- Swedish Massage
- CryotherapyYou can imagine that a lack of uniformity would not only present as a tremendous challenge to the creation a public opinion, or how to explain to our allopathic peers what we do as chiropractors, but it makes the efficient design of chiropractic research a nightmare. One chiropractor may implement cryotherapy, trigger point treatment, and general long-lever mobilization of the patient, whereas another will focus on diagnostic procedures and one or two highly specific, low-amplitude, high-velocity short-lever adjustments. Even more complex, both practitioners may get significant results with the same patient.
- Chiropractic Adjustments$4+There are some very simple questions we can pose which facilitate willingness to reevaluate one’s opinion about chiropractic: If chiropractic is nothing but placebo, why do medicare and third-party payors cover chiropractic adjustments? If chiropractors are only concerned with taking unsuspecting peoples’ money, why were chiropractors willing to serve 30,000 jail terms over several decades in every state in this nation for adjusting patients? If chiropractic is so dangerous, why is the average chiropractic malpractice insurance $4,000 a year, versus the medical average of $90,000? Why is chiropractic offered to our men and women in uniform on military bases around the globe and in VA hospitals? Why are so many members of the community so dedicated to chiropractic? Why do doctors of chiropractic have hospital privileges across the country, and why are DCs such mainstream components of integrated health care departments? Why are we primary care practitioners in most states? Why are DCs doctors at all?
- SubluxationThere is a wealth of information on the science of chiropractic, our methodologies, philosophy and treatment and diagnostic protocols presented in layman’s terms on some of the other pages on this website. What I present on this page is information about the impact of chiropractic history on interdisciplinary relations, research on chiropractic and current theories on the subluxation, and our treatment logarithms. I also outline my focus and interests in practice and appropriate conditions for referral to my office.
- Manipulation TherapyOne area of investigation addresses important questions pertaining to two highly practical areas of chiropractic practice. First, how many treatments at what frequency will produce an optimal effect? Second, are the beneficial effects of spinal manipulation enhanced by including adjunctive therapies? Answers to these questions have been largely provided any recent study by Haas, Groupp, and Kramer (2004); they demonstrated that the beneficial effects of spinal manipulation for both pain and disability of the low back continue to accrue for up to 12 patient visits within a three week period (Hass et al., 2004). The implications were that, for at least some low back pain patients, cessation of treatments before 12 sessions are completed may be premature. The study also demonstrated that various physical modalities (electrotherapy, ultrasound, etc.) used in conjunction with spinal manipulation may achieve superior results. A longer-term study involving patients with chronic low back pain found that additional treatments every three weeks for nine months after completion of an initial 12 treatments in the first month conferred a distinct improvement in disability score (Descarreaux, Blouin, Drolet, Papadimitriou, & Teasdale, 2004).
- Therapeutic ExerciseAssessment of postural/phasic muscle system imbalances with focus on supraspinatus, pec minor, teres minor, upper and lower trapezius, and rhomboids with modification of ADLs and prescription of at-home therapeutic exercises to reduce the chances of recurrence.
- Applied KinesiologyI was devastated when I learned that CCCLA had chosen to take this approach, because the finest techniques in chiropractic - Gonstead, Thompson, SOT, Blair, Applied Kinesiology - are
- AcupunctureA special neck pain task force was recently commissioned by the Bone and Joint Decade (2000–10) to conduct a critical survey of the scientific literature published between 1980 and 2006. After extensive scholarly review, the task force recommended that most patients with neck pain would benefit from manual therapies (mobilization, manipulation, and massage), supervised exercises, low-level laser therapy, and perhaps acupuncture. Regaining function as soon as possible was considered to be a key component of those treatments found to be most effective (Hurwitz et al., 2008).
- Chiropractic Laser Therapy
- Disc Herniation TreatmentIn a study that compared patients who received either conservative or surgical care for a herniated disc, the chiropractic patients were found to improve just as rapidly and completely in a randomized clinical trial (Weinstein, Tosteson, et al., 2006) and even more rapidly and completely when seen through the lens of an observational study (Weinstein, Lurie, et al., 2006). Two additional randomized trials that demonstrated the effectiveness of spinal manipulation compared to conventional treatments for lumbar disc herniation looked at range of motion changes in one group (Nwuga, 1982) and back pain, disability, and cost comparisons and another group of patients (Burton, Tillotson, & Cleary, 2000). Most recently, a randomized clinical trial found a substantial treatment effect for patients with acute back pain and sciatica with disc protrusion treated with spinal manipulation by chiropractors compared to a simulated manipulation (Santilli, Beghi, & Finucci, 2006).