Easley Chiropractic Healthy News - March 2018

Every profession is setting forth 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 Easley chiropractor at Young Chiropractic is always ready for such a conversation about Easley back pain. Back pain is a huge health issue affecting 80% of us in Easley at some point in life. Back pain is handled by many kinds of physicians in many kinds of professional societies. Their societal recommendations are related concerning imaging (Don’t do in the first 6 weeks of pain unless there are “red flags.”), trying non-surgical care ahead of imaging and/or referring for back surgery, and shifting 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 checking for the reaction to the last 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 monitor progress of care, not obtaining spinal imaging for acute low back pain in the first 6 weeks of pain unless there are red flags, and staying away from long term usage of passive care but instead move 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 issue. (4) The American College of Physicians recommends not obtaining imaging studies in patients with non-specific low back pain. (5) The North American Spine Society recommends not suggesting bed rest for more than 48 hours for low back pain, not using EMG studies to figure out the cause of spine pain, and not ordering advanced spinal imaging (ex MRI) in the first six weeks of non-specific acute low back pain without red flags. (6) The Danish Health Authority recommends not sending 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 Easley back pain patient or concerned loved one, to choose wisely the path of care for back pain relief. Consider these professions’ recommendations for back pain care to begin a conversation with your Easley chiropractor, your Easley back pain specialist, at Young Chiropractic as you choose the type of care proper for your Easley back pain relief.

 

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

Common Easley non-surgical interventions for Easley 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 Easley 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 reduces – matches 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 in absence of red flags. Bring your Easley back pain to your Easley chiropractor’s office! Make it your first Easley back pain relief healthcare stop!