalism has had many meanings throughout the centuries of recorded history. Though only vaguely defined by chiropractors, vitalism, as a representation of supernatural force and therefore an untestable hypothesis, sits at the heart of the divisions within chiropractic and acts as an impediment to chiropractic legitimacy, cultural authority and integration into mainstream health care.

Y’all know by now how I feel about it. When you have someone following current research, updating their procedures and thought process as the knowledge base expands, and taking care of their patients and running their businesses in an ethical way with the highest of morals and love, then you’re my kind of person. I respect you and I’m proud of you. Most of our listeners are that kind of practitioner. 

If you’re scaring people into a bunch of visits based on stuff research says is no big deal, if you’re convincing people they depend on seeing you consistently, if you’re engaging in vaccine discussions when you’ve read a book or two but never been proper educated to do so, when you’re stats and your profits come before the true needs of the patient, then I don’t respect you and I wonder how you sleep at night with the knowledge of how you are screwing and stealing from patients coming to you for your help weighing heavily on your conscience. They come to you for your help. Not to buy you a big house. Not to be lied to. Not to have false, fake, or outdated ideas shoved up their poop shoot and to be taken advantage of. 

Stop it dammit. It’s gross and you give everyone that truly works their asses off a bad name. You’re the reason someone that gets a diplomate or some other significant continueing education ro certification…..you’re the reason they still get laughed at behind their backs. You should be ashamed of what you do to yourselves, your colleagues, and your profession. 

I’m really not a bitchy guy. I’m a fun-loving ‘let’s have a beer’ kind of guy. But very few things grind my geears worse than this stuff. Honestly. It’s the wrench in my gears, the salt in my wound if you will. I think about it and I start breaking out in hives and get all rashy. My eyes about roll out of my damn head onto the floor. 

I’ll be in a better mood next week. I hope. 

Alright, that’s it. Y’all be safe. Continue taking care of yourselves and taking care of your neighbors. 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. 

Chiropractic evidence-based products

Integrating Chiropractors

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

 

Bibliography

Eklund A, H. J., Jensen I, Leboeuf-Yde C, (2020). “The Nordic maintenance care program: maintenance care reduces the number of days with pain in acute episodes and increases the length of pain free periods for dysfunctional patients with recurrent and persistent low back pain – a secondary analysis of a pragmatic randomized controlled trial.” Chiropr Man Therap 28(19).

Funk MF, F.-D. A. (2020). “Dry needling for spine related disorders: a scoping review.” Chiropr Man Therap 28(23).

Simpson J, Y. K. (2020). “Vitalism in contemporary chiropractic: a help or a hinderance?” Chiropr Man Therap 28(35).