Tonawanda Chiropractic Healthy News - March 2018

Healthcare professions are establishing recommendations for practitioners to follow when dispensing health care in hopes of opening conversations between patients and their healthcare providers and among healthcare providers themselves. Your Tonawanda chiropractor at Chiropractic Spine Sports And Rehabilitation is always ready for such a conversation about Tonawanda back pain. Back pain is a huge health issue upsetting 80% of us in Tonawanda at some point in life. Back pain is managed by many kinds of physicians in many types of professional societies. Their societal recommendations are related regarding imaging (Don’t perform within the first 6 weeks of pain except if there are “red flags.”), testing non-surgical care ahead of imaging and/or referring for back surgery, and progressing the patient care from passive to active care. More specifically, the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation recommends not ordering repeat epidural steroid injections without checking for the response to the latter one and not prescribing opioid drugs for acute disabling low back pain without assessment and a trial of other alternatives. (2) The American Chiropractic Association recommends not performing repeat imaging to monitor progress of care, not obtaining spinal imaging for acute low back pain in the first 6 weeks of pain unless red flags are present, and staying away from long term usage of passive care but instead shift the patient to active care. (3) The American College of Emergency Room Physicians recommends avoiding lumbar spine imaging in non-traumatic back pain unless there are severe or progressive neurological deficits or a suspicion of an underlying condition. (4) The American College of Physicians recommends not getting imaging studies in patients with non-specific low back pain. (5) The North American Spine Society recommends not advocating bed rest for more than 48 hours for low back pain, not using EMG studies to establish the cause of spine pain, and not getting advanced spinal imaging (ex MRI) in the first 6 weeks of non-specific acute low back pain without red flags. (6) The Danish Health Authority recommends not referring patients for back surgery for a lumbar disc herniation with radiculopathy unless the severe and debilitating back pain continues for 12 weeks despite non-surgical treatment. (7) It is up to you, the Tonawanda back pain patient or concerned loved one, to choose wisely the course of care for back pain relief. Use these professions’ recommendations for back pain care to guide a conversation with your Tonawanda chiropractor, your Tonawanda back pain specialist, at Chiropractic Spine Sports And Rehabilitation as you decide on the type of care suitable for your Tonawanda back pain relief.

 

TIP OF THE MONTH: Try Non-Surgical Interventions for Tonawanda Back Pain

Common Tonawanda non-surgical interventions for Tonawanda back pain relief are pain medications, exercise, manual manipulation, massage, and heat/ice. (8, 9) Included in the top non-surgical interventions to try before Tonawanda back surgery is spinal manipulation (10) of which 90% (11) is delivered by chiropractors. The Cox Technic System of Spine Care – spinal manipulation with exercise, nutrition and passive care for pain and inflammation reduction with increased active care emphasis as pain decreases – fits Choosing Wisely recommendations as it seeks 50% relief of pain within 30 days of care (which is more than the 30% or greater improvement in self-reported pain and function sought by medicine [12]) before advanced imaging or surgical referral without red flags. Bring your Tonawanda back pain to your Tonawanda chiropractor’s office! Make it your first Tonawanda back pain relief healthcare stop!