What options do you have for treating back pain?

 

Joint manipulation

 

Some patients love to be adjusted. Many who have never been adjusted before have many questions. Let me share with you a story about a patient, let’s call her Amy, who had such dramatic results with manipulation that I only saw her for 2 visits: the first visit and the second to make sure everything was ok. Amy had suffered from low back pain for many years. Possibly as a result of her job which involved a lot of sitting for long hours. Truth be told, we aren’t certain that her workspace was the most ergonomic that it could be, and after years of torturing her poor back, she finally had an epidural steroid injection followed by back surgery at one level. Well, the good news was, the surgery was a smashing success. The bad news? Shortly after the surgery she started to experience severe muscle spasms which were not responsive to prescription muscle relaxants. Amy had never been to a chiropractor before but was referred to us by her orthopedic surgeon and her insurance company. With those two referrals in hand she thought she may as well give it a try but she was very tentative when she came in. Let me give you the short version of this already too long story. Though we don’t always adjust patients and not usually on the first visit, we adjusted Amy. Her pain relief was immediate and sustained. We had her come back in to see us in a couple of days just to make sure she was doing ok, and she was. The last we spoke she was having difficulty remembering what that 8/10 pain that brought her to our office actually felt like.

Very recently I had another patient come in, this time a gentleman, with a similar situation to Amy’s. In this case it took more than 2 visits and a couple of other interventions but the results were just as dramatic and meaningful for the patient’s quality of life.

There have been many incidents of a quick adjustment very quickly changing the course of a patient’s pain. It must be noted however that the majority of our patients see results from adjustments over time in conjunction with other tools in our tool kit.

If you have never been to a chiropractor, you probably have wondered what people mean when they talk about going to the chiropractor to “get their backs cracked.” I’m with you: anything called cracking the back sounds a little dangerous to me. So let’s refer to it by its proper name: Joint manipulation. First let me reassure you. There is nothing cracking or breaking! To treat pain and mobility issues chiropractors may mobilize joints (the spinal manipulation/ adjustment.)   Some specially trained MD's DO's and PT's offer this service too.  Some patients have joints that aren’t moving properly. If it is severe enough these joints may contribute to patients being unable to perform range of motion exercises or may find performing these to be very painful. This pain may contribute to muscle spasms which may cause more pain in a seemingly never ending cycle. 

The joint manipulation is theorized to work in a number of ways. The aim of the adjustment is to get the joint to the end of its range of motion and then to take it just a little bit farther to reduce pain, spasm and improve range of motion. The clicking or popping sound that many patients hear (and call cracking) is attributed to the gasses expanding within the joint when the joint is stretched. Similar to the sound you hear when you open a can of soda. Most often, there is no pain. Side effects are few and far between with the most common being soreness in the area, similar to what you may feel if you have a strenuous workout. This usually goes away within a short time.

What has helped a lot of our patients who were reticent about being adjusted is looking at the scientific literature.  Lots of studies come to the same conclusion: 

" Acute and chronic chiropractic patients experienced better outcomes in pain, functional disability and patient satisfaction [compared to] patients seen by other health care providers." Journal of manipulative and physiological therapeutics 2005.

 "[Chronic LBP treated by a chiropractor showed better outcomes in one month than patients treated by a PCP.]" JMPT 2000.

 "[Cervical manipulation showed significant improvement in... neck pain and dysfunction and headache.]" Duke evidence report 2001. 

Another study I love to share is from the Annals of Internal Medicine which speaks to both the efficacy and safety of joint manipulation for back pain.

 On the first visit with a chiropractor, there is a physical examination. Where necessary standard diagnostic tools like imaging and blood work may be ordered. Our job at this point is to find out what’s causing the pain and to rule out serious internal complaints. Where indicated patients may be referred to another provider for their management or co-management, and those that are a good fit based on our scope of practice, well, those are the ones that we treat.

Do you want to know more? Download the #BePainFree eBook, it is FREE!

Just Click Here.

The free ebook is called:

 #BePainFree - The Five Causes Of Back Pain And The Seven Keys To Lasting Relief

Regards in health,

Dr. Davia H. Shepherd

Saporito Chiropractic

 *Disclaimer: Please remember that it's impossible for me to diagnose you and treat you just by you reading one of my articles. I'm superwoman it's true, but even that is beyond my capabilities. So before you engage in any health and wellness activities, do consult your health care provider. Please know that we are happy to address your personal concerns, just call us in office to schedule your personal consultation; and thanks ever so much for reading. We appreciate you.