chiropractic forward podcast

w/ Dr. Brett Winchester: Chiropractic Excellence, Inspiration, & Being The Best Evidence-informed Chiropractor You Can Be

CF 189: w/ Dr. Brett Winchester: Chiropractic Excellence, Inspiration, & Being The Best Evidence-informed Chiropractor You Can Be

Today we’re going to be joined by the illustrious potentate himself, Dr. Brett Winchester. You all are in for a real treat today folks. They say that the US Marines are the tip of the spear, well, when it comes to our profession, he’s just that. If you don’t get something out of this interview, you’re just not paying attention, my friends. Get ready for the waterfall of knowledge nuggets heading your way. But first, here’s that sweet sweet bumper music

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

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. 

  • Go to Amazon and check our my book called The Remarkable Truth About Chiropractic: A Unique Journey Into The Research. It’s an invaluable resource for your patient education and for you. It can save you time in putting talks together or just staying current on research. It’s categorized into sections so that the information is easy to find and it’s written in a way that is easy to understand for practitioner as well as patient. You have to check it out. Just search for it on Amazon. That’s the Remarkable Truth About Chiropractic by Jeff Williams. 
  • Then go 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 #189 Now if you missed last week’s episode , we talked with Dr. Rob Pape of the Quadrant Analysis procedure as well as Practice Mechanics. Excellent discussion and plenty of nuggets dished out on that episode. Make sure you don’t miss that info. Keep up with the class. 

On the personal end of things…..

Trucking along with the medical integration. Nothing worth doing is easy. If it were easy, we’d all be in the middle of it. But I do think that once it’s up and running, we’re going to be doing great and getting patients well. And….maybe even free up a little of my time as well.  It’s a big time for me. Setting up relationships with medical supplies companies, with pharmacies, figuring out how our NP orders scripts through the EHR, and figuring out stuff that just has never been a part of my life. It’s interesting. All the while getting contracts signed and getting new accounts set up that I share with the medical director and getting cabinets put in the room to store the things I never needed stored.

I bought a damn autoclave and then bought a damn centrifuge, y’all. Seriously, it’s all new to me but I’m getting there.  My biggest concern is that everything is ready to roll on day one perfectly. Which means I’ve set myself up for failure. That’s because we’re definitely going to forget something. It’s just going to happen. No doubt about it. There are so many moving parts and different supplies to get that there is literally zero chance of having it all on Day One. 

But it’ll all unfold.

How’s practice going for you folks? Send me an email. I want to know how you’re all doing. I’m still hovering around about 160 or so appointments per week. That’s not much for the straights but for an evidence-based dude with therapies, exercises, and things like that, it’s quite a bit.

The joke of a chiropractor up in Oklahoma that sees like 100 patients in three hours including 9 new patients….160 wouldn’t mean much for that doctor….and I use the term loosely when I say doctor…. It takes longer than that when done properly and responsibly though, doesn’t it. Listeners of this show know that. You’re smart. You get it.  We’re not where we were pre-COVID and I’m afraid the Delta-Vid has some folks scared again and staying at the casa. I don’t blame them.

Who knows if we ever totally get the VID under control but either way, it’ll become a way of life, we’ll adapt, and things will stabilize eventually. One way or another.  That’s enough about me, Delta VID,  and the personal happenings. Our guest is too good to waste time. Let’s get to our amazing sponsor first. 

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Dr. Brett Winchester lectures throughout the world, teaching his functional approach to patient care.  Combining manual therapy, including joint manipulation and neuromuscular stabilization, with therapeutic exercise, Dr. Winchester effectively treats functional pathologies and acts as a catalyst for patients working to enhance their performance. Dr. Winchester is the founder of Winchester Spine & Sport located outside  St. Louis, Missouri.  His current appointments include:

  • Advanced biomechanics course instructor at Logan College of Chiropractic
  • Technique instructor at Logan College of Chiropractic
  • Biomechanics instructor at Maryville University
  • Instructor and board member for the Motion Palpation Institute
  • Chiropractic Rehabilitation Diplomate instructor 
  • Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization instructor trained by Pavel Kolar
  • Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy (MDT) certified
  • Gestalt Performance (owner)

Dr. Winchester’s published research includes topics such as offering a multidisciplinary approach for treatment of the pregnant population and foot dysfunction. 

Various chiropractic journals have also featured Dr. Winchester for his patient-driven treatment model.  He also has authored two chapters for textbooks.   Dr. Winchester enjoys treating professional and collegiate athletes and has gained a reputation for his sports medicine background.  His expertise has placed him at the forefront of the ulnar collateral ligament rupture epidemic in professional baseball pitchers, providing insights into causation and effective treatment protocols.  + Dr. Winchester served as the chiropractor for the St. Louis Cardinals from 2014-2018 and still consults with various Major League Baseball teams.  

Still, his passion remains with diagnosing and treating the ailments of a diverse patient population with conservative-based protocols.   

Welcome to the show Dr. Winchester! It’s great to have you with us on the podcast. Thank you for joining us. 

Just briefly before we get into the meat and taters here, tell me a little about your family Everyone has the chiropractic story. Of all of the professions in the world, why are you a chiropractor?

People say they don’t know how I get all of the things done in the day that I do, reading through your bio, I can say the same about you. What does a regular day or week look like for you?

Where did you make the break from traditional philosophy-based chiropractic teaching and move firmly and confidently into the evidence, the research side of our profession?

What’s the future of chiro look like?

Why is being good at manipulation so important?

We both exist on the evidence-based spectrum of this profession.

What is your response if the more philosophy, vitalistic-based side of the profession says we are medi-practors and that practitioners like us don’t value the adjustment? 

Why do people suck at joint play?

What makes for great adjusting?

What does a multi-modal approach mean?

What is it truly like to work with a professional sports team like St. Louis Cardinals? Is it worth it? Or is it just too much?

With your involvement in Motion Palpation Institute, MDT, the rehab diplomate and all of the rest, for the docs out there looking to take the next step toward being the best, what do you think made the largest leap forward for you in terms of knowledge that led to significant positive results in your patients?

What would the colleagues that are close to you say is your best attribute?

And the worst?  

Tell everyone about the Gestalt Podcast, where does the name come from, and why they need to tune in? 

I think that about wraps up for this episode. Tell me you’ll come back sometime. 

Alright, that’s it. Keep on keepin’ on. Keep changing our profession from your corner of the world. The world needs evidence-based, patient-centered practitioners driving the bus so get active, get involved, and make it happen. Let’s get to the message. Same as it is every week. 

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

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

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/

Twitter https://twitter.com/Chiro_Forward

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

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

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

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

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

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

Western Diet Hurts and Acupuncture

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

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

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

On the personal end of things…..

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

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

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

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

Item #1

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

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

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

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

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Item #2

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

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

Why They Did It

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

How They Did It

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

What They Found

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

Wrap It Up

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

Item #3

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

Why They Did It

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

How They Did It

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

What They Found

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

Wrap It Up

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

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

Store

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

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

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

 

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 & disabilities and we do it through conservative, non-surgical means with minimal hassle to the patient. And, if the patient treats preventatively after initial recovery, we can usually keep it that way while raising the overall level of health!

Key Point:

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/

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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

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

 

Working Class Rising Death Rates & Nutrition Affects Chronic Pain

CF 179: Working Class Rising Death Rates & Nutrition Affects Chronic Pain Today we’re going to talk about the fact that there are rising death rates among folks that are of working-class age. Not just the elderly. Why is that happening? Then we’ll talk about diet and chronic pain.  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 #179 Now if you missed last week’s episode , we talked about  whether chiropractors cause disc herniations or not and we talked about how family doctors still aren’t getting the message. Make sure you don’t miss that info. Keep up with the class.  On the personal end of things….. This medical integration thing is about to take off. Wee ahve the contracts all drawn up, questions answered, and ready to get them all signed.  New EIN, new credentialing for me and the NP, and full steam ahead. Did you know that I have to re-credential under the new entity as well? What a pain in the backside, right? Hell yeah it is. I’m OK referring patients back and forth within the same group. You start to run into risk of getting in trouble with the Stark, anti-kickback laws when you are referring patients back and forth across different entities.  So, yeah….there’s that. I won’t bore you with the particulars but it’s definitely a ride we’re on and it’s go time.  Everything I’ve seen and experienced thus far tells me that we’re in a good spot and things are proceeding fairly smoothly. Slowly but smoothly. Next will be credentialing and that will slow everything down for a couple of months but that’s probably a good thing I’m guessing.  I’m fortunate to have a genius for a wife that understands a lot of the legal end of things that I’m just not talented at. Plus we have an attorney in Austin that literally wrote the integration law that has set it all up for us. And we have Dr. Tyce Hergert with Southlake Physical Medicine consulting us so we have a talented and very smart team.  Surrounding yourself with good people is the first step to success. We can’t be expected to be the smartest expert on everything that we encounter in our personal or professional lives. We need good people in our lives and our network. Good and talented people who have the right kind of heart for our style.  That’s exactly what I have right now so I’m very confident going forward. I don’t take big risks. I take measured, smart risks. That’s exactly where I’m at.  Alright, busy busy this week so let’s get scooting with this episode.  Item #1 This one called “High and Rising Working-Age Mortality in the US. A Report From the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine” by Mullan Harris, et. al. [1] published in JAMA on May 10, 2021. Servin em up steamy and saucy.  Why They Did It They say, “Life expectancy has increased in the US and in the world for the past century. In 2010, life expectancy plateaued in the US while continuing to increase in other high-income nations. In the US, life expectancy declined for 3 consecutive years (2015-2017) due primarily to an increase in mortality among working-age adults (those aged 25-64 years).1 Although the increase in mortality was first described among White middle-aged adults, mortality is now increasing among young and middle-aged adults and in all racial groups. This increase in premature death, claiming lives during the prime working ages, has important implications for individuals, families, communities, employers, and the nation.” They found that average working-age mortality rates decreased after 2010 in 16 high-income countries but increased in the US. Three causes of death were identified as chiefly responsible: (1) drug poisoning and alcohol-induced causes, (2) suicide, and (3) cardiometabolic diseases. The first category includes mortality from mental and behavioral disorders, which often involve drugs or alcohol. Cardiometabolic diseases include endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic diseases (eg, diabetes, obesity); hypertensive heart disease; and ischemic heart disease and other diseases of the circulatory system (eg, arrhythmia, cardiomyopathy, heart failure). Drug and alcohol use were the largest contributors to increasing mortality among working-age adults, accounting for 8% (an estimated 1.3 million) of deaths in this population between 1990 and 2017 (an average of 44 869 per year). The increase was largest among White male adults and older Black male adults. They go on. They say, “The drug crisis was the product of 2 influences: an increase in access to legal and illegal drugs and the vulnerability of certain populations. The licensing of OxyContin in 1996, subsequent flooding of the market with prescribed opioids, and waves of highly potent heroin and fentanyl that coincided with growing demand for these substances have been described as a perfect storm.3 The drug supply expanded with limited government oversight, substantial marketing by the pharmaceutical industry, and overprescribing by physicians.” With regards to Suicide, they say, “Suicide, which accounted for 569 099 deaths among working-age adults during 1990-2017 (an average of 20 325 per year), increased primarily among White adults, especially White men, and in less populated, rural areas. Few studies have established a cause for this trend. Economic stresses are a possibility; suicide is associated with economic downturns, wage stagnation, weak health care safety nets, and foreclosures.4 Another potential contributing factor is declining social support from churches, civic organizations, and families. Such social supports, which protect against self-harm, have declined in recent decades, especially among lower-educated White adults. Easier access to firearms is associated with increased suicide rates; however, the greater increase in nonfirearm suicides during this period suggests other causes. Other risk factors for suicide include mental illness, comorbid conditions, disability, and substance use.” With regard to cardiometabolic disease they say, “Cardiometabolic diseases caused more than an estimated 4.8 million deaths among working-age adults during 1990-2017 (an average of 173 062 per year). The largest relative increases in cardiometabolic mortality occurred among younger adults (aged 24-44 years) in all racial/ethnic groups, White men and women, Black men (in recent decades), and those living in rural areas. Cardiometabolic mortality rates increased after 2010 for 2 reasons: (1) mortality from endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic diseases and hypertensive heart disease generally increased during 1990-2017 and (2) after a period of substantial reductions in mortality from ischemic heart disease and other circulatory diseases from the 1970s onward, progress stalled after 2010.” “The report discusses 3 explanations for this trend. First, the most important was the increased prevalence of obesity and its cardiometabolic consequences. Obesity rates increased in the early 1980s as a period-based phenomenon that affected the entire population, but the related cardiometabolic consequences occurred in a cohort fashion; younger cohorts born in the 1970s-1990s experienced obesogenic environments their entire lives, whereas exposure in older cohorts was limited to older ages.5 As a result, many young adults are entering their work lives with a high prevalence of chronic diseases associated with obesity. “ “The recent increase in mortality among working-age adults shows no signs of receding. Obesity rates are unrelenting, drug- and alcohol-related deaths and suicide rates, already high among working-age adults, increased during the COVID-19 pandemic” So what does all of that mean? Well, it means we are providers and we need to know this stuff and be aware of it. We need to be able to refer to specialists when we see the signs of drug or alcohol abuse, suicidal tendencies, or nutritional concerns.  It’s not just a, “‘hey he should get his crap together while he still can.” It’s a little more immediate than that I think .  CHIROUP ADVERTISEMENT Item #2 Item 2 today is called “Dietary Interventions Are Beneficial for Patients with Chronic Pain: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis”” by Field et. al. [2] published in Pain Medicine on November 17, 2020 and that’s a bit roasty.  Why They Did It The standard Western diet is high in processed hyperpalatable foods that displace nutrient-dense whole foods, leading to inflammation and oxidative stress. There is limited research on how these adverse metabolic drivers may be associated with maladaptive neuroplasticity seen in chronic pain and whether this could be attenuated by a targeted nutritional approach. The aim of this study was to review the evidence for whole-food dietary interventions in chronic pain management. How They Did It
  • A structured search of eight databases was performed up to December 2019.
  • A meta-analysis was performed in Review Manager.
  • Forty-three studies reporting on 48 chronic pain groups receiving a whole-food dietary intervention were identified
What They Found
  • A visual analog scale was the most commonly reported pain outcome measure, with 17 groups reporting a clinically objective improvement
  • Twenty-seven studies reported significant improvement on secondary metabolic measures.
  • Twenty-five groups were included in a meta-analysis that showed a significant finding for the effect of diet on pain reduction when grouped by diet type or chronic pain type.
Wrap It Up There is an overall positive effect of whole-food diets on pain, with no single diet standing out in effectiveness. This suggests that commonalities among approaches (e.g., diet quality, nutrient density, weight loss) may all be involved in modulating pain physiology   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
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 1. Harris KM, W.S., Gaskin DJ,, High and Rising Working-Age Mortality in the US: A Report From the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. JAMA, 2021. 2. Rowena Field, M.P., Fereshteh Pourkazemi, PhD, Jessica Turton, Kieron Rooney PhD,, Dietary Interventions Are Beneficial for Patients with Chronic Pain: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis. Pain Med, 2020. 22(3): p. 694-714.

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.

CHIROUP ADVERTISEMENT

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.

Website

Home

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

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

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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

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

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

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?

CHIROUP ADVERTISEMENT

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. 

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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.

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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  

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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.

CHIROUP ADVERTISEMENT

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

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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

  • 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. 

CHIROUP ADVERTISEMENT

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.

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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.   
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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
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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.