Ashburn Chiropractic Healthy News - March 2018

Every profession is 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 Ashburn chiropractor at Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn is always ready for such a conversation about Ashburn back pain. Back pain is a big health concern distressing 80% of us in Ashburn at some point in life. Back pain is handled by many kinds of physicians in many types of specialist 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 moving the patient care from passive 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 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 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 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 sidestepping lumbar spine imaging in non-traumatic back pain except if there are severe or progressive neurological deficits or a suspicion of an underlying condition. (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 using EMG studies to establish the cause of spine pain, and not doing 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 persists for 12 weeks despite non-surgical treatment. (7) It is up to you, the Ashburn 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 begin a conversation with your Ashburn chiropractor, your Ashburn back pain specialist, at Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn as you decide on the type of care suitable for your Ashburn back pain relief.

 

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

Common Ashburn non-surgical interventions for Ashburn 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 Ashburn 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 reduces – fits 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 Ashburn back pain to your Ashburn chiropractor’s office! Make it your first Ashburn back pain relief healthcare stop!