Showing posts with label chiropractic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chiropractic. Show all posts

Thursday, July 10, 2014

How the Quatum Era is Shifting The Way We View Healing


Emerging research is shifting the way we view healing.

Because much of our systems are guided by dualism, herd-mentality, and corporate interests emerging discoveries can take forever to surface and gain acceptance. BUT, what if were standard practice to teach healing processes as a part of grade school studies? What if you were 10 and learned concepts like:

A.) You are energy. The frequency you operate at is very specific. The combination of your pH+ level, the quality of your thoughts, your functionality, energy level, stress level, etc. all combine to make up your unique frequency.

B.) The era of Newtonian physics (which began in the late 1600's) would have us believe that the body is merely mechanical and that parts can be discarded or replaced. But the last eight decades of emerging quantum era science shows us that everything is interconnected at the quantum level.

C.) What this means for healing: The physical, energetic and emotional inter-workings of the body are far more intertwined than we've previously imagined. This is why a soldier can return home unharmed physically, but sustained psychological damages results in a cascade of post battle depression, PTSD symptoms, and exhausted adrenals resulting in inflammatory issues and pain.


The study of emotional injuries, psychology and neuroscience are relatively new. We barely have a centuries' worth of research and we've learned more in the last three decades than we have in the preceding seventy years due to technology. A few well proven discoveries worth noting:

1.) Socioeconomic levels correlate to intellectual capacity: Poverty can reduce your working IQ by 13 points from the various emotion burdens of not being able to participate in one's community or be able to contribute.
2.) Adult relationship capacity correlates to early childhood learned attachment style: The early childhood interaction between parent and child forms the foundation of the adult's subconscious view towards how one can depend upon and trust others. 
3.) Intrinsic motivation trumps all: People who are motivated by personal factors generally find life, work and relationships more fulfilling, hence a movement within the workplace to engage and inspire employees as a new form of increasing productivity and overall satisfaction.


All that to say, our clinic likes to look ahead at how things may shift, how doctors might collaborate in the future and how the whole person may be assessed and treated emotionally just as much as physically. We hope education can make room in health classes for the reality of facing injury and how to recover. Because unfortunately, its a steep learning curve as an adult.



Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Why Whiplash is a Sneaky Bastard (The Physics & Damage)

There's a few important things at risk, (like your brain stem, no big deal.)

The research on the physics of how whiplash happens is slightly terrifying. With speeds as low as 8mph the sudden force of being hit may only be 2G, but with appropriate calculations, your neck ultimately absorbs a whip-like force of 5G for .25 of a second. (1) This is called 'magnification of acceleration' and unfortunately most people in a low speed accident will write-off any symptoms as non-related simply because they associate injury with higher speeds. 

Our clinic notices how many cases in which we treat neck pain, and more often than we'd like to admit, there's a low speed rear-ending accident in that patient's past that was never assessed. We hate to see patients spend money out of their own pocket to treat these issues when it should have been covered by PIP under your car insurance. But the longer anyone waits to submit that claim, the higher the risk of it being rejected. 


(1) Shapiro, A.; Teasell, R.; Steenhuis, R.: Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Following Whiplash. In: Spine: State of the Art Reviews. Vol. 7, No. 3. September 1993. pp. 455-469 

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Chiropractic Treatment for Low Back Disc Herniation

(A review of the latest studies by Dr. George Cluen)

This case study reviews a non-surgical treatment path for a 60-year-old-male who was reasonably active and had a previous low back pain case before returning 15 months later with severe LBP and pain radiating from his right glute to his calf.

His presenting symptoms were:
His treatment path included chiropractic adjustments, traction therapy, and physiotherapy to be followed up by at-home exercises. An MRI and surgical consult showed a lateral L5, S1 disc rupture with L5 nerve impingement, but improvements at this point were enough to avoid surgery. A week later a CT guided nerve root steroid injection was performed. Within three days, the patient reported sleeping better, was able to return to work and drive.

After another 4 weeks of physical therapy the patient reported a 0 of 10 on the numerical pain scale and after another month the patient reported being able to return to light exercising and reported zeros across all pain scales. 

It should be mentioned that this patient is fit for their age, motivated and compliant with treatment. Either way, this study demonstrates the effectiveness of a non-surgical therapy mix from chiropractic to physical therapy and the assistance of a steroid injection.


Erhard RE, Welch WC, Liu B, Vignovi M. Far-lateral disk herniation: case report, review of the literature, and a description of non-surgical management. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics 2004;27:e3.

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Physical Therapy VS. Self Care for Whiplash


(A review of the latest studies from Dr. George Cluen.)

Up to half of all whiplash patients are plagued with chronic symptoms, and ongoing research seeks to identify affordable, effective methods of preventing chronic pain. The standard treatment for whiplash often includes comprenhensive, long term physical therapy. While these treatments have been shown to be beneficial, researchers from the University of Australia wondered if patients could get some of the same benefits with more minimal visits and an at-home exercise program.

What they discovered was, patient education coupled with at-home exercise programs, can be equally as effective as longer, more intensive physical therapy treatments are needed. The results showed that healthcare costs could potentially be reduced and those in chronic pain could reduce their appointment load.

The study included 172 patients suffering from whiplash after an auto accident who were randomly assigned to either a physiotherapy or an advice-only group. The patients in a professional treatment path were given 20 one-hour physical therapy sessions over the course of 12 weeks. The second group received a single 30 minute session of patient education and physiotherapy, along with the at-home exercise program. After 14 weeks of care, there were no clinically significant differences between the two groups. (Note that emotional burden or any other adaptive benefits were not measured. Let's not completely discount in person physical therapy.)

What we see a lot of within our industry that patients reflect back to us within initial appointments, is that a path of drugging and physical therapy typically sums up the corrective steps before a surgery is recommended. At Auto and Work Injury Center, we educate patients about the full spectrum of alternatives and how they compliment each other. Research shows that when you combine chiropractic with physiotherapy, recovery takes on a new momentum. Chiropractic can reduce symptoms for 93% of whiplash patients, and research also shows that patients receiving chiropractic adjustments for neck pain have lower medical costs and speedier recovery compared to patients seeing only a physician or physiotherapist alone. 



References

MichaleffZA, et al. Comprehensive physiotherapy exercise programme or advice for chronic whiplash (PROMISE): a pragmatic randomized controlled trial. The Lancet 2014; pii S0140-6736(14)60457-8. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(14)60457-8.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24703832

Woodward MN, Cook JCH, Gargan MF, Bannister GC, Chiropractic Treatment of chronic 'whiplash' injuries. Injury: International Journal of Care of the Injured 1996;27(9):643-645

Korthals-de Bos IB, et al. Cost Effectiveness of physiotherapy, manual therapy, and general practitioner. British Medical Journal 2003. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.326.7395.911