Medical research in favor of MAINTENANCE chiro care!

I was reading this great article on ChiroAccess.com which talks about two studies that have been published in medical literature since January, that support chiropractic care.  This isn’t a first, medical literature has been supporting chiropractic care for years.  The difference, is that medical literature that supports chiropractic care, always supports it for ACUTE care only.

These literature pieces support maintenance care!  Ongoing chiropractic adjustments for better health. Let me give you the details.

The first study published in January 2011 in Spine concluded that “SMT (spinal manipulative therapy) is effective for the treatment of chronic non specific LBP (low back pain). To obtain long-term benefit, this study suggests maintenance spinal manipulations after the initial intensive manipulative therapy.”

The study… of course, is directed at pain, which isn’t the best thing for chiropractic progress, but it is a start.  Cool part, they discuss maintenance adjustments as a method of continuing to keep someone out of low back pain.  Which is nice to see in the medical literature.  You may have heard me say it before (and when I say it, it is way more profound – because I know that chiropractic brings health, not just pain free living)… eating healthy one day a month doesn’t bring health.  Working out one day a month, doesn’t bring health or fitness (but it does bring soreness); and getting adjusted one day a month, doesn’t bring health.

The next study, published in April 2011 – Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, provides additional support for the value of chiropractic maintenance care for post injury low back pain patients.  The study followed 894 injured workers for a period of one year.  During that year there were four different types of therapy available to the workers:  medical management, physical therapy,  chiropractic, and no therapy.  Episodes of repeat disability were recorded during the year following the initial injury.  Physical therapy had the highest percentage of reinjured workers followed by those receiving medical management or no treatment at all.  The lowest incidence of repeat injury was found among those workers who had received chiropractic maintenance care.

Nice!  The simple answer… your brain is the single most valuable tool in bringing and maintaining health.  God protected your nervous system with a skull and a spine, and nothing else is protected that way.  You can work on your muscles, and rehabilitate them… but if you do not rehabilitate the message to them, then you cannot heal.  It is necessary for healing!

I have another journal article that I am fond of.  In 2005 the Spine Journal published a study from six medical doctors in Japan showed that loss of cervical curve increases incidence of atrophy of the spinal cord, as well as demyelination.  Basically, these doctors figured out that the cervical curve directly relates to MS and ALS type conditions.

This is a good direction for chiropractic, but we sure do need more.  In the meantime, we’ll do everything we can to keep you healthy, and everything we can to keep your moving in the direction of correction!  Be well!

Dr. E

Chiropractic and Quality of Life

http://www.jvsr.com/index.asp

There have been some great studies over the years on Chiropractic and Quality of Life.  I stumbled across this reference, and thought about the simple approach to health that we take in the chiropractic health model, and how that simple approach is still the absolute most effective.

“A study published in The Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research in August 2004 shows that a healthy spinal column can improve posture, reduce stress and increases range of motion when performing various exercises. People who undergo regular chiropractic treatment sessions may also take better care of themselves by exercising regularly, getting enough sleep and making healthy nutritional choices that also improve the quality of life (Source: ChiropracticResearch.org).  Here’s a close look at some of the key benefits of regular chiropractic treatment:

1. Natural way to reduce stress. Chiropractic treatments can help to improve nervous system functioning which in turn helps minimize the effects of stress. When someone is suffering from poor nerve function, stress buildup can be significant enough to trigger migraines, headaches, joint pain and extreme anxiety.  Sustained stress on the nervous system leads to hormonal dysregulation, immuno-compromise and secondary diseases such as cancer.

2. Improves posture. A better posture encourages better breathing patterns which helps keep the energy flowing throughout the body. Better posture also minimizes the risk of upper and lower back pain, joint problems and fatigue.  In addition, there are numerous studies linking postural degeneration to heart disease, and degenerative conditions of the spinal cord.  Together, these effects will improve quality of life.

3. Increased joint flexibility and mobility. Regular chiropractic treatments can improve range of motion and thereby encourage physical activity. This reduces the chances that someone will maintain a sedentary lifestyle, and regular exercise or physical activity can improve quality of life overall.

4. Promotes natural healing. One of the most significant outcomes of chiropractic treatment is that the body can begin to restore itself naturally. An impaired nervous system often leads to injury and damage to the tissues and joints. Any type of spinal misalignment can contribute to the deterioration of the body, so chiropractic adjustments reduce this risk and promote the natural healing process. This means that a patient may not need to resort to prescription drugs and medication just to feel better, thereby improving their quality of life.

5. Reduces blood pressure. Improved nervous system functioning can improve blood and energy flow throughout the body, which in turn can reduce blood pressure. High blood pressure can contribute to a number of health problems and diseases, and may be difficult to control as the patient ages. Regular chiropractic treatments can reduce blood pressure naturally, which means the patient may not need to resort to medication in order to improve their health.

Simple and to the point, this is why chiropractic works”

So as I said in the beginning, the simple approach is what makes sense.  And we will continue to teach chiropractic for its life giving qualities, the improvement on healing and immune system capacity.

If you have a child, spouse or parent living nearby who has not been checked, you owe it to yourself and them, to get them through the doors to ahve their spine checked.  It is that important, and silent subluxations do not sleep.  Hope you enjoyed the reminder of why you come here!

Chiropractic Revisited

Dr. Levi

Occasionally a patient might think, “If chiropractic was so important, how come it wasn’t around hundreds of years ago? What did people do back then?” Well, it has been. It may not have been as scientific (neither was medicine) but forms of manipulation have been around since the beginning of recorded time.

1. Chinese Kong Fou Document written about 2700 B.C. is the earliest indications

2. A Greek papyrus dating back to at least 1500 B.C. gave instructions on how to maneuver the extremities to relieve low back pain.

3. Ancient American Indian hieroglyphics demonstrated “backwalking”

4. Some Indian tribes used manipulative therapy

5. Tissue manipulation was practiced by the ancient Japanese, Indians of Asia, as well as the Egyptians, Babylonians, Syrians, Hindus, and Tibetans

The famous surgeon, Sir James Paget, wrote in the British Medical Journal January 5, 1865, an article entitled, “Cases that Bonesetters Cure.” He reflected on the economic threat these bonesetters were to medical doctors when he wrote, “Few of you are likely to practice without a bonesetter for a rival; and if he can cure a case which you have failed to cure, his fortune may be made and yours marred. Learn then to imitate what is good and avoid what is bad in the practice of bonesetters.”

Hippocrates, who lived between  460B.C. – 357B.C., wrote over 70 books on healing including, Manipulation and Importance to Good Health and On Setting joints by Leverage. He said “Get knowledge of the spine, for this is the requisite for many diseases.” He stressed the importance of rest, fresh air, sun light, proper diet, exercise in moderation, cleanliness, tissue manipulation, and minimum usage of drugs.

Claudius Galen 130 to 200 A.D. was given the title “Prince of Physicians” after he corrected the paralysis of the right hand of Eudemus by treating his neck, apparently by adjusting the neck vertebrae. Galen, like Hippocrates, said  “Look to the nervous system as the key to maximum health.”

The Bible- The importance of massage procedures for maximum beauty and health are emphasized in the  Book of Esther.

The importance of cleanliness in both physical and moral well-being is mentioned over 200 times in the Bible. Cleanliness of water, food, clothing, bathing, and proper latrine methods are stressed. The Book of Leviticus stresses these measures with leprosy and veneral disease, and cautions against omens and magic.

Current medical literature will tell you that medical science has increased the longevity of people in recent years. The credibility of that statement is challenged by the fact that the life expectancy during Biblical times is given in the Bible as “three score and ten”- which is 70 years of age. Thus people are not living much longer today than they did in the Holy land 2,000 years ago.  However, the people of Biblical times observed proper hygienic  and sanitary measures.

With the fall of the Roman Empire and through the dark ages that followed, proper hygiene and sanitation became nonexistent. Ignorance, pestilence, and filth prevailed while logic and science took a back seat. Great masses of people died and, of course, longevity took a severe drop, too.

The physicians of the middle ages did not perform surgery, considered it beneath their dignity, and felt it belonged to the barber or executioner.

Ironically, the principles of proper hygiene and sanitation as taught in the Bible, were ignored until the turn of this century. These basic principles were rejected and violated by the physicians, many of whom would condemn anyone who tried to tell them otherwise.

Thus it was not any miracle pill which restored our longevity back to the Biblical days, but proper public health and sanitation measures.