Alternative treatment for back
pain
Dr. Rami Rusim
 In
the last few months we focused on
interventional treatment for back pain
discussing the most concerning
conditions.
In the months to come, I will be
discussing some specific pain problems
not related to the spine in addition to
sharing the latest information about pain
medications.
I always believed that pain management
should be a multi-dimensional specialty
and use what is called a “multi-Disciplinary
approach
That means your spine injection course of
treatment could work better if physical
therapy, message therapy, aqua therapy…
or chiropractic care is added!
Even some patients had failed on my watch
their injections and other invasive
treatments including surgery to benefit
from some of the above listed
treatments!!?
Recently I was so fortunate to meet Dr.
Paul Meyers of Meyers Chiropractic care
at 170 Common St. Suite 105, Lawrence, MA
01840 who shared very interesting and
important information about Chiropractic
care which, I admit, I had no clue about
before!
Dr. Meyers had worked on tough cases with
excellent outcomes. I was so glad to
learn that such great service can be
provided to our patients in Lawrence. I
asked Dr. Meyers to shed light on some of
the important facts about this specialty
in this article.
I could not be happier to see the first
dimension is being added to Lawrence
General Hospital Pain Management Center:
“Chiropractic as Complementary
Medicine”
If you are a patient suffering from low
back pain as a result of a chronic
condition such as degenerative disc
disease or spinal stenosis, your medical
physician might refer you to a
chiropractor. Co-management of a
patient’s spinal condition between
their medical physician and a
chiropractor is becoming a more common
practice.
Chiropractors are medical professionals
that diagnose and treat disorders of the
muscular, skeletal, and nervous systems.
This commonly includes neck pain, back
pain, extremity pain, paresthesia, and
headaches. These maladies can be the
result of dysfunction in the muscles,
bony articulations, and / or nerves.
Dr. Rustum has been expertly explaining
the disease processes related to lower
back pain in his health-care column each
month. He has informed us that many of
the problems related to back pain might
be serious or require medical
intervention with pharmaceuticals and
surgery.
Some low back pain patients without
serious underlying medical diseases
respond well to conservative care with
alternative or complementary medicine
such as chiropractic.
This integrative care can be the sole
method of treatment or may complement and
support allopathic care. Many
patients respond well to a regimen of
pharmaceutical management by the medical
physician concomitant with chiropractic
care.
Dr. Rustum acknowledged in a recent
column that surgery is generally
considered as a last resort when all
other non-surgical therapies are found to
be unsuccessful. In most cases,
best practice (and in some cases, the
standard of care) is to prescribe a
non-surgical means of relieving the
patient’s pain prior to the
recommendation of surgery.
What type of education do chiropractors
have?
Every chiropractic college requires the
applicant, as a prerequisite, to have an
undergraduate education and many
chiropractic colleges require a bachelor
degree. The curriculum of science,
pathology, and treatment is commensurate
to that of the majority of medical
schools. All Doctors of Chiropractic must
pass a series of National Board exams, as
well as a licensing exam for the state in
which they choose to practice. All states
require chiropractors to take continuing
education credit hours to maintain their
license to practice. The scope of
chiropractic practice is determined by
the individual state.
In addition to the chiropractic college
education, many chiropractors have
additional postgraduate training (100 to
over 300 hours) and board certification
in areas such as: Orthopedics, Neurology,
Sports Medicine, Rehabilitation,
Nutrition, Pediatrics, Family Practice,
and diagnostic Radiology.
Is chiropractic safe?
Chiropractic is recognized as one of the
safest drug-free and noninvasive
treatments available for the management
neuromusculoskeletal pain
syndromes. Although chiropractic
has an excellent safety record, no
treatment is completely free of possible
unpleasant reactions. Many patients
feel immediately relief following
chiropractic treatment, but a few might
experience mild soreness, just as they do
after exercise. If mild discomfort
or soreness occurs following spinal
manipulation it typically subsides within
24 hours. The chiropractor will inform
you of any other risks associated with
your particular health condition.
Research into the efficacy of
chiropractic treatment has increased
significantly in recent years. The
Foundation for Chiropractic Education and
Research was founded in 1944 and has been
funding research into chiropractic care
since 1980. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical
Center established the Center for
Alternative Medicine Research and
Education in the early ‘90s. Harvard
Medical School established the Division
for Research and Education Complementary
and Integrated Medical Therapies in 2000.
Yale School of Medicine hosted an
Integrative Medicine Scientific Symposium
in April 2008. Physicians and researchers
from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
recently received a grant sponsored by
the National Institutes of Health to
engage in research at their National
Center for Complementary and Alternative
Medicine. All of these world
renowned medical schools and institutions
are studying the benefits of chiropractic
and other integrated medicines.
What will my visit to the chiropractor be
like?
An initial office visit to a chiropractor
is similar to seeing a medical physician.
A comprehensive history will be performed
followed by a physical examination.
A diagnosis will be determined and
treatment will be prescribed specifically
for your condition. Further
diagnostic studies might be ordered such
as x-rays, CAT scan, or MRI.
The chiropractic examination and
diagnosis will include the location and
description of “subluxations”
of the spine or extremities.
These are also called “fixations”
or misalignments of the joints. They are
a biomechanical alteration of a joint and
its surrounding soft tissues that can
result in localized pain and dysfunction
as well as pain and dysfunction of
structures neurologically or
embryologically related to that
articulation.
What treatment do chiropractors perform?
Chiropractors vary in the type of
treatment they prescribe. Many
chiropractors utilized supportive
procedures and therapies such as
electrical therapy and ultrasound. Some
chiropractors prescribe rehabilitative
exercises and others provide nutritional,
dietary, and lifestyle counseling.
A few chiropractors use laser therapy and
acupuncture. Some even prescribe braces,
casting, or supports.
Most all chiropractors treat with spinal
manipulative therapy. It is also
called the “chiropractic adjustment”.
This involves corrective mobilization of
a joint in the spine or extremities. The
purpose of the adjustment is to restore
mobility to joints that have become
hypomobile mobile as a result of
chronically poor posture, trauma, or
arthritic / degenerative changes.
Manipulation of the affected joint
returns mobility, reduces pain, decreases
muscle tension, and allows the immediate,
surrounding, and associated tissues the
chance to re-establish homeostasis and
return to a healthy state.
Millions of patients in this country each
year are successfully treated by
chiropractors. There are more than 60,000
practicing chiropractors in the United
States. Back pain is now one of the most
common reasons for absence from work and
half of all working adults admit to
having back pain each year. Back pain is
also the second most common reason for
medical physician visits in this
country.
Chiropractors are experts at treating
disorders of the spine, so don’t be
surprised when your medical physician
recommends an evaluation by a
chiropractor. You’ll be
pleased you took the recommendation.
You can contact Paul Meyers, DC at (978)
686-7900, or MeyersChiro@
comcast.net
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