headache

Thoracic Adjustments For Neck, Not Headache & Physical Activity In Children

CF 229: Thoracic Adjustments For Neck, Not Headache & Physical Activity In Children Today we’re going to talk about T-sp Adjustments For Neck, Not Headache & Physical Activity In Children 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 a great resource for patient education and for YOU. It saves you time in putting talks together or just staying current on research. It’s categorized into sections and written in a way that is easy to understand for you and patients. Just search for it on Amazon. That’s the Remarkable Truth About Chiropractic by Jeff Williams. 
  • Then go Like our Facebook page, 
  • Join our private Facebook group, and then 
  • Review our podcast on whatever platform you’re listening to 
  • Last thing real quick, we also have an evidence-based brochure and poster store at chiropracticforward.com

You have found yourself smack dab in the middle of Episode #229 Now if you missed last week’s episode , we talked about Exercise For Depression & Manipulation For Tendinopathy. Make sure you don’t miss that info. Keep up with the class. 

 

On the personal end of things…..

I’ll be honest with you all…..I always am anyway…..I feel like I’m as busy as I’ve ever been but when I look at the numbers, they’re down a bit still. I’m not fully recovered to the numbers that we saw prior to the pandemic setting in in 2020. I know many of you are. I’m not yet. I’m not far off. But I’m not there dependably month after month yet.  As a result of my involvement in Dr. Kevin Christie’s Florida Mastermind that you’ve heard me mention, and at Kevin’s suggestion, I read a book called Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy. I highly suggest it. This book is telling us to quit looking for how you do things and start looking for WHO can help you accomplish your goal.  This isn’t really a new concept but really sheds some light on the topic.

We need a team. We need helpers. We cannot ever hope to do it all ourselves and do it a high level. To start looking at bringing on team members as investments rather than costs.  It’s eye-opening for sure. Give it a try and see what you think. As a result, I’m looking for Whos. I have some Whos already. I make good use of virtual assisstants. I have one in Pakistan, one in Nigeria, and one in India.

They help me with marketing voice over, with my Chiropractic Forward website, with a website I’m trying to build for another business, and with stat keeping and monthly balancing and close outs in my chiro business.  But I’m still doing a lot of tasks weekly that can be farmed out to a Who. What daily and weekly worker bee tasks are you doing yourself that can be farmed out while investing in a new Who? My biggest one is an associate. I’m on the hunt. If you or someone you know is interested in interviewing with me for a potential position here in my clinic, I’d love to speak with you.

The Texas Panhandle has pros and cons like everywhere else but I will say that one of our biggest draws is our incredible people. We are kind, friendly, and helpful. That, and hey, we have the second largest canyon in the nation called Palo Duro Canyon. It’ll knock your socks and your shoes off.  Anyway, send me an email at creekstonecare@gmail.com if you’re intersted and we’ll connect. 

Before we get to the research, I recently connected with a personal injury attorney and as a result, I have a gift for you!  I’m going to turn you on to a system that will result in your getting tons of PI cases from attorneys.   Yes, getting these referrals can be done. Paul Samakow, a veteran PI attorney, put this system together.  He knows what attorneys want to hear – inviting them to lunch doesn’t work, folks.   His system, delivered to you in both written and video form, is insightful and hits the mark. 

Over 25 concepts on how you can not only get attorneys to refer to you, but endear yourself to them. Samakow’s system costs $997 and he guarantees satisfaction or your money back. You have to check this out.  Even if you only get one case, you’ve made at least 4 or 5 times the investment. Go to gettingpicases.com/cs That’s gettingpicases.com/cs One more time so you get it right:   gettingpicases.com/cs

Item #1

The first one today is called, Thoracic spine thrust manipulation for individuals with cervicogenic headache: a crossover randomized clinical trial by McDevitt et. al. (Amy W. McDevitt 2022) and published in the Journal of Manual and Manipulative Therapy July of 2021. Shazam….it’s steamy. 

Why They Did It

To determine if thoracic spine manipulation (TSM) improves pain and disability in individuals with cervicogenic headache (CeH). Now, let’s take a step back just a bit and I’ll share some knowledge from the Neuromusculoskeletal Diplomate program about where Cervicogenic headaches lie in terms of prevalence.  Tension-type headaches are the overwhelming winners.

They make up about 40% or more of the headaches that present to just about any clinic.  Second place goes to migraines. True migraines make up only about 10%. Not nearly as much as you might expect. Since Tension type and migraine live on the same continuum of headaches, they can share some characteristics of each other so, many times, a tension type can behave like a migraine and vice versa.  True migraines, however, are only about 10% of cases.  Then comes cervicgenic headaches at only about 4% of the cases of headaches you see in clinic.  The good news is that tension type and cervicogenic are the ones we really have a lot of success with since they typically come from the suboccipital and/or neck region and that’s our bread and cinnamon butter, baby. That’s hero territory right there because we can turn someone’s life around muy pronto, mi amigo. 

How They Did It

  • It was a randomized controlled crossover trial 
  • It was conducted on 48 participants with cervicogenic symptoms. 
  • Participants were randomized to 6 sessions of thoracic spine manipulation or no treatment and after 4-weeks, groups crossed over. 
  • Outcomes were collected at 4, 8 and 12 weeks and included: headache disability inventory (HDI), neck disability index (NDI), and the global rating of change (GRC). 

What They Found

  • Comparing no-treatment group to the active treatment group, the Headache Disability Index outcomes were not significantly different between groups at any timepoint; 
  • The Neck Disability Index outcome, however, was significant at 4 weeks.

Wrap It Up

Thoracic spine manipulation had no effect on headache-related disability but resulted in significant improvements in neck-related disability and participant reported perceived improvement. Muy bueno, muy bueno. Don’t forget to adjust the T-spine for the neck pain.  Before getting to the next one, I have to tell you, Dr. Chris Howson, the inventor of the Drop Release tool re-activated the code! It’s live again.

Use the code HOTSTUFF upon purchase at droprelease.com to get $50 off your purchase. Y’all, it makes a world of difference. Would you like to spend 5-10 minutes doing pin and stretch and all of that? Or would you rather use a drop release to get the same or similar results in just a handful of seconds. My patients love it and I know yours will too. droprelease.com and the discount code is HOTSTUFF. Go do it. Hear me now and believe me later.

Item #2

This one is called, “Physical Activity In Children” by Michel et. al. (Michel J 2022) published on April 25, 2022….brand spankin new in the skillet. It’s burns! This is an article really rather than a research project so lets summarize this bad boy. 

They start by saying “The US received an overall grade of D− for physical activity in children, with only about 1 in 4 children meeting the daily recommendation of 60 minutes or more per day.

With the recent COVID-19 pandemic, this has worsened because children are even less active, missing out on daily activities and group sports, and increasing screen time.” “Being inactive has numerous harmful effects on health and well-being. It is linked to many chronic diseases and conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, cancers, and early death. In contrast, there are numerous benefits to physical activity for children, including decreased risk for developing all of these diseases and conditions.

Physical activity can also help to decrease stress and improve school performance, sleep, and mental health.” “US physical activity guidelines recommend that children aged 3 to 5 years be physically active throughout most of the day and that children aged 6 to 17 years have at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity daily. Moderate to vigorous activity means the heart rate is raised higher than the normal resting range and is associated with sweating and deeper breathing.” “How can you help your child meet these goals? First, be an example.

Children copy you, so if you make exercise a part of your routine, they are more likely to follow in your footsteps. You can also help by making physical activity a part of your whole family’s daily routine by setting a time every day, especially when your children are young. In addition, try to make activity fun. If your child enjoys physical activity from an early age, this will likely continue as they grow older.

It can also be helpful to make a list of physical activity options, both for outside and indoors for when the weather is not appropriate. “ These are recommendations for us as parents but also as providers that can guide and encourage out younger patients toward more activity.

Do you do anything outside of your office to encourage your patients to get active? What if one of your staff members wanted to host a walk in the park? A hike in nature? Or something similar?  Good for your patients and good for practice building.  Alright, that’s it. Keep on keepin’ on. Keep changing our profession from your corner of the world. The world needs evidence-based, patient-centered practitioners driving the bus. The profession needs us in the ACA and involved in leadership of state associations. So quit griping about the profession if you’re doing nothing to make it better. Get active, get involved, and make it happen. Let’s get to the message. Same as it is every week. 

Store

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

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

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 (FIANM) and Board Certified Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Professionals (DABFP) – Chiropractor in Amarillo, TX, Chiropractic Advocate, Author, Entrepreneur, Educator, Businessman, Marketer, and Healthcare Blogger & Vlogger  

Tylenol Fails For Back Pain, Cervical Disc Research, & CAM For Headache/Migraine

CF 128: Tylenol Fails For Back Pain, Cervical Disc Research, & CAM For Headache/Migraine Today we’re going to talk about Tylenol Fails For Back Pain, Cervical Disc Research, & complementary and alternative medicine For Headache/Migraine 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 #128 Now if you missed last week’s episode, we were joined on the show by Dr. William Morgan. You wanna hear a truly impressive individual speak and share, this is one of those episodes, my friends. I wouldn’t steer you the wrong way. Go to last week’s episode and give it a listen. We talked about all kinds of good stuff, we talked about excellence, we talked about Parker, we talked about chiropractic in general and Dr. Morgan shared some experiences with us about treating the President of the United States of America. Wow. Make sure you don’t miss that info. Keep up with the class. 

While we’re on the topic of being smart, did you know that you can use our website as a resource? Quick and easy, you can go to chiropracticforward.com, click on Episodes, and use the search function to find whatever you want quickly and easily. With over 100 episodes in the tank and an average of 2-3 papers covered per episode, we have somewhere between 250 and 300 papers that can be quickly referenced along with their talking points.  Just so you know, all of the research we talk about in each episode is cited in the show notes for each episode if you’re looking to dive in a little deeper. 

 

On the personal end of things….. I don’t know how long I’ve been back full force now but it’s been some time. As with anything, you start to adopt new procedures and then those new things become a habit and hardly even noticeable anymore.  I see chiros asking what others are wearing. Some don’t take COVID seriously so they don’t wear anything, to be honest. They just wash hands as if washing your hands takes it out of the air or prevents the coughing from putting it out there for you to breathe.  I wear a mask. I wear glasses so I just wear them for any eye cover. Who knows if that even matters? It probably doesn’t.  I wear gloves. Not because I’m afraid to touch anyone. I started out without gloves but the sanitizer and soap washing all of the time ate my hands up. Bad. So, gloves have solved that problem for me.

Maybe I just need some new soap and I can go back to no gloves.  Now after some unfortunate interactions on Facebook I’m stepping up onto my soapbox for a good old fashioned rant and, when I’m done, I hope we can still be friends.    The more interactions with people I have, even a select few supposedly educated chiropractors, the more I’m aware of how uneducated people can truly be. 

How can you confuse the mask issue? Yes, in the beginning, they said masks weren’t useful. Back when they were trying to prevent a run on N95 masks so the hospitals could have them available.  But for months now, they have recommended them for everyone when social distancing cannot be avoided. AKA; a chiropractor’s office.  Their latest update reiterates it. The best guess estimates are that 40% of COVID cases were due to a ‘healthy’ asymptomatic spreading it.  They also just said last week that up to 35% of positives were in completely asymptomatic cases. That’s excellent news!! That means that a little over 1/3 of people that get it do extremely well and never even know they have it. That’s amazing.  The problem is that that 1/3 is responsible for 40% of the cases because they don’t know they have it and are spreading it. 

How can we be so sure that masks are effective? There are three papers that were done. One in a bus, one in South Korea, and one in Washington State that suggest masks are EXTREMELY effective in stopping COVID in its tracks.  Let’s start with the choir practice(Hammer L 2020)  (https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6919e6.htm?fbclid=IwAR2iRGtCRNMPhYoxCtQnP1jGYobAhunSqWMH4DSpuga5oKaOHa4VbAH7pNc) 

Following a 2.5 hour choir practice attended by 61 persons, including a symptomatic, 32 confirmed and 20 probably secondary COVID cases occurred. If you’re counting, that’s 52 of the 61 members of the choir.  3 patients were hospitalized and 2 died. The transmission was likely facilitated by close proximity during practice and augmented by the act of singing.  Alright, now, let’s talk about the bus.  In short, scientists in China studied a guy in China who passed it on to 13 others.

On the bus, his germs jumped as far as 4.5 meters to other travelers and it lingered in the air for up to 30 minutes after the guy got off of the bus. 4.5 meters for us Americanos is almost 15 feet.  Now, let’s talk about a new paper that came out on May 13 so it’s recent news.

This paper was in the journal called Respiratory Medicine by Gao, et. al.(Gao M 2020) called ‘A study on infectivity of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 carriers’.  This paper follows a case of an asymptomatic spreader and 455 contact encounters to try to assess the infectivity of asymptomatic carriers.  The 455 contacts wore masks, the test subject wore masks. and nobody got sick. They didn’t give COVID to any of the 455. And all wore masks. This included family members.  Medical Express posted an article on May 17th about some research out of Hong Kong where they tested a masking mechanism with hamsters. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-05-hamster-masks-coronavirus-scientists.html

The research by the University of Hong Kong is some of the first to specifically investigate whether masks can stop symptomatic and asymptomatic COVID-19 carriers from infecting others. They placed hamsters that were artificially infected with the disease next to healthy animals. Surgical masks were placed between the two cages with airflow traveling from the infected animals to the healthy ones. The researchers found non-contact transmission of the virus could be reduced by more than 75 percent when the masks were used. Two-thirds of the healthy hamsters were infected within a week if no masks were applied. Not only that but, those that did become infected were also found to have less of the virus within their bodies than those infected without a mask. The most effective use of the masks was when the person wearing the mask was the infected one.  

The problem with that is that nobody knows who is infected because up to 35% of people infected don’t have any symptoms or feel sick.  So, you can pass it up to 15 feet away, you can be in close proximity to 61 others and give it to 52 of them, or we can all wear masks and mostly avoid giving it to anybody. Hmmm. Let me do the math, carry the three….and….yep, I’ll wear masks for a little while.

A mask is a small ask, people. That’s the new slogan. Just give me credit. That’s all I ask.  If you don’t require masks in your office as the CDC recommends right now, you’re putting yourself, your staff, and your immunocompromised patients at risk.  You can wash your hands until the skin falls off and think you’re protecting everyone and doing a good job but you’re not taking it out of the air.

The Czechoslovakian government got it right in their slogan, “My mask protects you and yours protects me.”

No, it’s not the damn flu. While the CDC’s latest updates have a lot of good news in it, it’s still clear it’s not the damn flu. If you claim it is, you are simply not very educated on it and you’re probably doing your patients a disservice by saying that it is.  COVID is estimated to have a .4 mortality rate. Flu is estimated at .1 so COVID is FOUR TIMES as deadly. We see that day to day because, in a BAD flu year, between 60k to 80k people die of it. IN A YEAR. 

COVID has killed over 100,000 Americans in just about 3 months or so. It’s not the same as the damn flu.  But, 0.4% is waaaayyy better than it was initially thought. Some other current news from Reuters out of Italy is that it is losing its potency. Meaning, it may have mutated to a less deadly version. That’s awesome news. 

In the beginning, I was worried and stressed and anxious. We all were. It was brand new and nobody knew anything about it. Not even the experts. Hell, when AIDS was brand new, the fear was that mosquitos could infect you. Then we learned more and then we were safer.  As more and more is known about this virus, I’m no longer as worried for myself or my family or even most of my patients. The newest CDC guesstimates show that 96.6% of COVID patients never even have to go to the hospital. That’s a pretty great stat right there. 

However, I AM afraid for my mother. I AM afraid for my Dad who is in a nursing home. I AM afraid for my other family member who is immunocompromised. I AM afraid for my patients that are immunocompromised. I AM going to continue to be safe and be smart for those people. Not out of fear but out of an abundance of education and because it’s not the flu. I hope you’re doing the same. 

While there’s a 96.6% chance none of us ever have to go to the hospital because of it, there’s a 100% chance I’d have to close my office for a bit. I don’t know about you but I can’t afford that. This podcasting gig doesn’t pay anything so I guess I need to mind my p’s and q’s and be smart about my day to day bidniz. 

I know several that say but, but, but….what about….but. All that crap is noise. Uneducated, noise tinged with a healthy dose of arrogance. It really is OK to follow science and evidence. We’ve been preaching it for 3 years now. Why would COVID change that?

Let science guide you. Not Bill Gates, Trump, or Pelosi. What does the science say? Stop listening to Fox and CNN. What does the science say? Stop listening to conservative or Liberal talk show hosts. What does the science say? Stop listening to Uncle Roy, the ranch manager or the warehouse worker. What does the science say? As far as that goes, stop listening to the physician on the hospital steps spouting politically biased crap and tying it into a COVID talk. Who the hell cares? What does the damn science say?

Keep it simple. Don’t let things confuse the topic. How severe, how easily spread, how can you avoid spreading or catching? Simple crap here.

The rest of those people are uneducated and arrogant noise. Noise I tuned out over a month ago. 

Alright, rant over. 

Item #1 Our first Item this week is called “Efficacy and safety of Paracetamol for Spinal Pain and Osteoarthritis: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Placebo Controlled Trials” by Machado, et. al(Machado G 2015). and published in British Medical Journal in March of 2015. 

Why They Did It They wanted to investigate the efficacy and safety of paracetamol (acetaminophen) aka Tylenol… in the management of spinal pain and osteoarthritis of the hip or knee.

How They Did It

  • Systematic review and meta-analysis
  • Medline, Embase, AMED, CINAHL, Web of Science, LILACS, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials from inception to December 2014.
  • Paper considered for inclusion were all randomised controlled trials comparing the efficacy and safety of paracetamol with placebo for spinal pain (neck or low back pain) and osteoarthritis of the hip or knee.
  • 13 randomised trials were included

What They Found

  • There was “high quality” evidence that paracetamol is ineffective for reducing pain intensity and disability or improving quality of life in the short term in people with low back pain. 
  • For hip or knee osteoarthritis there was “high quality” evidence that paracetamol provides a significant, although not clinically important, effect on pain and disability in the short term.
  • “High quality” evidence showed that patients taking paracetamol are nearly four times more likely to have abnormal results on liver function tests

Wrap It Up “Paracetamol is ineffective in the treatment of low back pain and provides minimal short term benefit for people with osteoarthritis. These results support the reconsideration of recommendations to use paracetamol for patients with low back pain and osteoarthritis of the hip or knee in clinical practice guidelines.”

Item #2 This one is called “Relationship of Modic Changes, Disk Herniation Morphology, and Axial Location to Outcomes in Symptomatic Cervical Disk Herniation Patients Treated With High-Velocity, Low-Amplitude Spinal Manipulation: A Prospective Study” by Kressig et. al(Kressig M 2016). and published in Journal of Manipulative Physiology and Therapeutics in October 2016. 

Why They Did It The authors here wanted to evaluate whether cervical disc herniation (CDH) location, morphology, or Modic changes (MCs) are related to treatment outcomes.

How They Did It

  • (MRI) and outcome data from 44 patients with CDH treated with spinal manipulative therapy were evaluated
  • MRI scans were assessed for cervical disc hernation location, morphology, and modic changes
  • Pain and Neck Disability Index data were collected at baseline; 2 weeks; 1, 3, and 6 months; and then again at 1 year

Wrap It Up Although patients who were Modic positive had higher baseline NDI scores, the proportion of these patients improved was higher for all time points up to 6 months. Patients with Modic I changes did worse than patients with Modic II changes at only 2 weeks.

Item #3 Our last one is called, “Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use Among US Adults With Headache or Migraine: Results From the 2012 National Health Interview Survey” by Zhang et. al(Zhang Y 2017). and was published in Headache journal in September of 2017. 

Why They Did It They did this to answer the following questions: (1) Which complementary and alternative (CAM) modalities are used most frequently among migraine/headache sufferers? and (2) What are the self-reported reasons for CAM use among migraine/headache sufferers?

What They Found

The most frequently used CAM modality for headache/migraine was manipulative therapy at only 22%. Herbal supplementation was at 21.7% usage, and mind-body therapy was at 17.9%. The top 3 reasons given for using CAM for headaches were for general wellness, at about 28.7%, improving overall health at about 26.8%, and for reducing stress at about 16.7%. Although CAM is used by many sufferers of headaches and migraines, its use specifically for the headache or migraine is low in the US. 

Alright, that’s it. Y’all be safe. Continue taking care of yourselves and taking care of your neighbors. Tough times are upon us but, the sun will shine again. Trust it, believe it, count on it. Let’s get to the message. Same as it is every week. 

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

  • Gao M, Y. L. (2020). “A study on infectivity of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 carriers.” Resp Med.
  • Hammer L, D. P., Capron I, Ross A, (2020). “High SARS-CoV-2 Attack Rate Following Exposure at a Choir Practice — Skagit County, Washington, March 2020.” CDC Weekly 69(19): 606-610.
  • Kressig M, P. C., McChurch K, Schmid C, (2016). “Relationship of Modic Changes, Disk Herniation Morphology, and Axial Location to Outcomes in Symptomatic Cervical Disk Herniation Patients Treated With High-Velocity, Low-Amplitude Spinal Manipulation: A Prospective Study.” J Manipulative Physiol Ther 39(8): 565-575.
  • Machado G, M. C., Ferreira P, Pinheiro M, (2015). “Efficacy and safety of Paracetamol for Spinal Pain and Osteoarthritis: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Placebo Controlled Trials.” BMJ 350(h1225).
  • Zhang Y (2017). “Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use Among US Adults With Headache or Migraine: Results From the 2012 National Health Interview Survey.” Headache 57(8): 1228-1242.

CF 006: With Dr. Tyce Hergert: Astounding Expert Information On Immediate Headache Relief

This episode is all about headaches, it highlights one service dressed up and parading around as another sort of like it’s Halloween or something, and we’ll tell some personal stories about what we have seen in practice during our years of service to our patients. It should be a good one.

We are excited to welcome Dr. Tyce Hergert to the Chiropractic Forward podcast. Dr. Hergert has the distinct privilege of being the very first guest that we’ve ever had. Dr. Hergert was the Texas Chiropractic Association President, the head honcho, for 2016/2017 and, under his leadership the TCA was able to get 5 Chiropractic friendly bills through the legislation whereas we had failed to get even one through in all the years prior to that as far back as I had paid any attention so that was quite a feat.

Dr. Hergert is the owner/operator of Chiropractic Care Center of Southlake as well as the owner/operator of Southlake Physical Medicine in Southlake, TX

In addition, Dr. Hergert and myself both grew up in Perryton, TX. He was a couple of years younger than myself but we grew up on the same neighborhood, went to chiropractic school at the same time roughly, and have both served in the Texas Chiropractic Association at the same time. You could say that we know each other.

Welcome to the Chiropractic Forward Podcast Dr. Hergert. How do you feel about being the very first guest that we have ever had?

In this episode, I promise that we’re going to have more fun than being on the receiving end of a purple nurple.

This week, I want to discuss headaches and conservative, alternative headache treatment. It’s common for people to look at chiropractors as “spine people” and “back doctors”.

Is that your experience as well, Dr. Hergert?

What people don’t commonly know is that chiropractors can knock it straight out of the park when it comes to treating headaches. Yes, I said, “Knock it out of the park.” That’s an old metaphor comparing baseball players hitting home runs and I’m telling you, chiropractors mostly hit home runs on headache cases.

I have to admit that I was a terrible baseball player. I played college football and I’m Texan born and raised where football is King so I should probably put it in football terms.  In football terms, you might say that we chiropractors have a record of 80-yd touchdown passes when it comes to headaches. We return headache punts for a score almost every time. We pick-six those suckers. That’s probably enough to drive the point home.

Not every single headache of course. I’ve met my match several times over my 20 years in practice. But I don’t think it’s too bold to say that about 80%-90% of headache patients just improve. And not just improve, but DRAMATICALLY improve.

Before we get into the research, let me take a minute to give you just a couple of personal experiences in treating headache patients in my practice here in Amarillo.

Case #1: We will call this patient Andy McFuddlesticks just because I’m feeling a little goofy today. That sounds a little like a Harry Potter character, doesn’t it?

Andy had experienced migraines his whole life and was around 40 years old at the time we crossed paths. He had been to all of the medical doctors. He had endured injections if his suboccipital region. I don’t recall what the injection was exactly because this was about 18 years ago. I don’t believe they did botox for migraines at that point in time. He had gone through nuclear bones scans as well. Andy McFuddlesticks had been through it you might say.

He came to see me only a few times. It was frustrating that he didn’t finish his treatment plan but the reason he didn’t finish is satisfying. Andy only came a handful of times because the headaches were gone. After all of the years and procedures, just a few visits to a very new and green chiropractor made them vanish. How do I know? Well, I was in a civic organization with his brother who confirmed months later that his brother was doing great and had not had a headaches since seeing me. How is Andy 18 years later? I have no idea. I switched towns but I know he did great for a long time and we are putting that one in the “win” column.

Dr. Hergert, would you like to share one of your more memorable headache case stories with us?

Case #2: Sally McGullicutty I believe was her name. Red hair. Irish. Anyway, Sally had migraines for years. I actually knew Sally personally and had been friends for some time. Evidently I was not skilled at getting my message out on how successfully we can deal with headaches because it took Sally way longer than it should have taken her to make an appointment with us.

Sally shared with me that she had migraines, on average, several times a week and once or twice every month would find herself in a dark bathroom floor sitting my the toilet throwing up. How awful of an existence is that? I cannot even imagine being forced to live that way. I say it often but it bears repeating, “Pain can absolutely change a person.” Not only the person but it can change everyone around the person that is consistently in and out of contact with them.

After approximately 2-4 weeks of working with Sally, she just started to not have the migraines anymore! I would say she “magically” recovered but chiropractors know this isn’t accurate. We got the right joints moving, we got the right muscles to relax, and we got out of the way and let the body do the rest. There’s no magic in that. It’s just common sense to chiropractors.

Fast forward a few years and Sally is still a patient and Sally comes here for other reasons and conditions from time to time but she doesn’t visit because of migraines anymore. She just doesn’t have them.

How about one more story Dr. Hergert?

I’m pretty sure we could both absolutely go on and on with examples from personal experience in practice. I have 20 years of dealing with headaches and I can tell you, Chiropractors are modern day headache whisperers.

Let’s dive into a little research just to show you what I’m talking about. There are more we will go over in the future episodes but I want to touch on two this week. One new study and one older.

The first one is the more recent research paper and comes to us from a group in Spain. The lead author was Miguel Malo-Urries, PT, PhD with the University of Zaragoza Aragon Spain and it was published in Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics in the November-December 2017 issue, Volume 40, Issue 9, Pages 649-658. The study was titled “Immediate Effects of Upper Cervical Translatoric Mobilization on Cervical Mobility and Pressure Pain Threshold in Patients With Cervicogenic Headache: A Randomized Controlled Trial.” What a name.

Did you catch that word, “Translatoric?” Dr. Hergert, have you run across this term prior to this interview?

I’m going to define that word for everyone. Translatoric is not commonly in the Chiropractic verbiage or vernacular. At least I don’t recall it from my education at Parker University in Dallas but that was eons ago. I have gray sideburns now. It has been a while. The authors of the paper all have PT behind their names so we have physical therapists setting the terms for the research project. Understanding this, then the use of translatoric makes more sense.

I found a site that gives a pretty good definition of Translatoric Spinal Manipulation. The term Translatoric Spinal Manipulation or TSM “consists of a series of high and low-velocity manipulative spinal techniques, which emphasize the use of small amplitude, straight-line (or translatoric) traction and gliding impulses delivered parallel or perpendicular to an individual vertebral joint or movement segment. Furthermore, TSM emphasizes the use of either direct manual stabilization or the use of spinal pre-positioning to restrict the amount of motion occurring at adjacent spinal segments during the translatoric impulse.” The website goes on to say, “Delivering translatoric impulses (in the form of disc traction, disc glides, facet traction and facet gliding) to an individual joint or spinal motion segment while using stabilization provides the manual therapist with a manipulative tool that has a predictable effect in terms of pain reduction and motion restoration with minimal potential risk of patient injury.”

Do you know what that sounds like to me? Dr. Hergert, what does it sound like it’s describing to you?

It sounds like a “Chiropractic Adjustment.” Another term it sounds like is “Spinal Manipulative Treatment/Therapy.” Something we chiropractors have been doing for over 100 years and have been called crazies and quacks for doing. It sounds like the exact thing that the medical world has touted as being responsible for strokes for years and years. Of course, research proves that they don’t have a clue what they’re talking about on the storke issue but translatoric spinal manipulation is nothing more than a Chiropractic Adjustment.

Now that that is clear, let’s get back into the research.

Why They Did It

The good folks in Spain performing Translatoric Spinal Manipulation rather than Chiropractic Adjustments wished to assess the response in terms of range of motion and pain in patients suffering cervicogenic headaches.

How They Did It

  • It was a randomized controlled trial
  • The paper included 82 patients.
  • The patients ranged in age from about 25-55 or so.
  • All patients suffered from cervicogenic headaches.
  • The patients were randomly split up into two groups. One was a control group and one was a treatment group.
  • The treatment group received Chiropractic Adjustments…..I’m sorry…Translatoric Spinal Manipulation.
  • The control group received no treatment or sham treatment.
  • The researchers tested Cervical range of motion, they tested the pressure pain thresholds over the upper trapezius muscles, the C2-3 zygapophyseal joints and sub occipital muscles were tested, and the current headache intensity were all measured on the Visual Analog Scale prior to the Chiropractic adjustment and right after.
  • The testing was done by two blinded investigators

What They Found

  • Afterward, the Chiropractic Adjustment group had significantly increased range of motion in the neck region overall as well as in the flexion-rotation test.
  • And, while there was no changes in the pain thresholds, patients reported significantly lower intensity in their headaches!

Wrap It Up

The quote from the authors themselves reads as follows, “Upper cervical translatoric spinal mobilization intervention increased upper, and exhibited a tendency to improve general, cervical range of motion and induce immediate headache relief in subjects with cervicogenic headache.”

Dr. Hergert….do the findings in the study surprise you at all?

What are your initial impressions of the study?

I’d say that, if you have issues with chiropractors, now you can just take it straight from physical therapists with PhD’s that are performing chiropractic adjustments but calling it something else.

I want to be honest here: the frustrating part of this for me isn’t necessarily the fact that PTs are doing cervical chiropractic adjustments. Heck, chiropractors have been doing PT for years but the physical therapists claim ownership of the term so the chiropractic industry just call it exercise rehab.

Although, their doing adjustments may be irritating on some level, the most irritating thing is that a certain aspect of the physical therapy community and a larger aspect of the medical community have spent years ridiculing, mocking, and belittling generations of chiropractors. And now, doctors of osteopathy and physical therapists are trying to do the exact same thing without going through any chiropractic training. You would think they would at least release a statement saying, “You know, we have thrown rocks at chiropractors for years but it turns out they were right all along so, since we can’t beat them, we’re going to just join them.”

Wouldn’t that be refreshing?

Can I get an amen on that Dr. Hergert? Do you have any other thoughts on that?

I’m geting all bothered over here so let’s go over the older study before I start getting too ugly about the whole deal.

This one is by GV Espi-Lopez et. al. and is called, “Do manual therapy techniques have a positive effect on quality of life in people with tension-type headache? A randomized controlled trial.” It was published in the European Journal of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine  on February 29th of 2016.

Why They Did It

Although there have been lots of studies that prove the impact of manual therapy and spinal mobilization for frequency and intensity of pain suffered from tension type headaches, there have been no studies in regards to the effectiveness of the same therapies for the quality of life for the people suffering from them.

The authors of this paper wished to focus on patient quality of life.

How They Did It

•The study was again, a randomized, single blinded, controlled clinical trial.

•Comprised of 62 women and 14 men.

•Aged between 65 years old all the way down to 18 years old.

•All subjects suffered from chronic tension type headaches or episodic tension type headaches.

•The subjects were categorized into four separate groups: suboccipital inhibitory pressure, suboccipital spinal manipulation, a combination of the two together, and then a control group.

•An SF–12 questionnaire was used to help assess the subjects’ quality of life at both the beginning of treatment, the ending of the treatment, as well as at the one month follow-up.

What They Found

•The suboccipital inhibition group improved significantly in their quality of life at the one month mark as well as improvements in moderate physical activities.

•Not the control group, but all other treatment groups had an improvement in physical activities, pain, and social functioning at the one month mark.

•After treatment, as well as that the one month mark, the combined treatment category had improved vitality.

•Following treatment and at the one-month mark, both groups that had manipulation to the sub occipital region also showed improved mental health.

Wrap It Up
All three therapy approaches showed significant effectiveness toward improving the quality of life, however the combined treatment therapy had the most dramatic change for the good.
In short, manual therapy techniques and manipulation applied to the sub occipital region for four weeks or more showed great improvement and in effectiveness for several aspects that measure the quality of life of a patient having suffered from tension type headaches.

Dr. Hergert…you like apples? Lol Do these findings reflect what you have seen over the years there in Southlake, TX?

These are just a couple of studies to get us started off on the right foot for headache discussions on the Chiropractic Forward Podcast. There are several more I will be sharing in the future so stay tuned.

When Chiropractic is at its best, you cannot beat the risk vs reward ratio. Plain and simple. Spinal pain is a mechanical pain and responds better to mechanical treatment rather than chemical treatment such as pain killers, muscle relaxants, and anti-inflammatories.

I mentioned this in episode #1 but Dr. Hergert and myself spend some time trying to generate a concise, responsible statement regarding chiropractic care in general. A statement that could easily be shared. An elevator speech for the profession if you will. You will find it at the end of every blog, every video, and every chiropractic forward podcast. It is as follows:
Research and clinical experience shows that, in about 80%-90% of headaches, neck, and back pain, in comparison to the traditional medical model, patients get good or excellent results with Chiropractic. Chiropractic care is safe, more cost-effective, it decreases your chances of having surgery, and it reduces your chances of becoming disabled. We do this conservatively and non-surgically. In addition, we can do it with minimal time requirements and minimal hassle on the part of the patient. And, if the patient develops a “preventative” mindset going forward from initial recovery, we can likely keep it that way while raising the general, overall level of health!

Thank you to Dr. Hergert for spending his valuable time with us today. We look forward to many more guest appearances.

Please feel free to send us an email at dr dot williams at chiropracticforward.com and let us know what you think or if you have any suggestions for future episodes.

From Creek Stone in Amarillo, TX and the flight deck of the Chiropractic Forward podcast, this is Dr. Jeff Williams saying upward, onward, & forward.

https://www.jmptonline.org/article/S0161-4754(16)30281-0/fulltext?elsca1=etoc&elsca2=email&elsca3=0161-4754_201711_40_9_&elsca4=Physical%20Medicine%20and%20Rehabilitation%7CHealth%20Professions

https://www.optp.com/Translatoric-Spinal-Manipulation-for-Physical-Therapists-Book-and-DVD

https://www.amarillochiropractor.com/get-rid-of-migraines-and-headaches-once-and-for-all/