Why Do Some People View Chiropractic as Quackery?

This is a very good question...first we must find out what the definition of quackery is. Quackery is defined as doing a certain procedure or method for treating a patient with absolutely no evidence to substantiate the claim. While this term has been a moniker of alternative health practitioner it also applied to medical doctors as well. It's important to note that not all treatment forms are scientifically scrutinized and undergo rigorous clinical trials due to cost and time, and this is in every discipline. There is a systematic approach for making valid claims, just because there is antidotal evidence doesn't mean it's effective, but if it's the only evidence we have we can make a claim that it could be helpful. However, if there is not strong evidence prepare to possibly be called a quack with only your anecdotal evidence.

During the first years of chiropractic there was not a lot of randomized double blind control trails for chiropractic, hence the only evidence available was the antidotal evidence that the chiropractors told people about. Well, naturally people were skeptical of what the chiropractors were saying about their healthcare and they got labeled quacks by people whom had a vested interest in the elimination of chiropractic or who just didn't believe them. Fast forward to present day and there is a plethora of scientific literature that show chiropractic is effective for a wide range of musculoskeletal aliments, but some people don't read the current literature and employee simply what they heard in the past. You can equally call a medical doctor a quack as I stated above, for example the doctor is prescribing medicine that has no valuable therapeutic effect for a certain condition, which has been shown this in clinical trails, well you can label him a quack if you like.

In every healthcare profession there are things we do know and things we don't know. I would recommend not call anyone a quack because well, there may be no evidence today but there could be evidence tomorrow. Medical doctors for years have called chiropractors quacks because there was not much evidence, now the evidence has been published and that name has been subdued for the most part. There are some doctors who make extraordinary claims with very little evidence and go against everything we know about the human body scientifically, these doctors I would lump into the quack category. If you're a doctor who practices strict evidence based clinical healthcare by definition you cannot be a quack. The term quack, if you must, should be labeled on a person and not a group of healthcare providers, as I know some chiropractor who are more knowledgeable of scientific evidence than their medical counterparts. Take the opinion of the person and not the profession as a whole.    

Evidence Based Practice

The most important aspects in healthcare contains two important objectives, to get the patient better as quick as possible and to do it in the most cost effective way. How do we achieve these objects, while it seems difficult to do, it is actually quit the opposite. There is a large research base in this country and studies are being concluded each day. If you practice in a certain niche simply read all the possible studies in your field. If research is published that says a certain produced is better than the old one, implement the new one. If new research says a certain produce is no longer effective, stop doing it. This ebb and flow of eliminating and adding procedures should be happening on a a continual basis.

Unfortunately, this is not what is happening, despite the large amount of research in this country. There are certain procedures that have absolutely no evidence that it's therapeutic, but it's still being implemented in ever day practice. Another startling fact is that it take about ten years to implement new research in practical use, but what is even worst is that it take nearly twenty years to eliminate a procedure that has been deemed ineffective. So this mean twenty more years of insurance reimbursements and harmful medical invention.
Reading of the recent current literature is paramount in providing your patient with the best possible outcomes. At Twisted Spine and Joint Center, we implement the current literature up to date to get our patients better as quick as possible.    

Professional Athletes & Their Use of Chiropractic

Why are professional athletes using chiropractic more and more whether they are in pain or not? This is a great question and the answers lies in the effectiveness. Chiropractors allow athletes to get the most out of their body, allows them to recover faster, prevents injures, and optimize their performance. The proof is in the pudding that athletes know that chiropractor keep them on the field longer and if they do come off, it gets them back sooner. As of now almost all profession sports team in every sport have chiropractors on staff, including the Olympics. Jerry Rice, Tiger Woods, and other athletes have state that chiropractic care is one of the most importance factors that can be directly related to their success.

Since athletes use chiropractors so frequently why isn't everybody using chiropractic with a certain frequency. Chiropractic is beneficial to everybody, whether you're a high level athlete or a desk worker, injuries occur in both facets, the cause is just different. The athlete injury is usually from trauma and the desk worker injury is usually from micro-trauma that is usually built up over time. The injuries can almost be treated the same, once the injuries are treated you do the same type of preventive treatment for the athlete as we would for the average Joe. It's all about optimizing your body's performance and keeping it working correctly.    

Chiropractic Adjustments, Short Term Pain Remedy or Lifestyle?

The answer is yes, chiropractic can be what ever you want it to be. If you have pain and only want to get rid of it chiropractic can help. If you want to make chiropractic part of your bi-weekly or month schedule you can do that as well. Here at Twisted Spine and Joint Center while we like to help people as much as we can we can only tell you the benefits of chiropractic and it's your choice what you want to do with your condition of lifestyle. I can tell you a few things, first short term chiropractic will sometimes yield short term results. The chances are the symptoms did not show up overnight so they may not go away overnight. Once pain is gone, the area that was treated is very fragile and mostly likely not stabilized which can allow many of the symptoms to return. The proper way to fix a musculoskeletal problem is to decrease pain, stabilize and strengthen the area, and prevent future occurrences. Again, we will help you no matter what option you think is better for you, but based on our experience it's better to prevent problems then always try to fix reoccurring ones.    

Chiropractic & Overall Well-Being

It's so wonderful in our Frisco Chiropractic office to find patients who love to get the best out of their health. We treated a patient today in our office that reported he felt a wonderful sense of well-being. He stated for the first time in his life he feels wonderful well-being. I told him "that is exactly what chiropractic is about, of course we can help with pain but maximizing your health potential and getting the most out of your body is the number one goal".

Most patients do not realize this is the ultimate goal of health is to optimize their well-being. We want to help as many people as possible and obviously we will help you reach whatever your health goal is. We see many patients who understand getting out of pain when they have symptoms is important to them, we further lecture to them that if they continue to do what they did before their injury without maintaining or maximizing their health their symptoms will return, and they will be "yo-yo" patient. A "yo-yo" patient is a patient that only uses chiropractic as a method to get out of pain, they come in when their health status yo-yos down and ends care when their health status yo-yos back up.

We find in our Frisco Chiropractic office that patients who choose to use chiropractic as a tool to maximize their well-being, live healthier and better lives. They simply have less symptoms than the "yo-yo" patient and get the most out of their body weather it's training for a marathon to building a barn. As stated before we will help any patient that wants chiropractic and in our expert opinion can be helped by chiropractic, but wellness care in the long run will be more cost-effective and your body will definitely thank you for it. If you want to make chiropractic part of your life like so many people do visit our Frisco Chiropractic website.

   

What Is Next? I Was In An Accident

Having an auto accident is not a fun situation to be in, regardless of whom is at fault. Nearly ten million auto accidents happen per year in the US, which kill over thirty thousand innocent people. Texas is one of the states that has the highest population of deaths annually from auto accidents with over three thousand, part of that is due to the high population of Texas.
With the high amount of traffic on the road and the shear stats of accidents most people will be in an accident in one day or an other in their life. Twisted Spine and Joint Center compiled a list of some objectives that should be done shortly after an accident occurs.

1. Call law enforcement, make sure to give the person on the phone the address and cross roads of the accident so the police and ambulance if needed can find you easier. The police need to gather evidence for the accident while the ambulance can examine the injuries to transport the injured if needed.  
2. If possible try to move your car, leaving your car in the middle of the road can cause another accident as well, move to a parking lot if your care is drivable. If your car is not drivable put out road flares or orange triangle to alert other drives of a disabled vehicle. If you are injured stay in your car.
3. Make sure to get the important data from the other driver such as car, insurance, and personal information. This will help in facilitating the process to the insurance company.
4. Never admit the fault of the accident, even if you did cause it, you will be able to discuss it in time.
5. Try to remember and write down all the detail of the accident for the insurance to find liability, as well as take photos of both cars for damage.
6. If anybody saw the accident get the information on how to contact them and have them write a short statement on how the accident occurred. This can be helpful in court and for the insurance company to find who is liable.  
7. Try to have the police make out an accident report and ask the police officers to give you a copy for your records. If they don't give you a copy at the scene ask them where you can get a copy at.
8. Call your insurance company and open a claim not matter what kind of deal the other person in the accident tries to make. Even if they are willing to pay cash for your car.
9. Call Twisted Spine and Joint Center to be evaluated to see exactly what is wrong with you. We can also help you find an attorney that can help you. We can also refer you to the proper medical specialist to co-treat your injuries.

Not understanding the process after an accident can cost you both time and money when it comes to taking care important aspects after the accident. Here at Twisted Spine and Joint Center we can help refer you to an attorney that can make the legal process at little easier. You are entitled to your medical bills being pain, your car being repaired, and monetary settlement for future medical care if need. Don't let your rights be neglected visit your Frisco Chiropractor  

How Can Chiropractors Help With Headaches?

Headaches are a very common condition that many people complain of that enter our Frisco Chiropractic office. If the headaches are caused by a musculoskeletal condition then chiropractic can most definitely help. In our experiences headaches respond very well to chiropractic care. What we find most of the time is cervicogenic headaches which are headaches that have origin in the cervical spine. If the problem in the cervical spine is cleared up and function is restored then most of the times headaches usually cease. Most of the dysfunction in the cervical spine causing the headaches occurs at the first and second vertebra, this area is very small and there are a lot of small muscles and nerves which can easily be compromised and irritated. The job of the chiropractor is to find the areas of dysfunction, restore function and keep that area healthy by stabilizing the area with exercises and corrective adjustments. Twisted Spine and Joint Center has literally helped thousands of people with headaches, if you have headaches we want to help you.       

Can Chiropractic Help With Acid Reflex?

Many patient seek out a chiropractor or come to our Frisco Chiropractic office for neck pain, lower back pain or some other musculoskeletal pain. There are many other aliments that chiropractic could help with. If you think of the spine or spinal nerves as origin of all communication from the brain to the body it's not unreasonable to think that there could be a disruption between the brain and the body from time to time. If there is disruption or lack of communication what does that mean? If a nerve goes to an organ or a certain tissue then the nerve controlling that tissue when the nerve has dysfunction will be dysfunctional as well. There will be a lack of optimal communication, when that optimal communication is missing your body is not functioning at one hundred percent.

When the body is not at it's best other problems can arise, for example if the nerve that goes to your stomach is not functioning properly, the stomach may not be functioning properly either. The stomach perhaps may not be breaking foods down with the right ratio of chemicals or maybe the stomach does not have enough rhythmic contractions to usher the food in the duodendum, or lastly maybe the nerve controlling he esophageal sphincter does not quite close the sphincter properly and acid regurgitation can happen. If we treat to eliminate the cause of this dysfunction than the stomach should work properly. The best part about chiropractor is this works for any time a nerve has dysfunction. Will chiropractic cure everything, of course not only your body can cure things, chiropractic merely gives your body the tools to try to work at optimal efficiency and cure it yourself. True health comes from within, not in a pill!         

Your Plano Chiropractor's Deep Thoughts.

From time to time in our Frisco Chiropractic office, Twisted Spine and Joint Center, we are allow to reflect. We reflect on why we are chiropractors and why we decided to help people get better and stay well. I was talking to my colleague simply about the trend of medicine, on how medicine has been wrong about lower back pain for awhile. First they wanted to operated on the discs which is a failed methodology, it has been determined at only one in one hundred disc herniations need surgery yet back surgeries continue to rise and has brought upon a new diagnosis called failed back surgery syndrome. See back surgery failure rate is so high there is actually a term for it. There has been numerous studies that also show fusion surgeries are not needed in approximately seventy percent of the cases and you risk death every time you're under the knife.

There has also been recent scandals in device companies paying doctors to write bogus research journals to say how there products work and are the best. One doctor in particular made around $8.5 million dollars for a few years of work. The main problem with this is that other doctors see the research and based their treatment recommendation off these journals, this is the biggest ethical dilemma plaguing medicine, almost as big as the American Medical Associate taking money from tobacco companies to endorse tobacco as having "therapeutic effects". Recently it has show that it roughly takes fifteen years for a therapy to reach mainstream after the research shows it is effective. What is terribly wrong is that it take forty-four year for a therapy to be eliminated from mainstream after it has been deemed ineffective or harmful.

Sadly to say with medicine you never know what's going to be helpful and what's going to harm you. Think about spinal fusions they have been shown for the most part to be ineffective but they will still be doing them for the next forty years. What medication in the near future will be label harmful or cause disastrous effects? You should choose to do the safest and most natural less invasive treatment first as it is the lowest risk and work your way up the medicine hierarchy to riskier treatment option as lower risk treatments are ineffective. This is where chiropractic comes into play natural safe healthcare without the harmful effects since chiropractic care is the safest healthcare on the planet. If you have musculoskeletal problem chiropractors should be your first treatment option of choice.             

Can Chiropractic Help My Sacroiliac Pain?

Sacroiliac pain is a very common and annoying symptom that many people reports to us in our Frisco Chiropractic office. Weather the patient is a pregnant woman or an athlete sacroiliac pain is a common theme. Sacroiliac pain can be gradually built up due to dysfunction or can come on very suddenly and can cause pain while sitting, walking or doing your daily activities. In my experience sacroiliac pain is probably prevalent in about fifty percent of the patients we treat in our Plano Chiropractic office who complain of lower back pain.

Many people wonder how their condition arises or what makes it so annoying. The problems that we see is common sacroiliac dysfunction, dysfunction causes inflammation and inflammation causes pain. This means there is usually a pelvic unleveling and the pelvis is tilted causing dysfunction in both of the sacroiliac joints, both sides can become inflamed. Weather one side is overworking and the other is underworking this a problems on both accounts, we want the pelvis and the sacroiliac joints to function with symmetry as much as possible. Chiropractors try as much as possible to keep the body in a constant state of balance, having balance allows the body to function at peak performance and at this case with no pain or dysfunction. Chiropractic adjustment do wonders for keeping the sacroiliac joints free of problems.
    

The More About Chiropractic The Better!

In the recent issue of Dynamic Chiropractic it was reported that chiropractic adjusting was superior to medication for the treatment of lower back pain. Patients also reported longer lasting effects, felt healthier and felt greater satisfaction. This is something that chiropractors have known for eons in anecdotal cases, but it's good to get it backed up in a double blind randomized control trial, which is the gold standard of research methodology. The study continues to add credence that chiropractors should be the first line of defense in treating lower back pain which is the number one cause of loss of productive and disability in the world. Not only did chiropractic show superior results but take into account the fact the drug interaction claim one hundred and fifty thousand lives a year. Medical doctors should be bending over backwards to refer patients to the chiropractor of their choice.

The sad truth is many medical doctor will not see the research or let their bias get in the way of clear evidence the chiropractic is not only the most effective but also has the greatest satisfaction rate out of any healthcare provider. Once the evidence is published it usually takes about five years for the evidence to be applied clinically in the field. It takes the same time for a drug to stop being prescribed once it's ruled ineffective. Every chiropractic patient should spread the word that chiropractic is the best thing a patient can do in seeking musculoskeletal pain relief, they can help keep people healthy and perhaps off dangerous and ineffective medications. While some medications are helpful and needed there is just as many that are overused and dangerous. If you know someone who wants the best evidence patient care and be satisfied visit our Frisco Chiropractic office    

What Is Better For My Muscles, Ice Or Heat?

Well it really depends, both can be harmful and both can be helpful, it really depends on what stage of healing you are in. There are three types of phases during the healing process and your chiropractor will be able to identify and recommend which one is best for you. The phases of healing are the acute, sub-acute, and chronic. The acute phase is usually the first seventy-two hours of the injury, the sub-acute phase is from after the first seventy-two hour to two weeks, and the chronic phase is anything after two weeks.

Due to the physiological process of each phase cryotherapy or heat therapy can be indicated or contraindicated. The first phase is going to be the acute and ice phase, ice will be recommended to help decrease inflammation and help gate with the pain. The process of reducing the inflammation with help the tissues heal faster and regain functionality sooner. If heat is used in the acute phase, while it may feel good at the time, the next day will be extremely painful. Large gatherings of exudate or liquid will be present causing the area of injury to swell, also this swelling will promote pain, and the area of injury will be unusable for a few dates.

The next phase is the sub-acute phase which as stated above ranges from after the first seventy-two hours to two weeks. These phases can overlap and it's your chiropractors job to assess the current situation. In the sub-acute phase I still like to recommend ice treatment most of the time. The ice treatments continue to decrease pain, and only slightly decrease inflammation. If a patient has problems with ice I will recommend an ice-heat contrast therapy, with heat for ten minutes then ice to follow up. The ice-heat contrast therapy can act as a pumping acting to first bring the exudate to the area and the cold to contract and pump it away.

The last phase is the chronic phase, which is after two weeks from the injury date. During the chronic phase heat is going to be beneficial. The heat usually helps the tight muscles to relax and breath so to speak, most people also report just the general feeling that heat feels good. The heat seems to elongate the muscle fiber to make them more pliable meaning the muscle will be able to help preform a larger range of motion. Heat is also used in muscle work or reforming tissues, where the heat is used to relax and elongate the muscles and after the therapy ice is used to make sure the treatment does not have painful effects. If you have an injury it is always important to get it evaluated by your chiropractor first since they are experts in musculoskeletal injuries.  

Do I Have Frozen Shoulder And Can I Fix It?

Frozen shoulder is a common name of a condition where it is very difficult to move the shoulder. The movement is restricted in all planes but the motion that seems to be most difficult is lateral elevation or lateral flexion, it's also noted that internal and external rotation can be quite limited and bothersome as well. The proper name of this condition is adhesive capsulitis, basically it's where the joint capsule does not want to allow normal shoulder biomechanics. This condition can be long standing and is usually gradual of origin. I usually judge someone having adhesive capsulitis by them having less than seventy degrees of arm lateral elevation with pain. Many people report this condition started by simply waking up with some pain or they slept on it wrong, this seems to aggravate it and then it snowballs from there getting worst.

Treatment protocol with chiropractic care is very beneficial and responds very well. The treatment protocol should be focused first by decreasing pain and restoring proper mechanics to the joint in questioned. A contrast therapy of cryotherapy and heat can work well to make the tissues pliable for manual therapy and chiropractic adjusting. After cold/heat therapy the use of electric muscle stimulation (EMS) could also be of benefit to help gate pain and fatigue some muscles that have gotten contracted during the process. EMS should be arranged where the pads can be concentrated into the shoulder joint for maximum effect.

Chiropractic adjusting works well, although sore at the beginning it really loosen up the tissues surrounding the shoulder. The chiropractic adjusting should be directed in the position where the shoulder is restricted the most. For example if the patient is having trouble with lateral elevation the adjustment should have a contact on the superior portion of the shoulder joint and the thrust should be in a superior to inferior vector. The superior to inferior vector is essential to increase superior to inferior glide which is the motion that makes lateral elevation of the shoulder possible. Once treatment is rendered on a regular protocol there will be some improvements in overall global range of motion. Exercises can also be prescribed which are extremely beneficial to continue the process of recovery at home to get to the wellness phase.