St Peters Chiropractic Healthy News - March 2018

Healthcare professions are establishing recommendations for practitioners to adhere to when delivering health care with hopes to stimulate conversations between patients and their healthcare providers and among healthcare providers themselves. Your St Peters chiropractor at Old Mill Chiropractic is always ready for such a conversation about St Peters back pain. Back pain is a big health issue upsetting 80% of us in St Peters at some point in life. Back pain is dealt with by many sorts of physicians in many kinds of professional societies. Their societal recommendations are similar concerning imaging (Don’t do in the first 6 weeks of pain except if there are “red flags.”), attempting non-surgical care ahead of imaging and/or referring for back surgery, and progressing the patient care from passive care to active care. More precisely, 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 test of other alternatives. (2) The American Chiropractic Association recommends not doing repeat imaging to see how the patient is responding, not obtaining spinal imaging for acute low back pain in the first 6 weeks of pain unless red flags are noted, 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 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 ordering 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 ordering EMG studies to determine the cause of spine pain, and not doing 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 except if the severe and debilitating back pain continues for 12 weeks in spite of non-surgical treatment. (7) It’s up to you, the St Peters 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 guide a conversation with your St Peters chiropractor, your St Peters back pain specialist, at Old Mill Chiropractic as you choose the type of care proper for your St Peters back pain relief.

 

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

Common St Peters non-surgical interventions for St Peters 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 St Peters back surgery is spinal manipulation (10) of which 90% (11) is performed 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 emphasis as pain decreases – matches Choosing Wisely recommendations as it works toward 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 St Peters back pain to your St Peters chiropractor’s office! Make it your first St Peters back pain relief healthcare stop!