West Palm Beach Chiropractic Healthy News - March 2018

Healthcare professions are setting forth recommendations for practitioners to abide by when delivering health care with hopes to stimulate conversations between patients and their healthcare providers and among healthcare providers themselves. Your West Palm Beach chiropractor at Chiropractic Care is always ready for such a conversation about West Palm Beach back pain. Back pain is a big health concern upsetting 80% of us in West Palm Beach at some point in life. Back pain is handled by many kinds of physicians in many kinds of specialist societies. Their societal recommendations are related concerning imaging (Do not order in the first six weeks of pain except if there are “red flags.”), trying non-surgical care ahead of imaging and/or referring for back surgery, and progressing the patient care from passive care to active care. For example, the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation recommends not ordering repeat epidural steroid injections without evaluating the response to the latter one and not prescribing opioid drugs for acute disabling low back pain without evaluation and a test of other alternatives. (2) The American Chiropractic Association recommends not doing repeat imaging to see how the patient is responding, not getting spinal imaging for acute low back pain in the first 6 weeks of pain unless there are red flags, and avoiding long term usage of passive care but instead move the patient to active care. (3) The American College of Emergency Room Physicians recommends sidestepping lumbar spine imaging in non-traumatic back pain unless there are severe or progressive neurological deficits or a suspicion of an underlying issue. (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 determine the cause of spine pain, and not ordering advanced spinal imaging (ex MRI) in the first 6 weeks of non-specific acute low back pain with no red flags. (6) The Danish Health Authority recommends not referring patients for back surgery for a lumbar disc herniation with radiculopathy except if the severe and debilitating back pain continues for 12 weeks despite non-surgical treatment. (7) It’s up to you, the West Palm Beach back pain patient or concerned loved one, to choose wisely the course of care for back pain relief. Consider these professions’ recommendations for back pain care to start a conversation with your West Palm Beach chiropractor, your West Palm Beach back pain specialist, at Chiropractic Care as you choose the type of care appropriate for your West Palm Beach back pain relief.

 

TIP OF THE MONTH: Try Non-Surgical Interventions for West Palm Beach Back Pain

Common West Palm Beach non-surgical interventions for West Palm Beach 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 West Palm Beach back surgery is spinal manipulation (10) of which 90% (11) is done by chiropractors. The Cox Technic System of Spine Care – spinal manipulation with exercise, nutrition and passive care for pain and inflammation reduction with more active care importance 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 pursued by medicine [12]) before advanced imaging or surgical referral in absence of red flags. Bring your West Palm Beach back pain to Chiropractic Care! Make it your first West Palm Beach back pain relief healthcare stop!