Nashua Chiropractic Healthy News - March 2018

Healthcare professions are setting forth recommendations for practitioners to follow when dispensing health care with hopes to stimulate conversations between patients and their healthcare providers and among healthcare providers themselves. Your Nashua chiropractor at Moriarty Chiropractic is always ready for such a conversation about Nashua back pain. Back pain is a big health concern affecting 80% of us in Nashua at some point in life. Back pain is managed by many sorts of physicians in many kinds of specialist societies. Their societal recommendations are similar regarding imaging (Do not order within the first six weeks of pain unless there are “red flags.”), attempting non-surgical care ahead of imaging and/or referring for back surgery, and moving 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 latter one and not prescribing opioid drugs for acute disabling low back pain without assessment and a trial of other alternatives. (2) The American Chiropractic Association recommends not performing 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 present, and staying away from long term use 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 ordering EMG studies to figure out the cause of spine pain, and not doing advanced spinal imaging (ex MRI) within 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 unless the severe and debilitating back pain persists for 12 weeks regardless of non-surgical treatment. (7) It’s up to you, the Nashua back pain patient or concerned loved one, to choose wisely the path of care for back pain relief. Use these professions’ recommendations for back pain care to begin a conversation with your Nashua chiropractor, your Nashua back pain specialist, at Moriarty Chiropractic as you decide on the type of care appropriate for your Nashua back pain relief.

 

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

Common Nashua non-surgical interventions for Nashua 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 Nashua 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 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 Nashua back pain to Moriarty Chiropractic! Make it your first Nashua back pain relief healthcare stop!