CF 084: Multifidus & Disc Degeneration, Opioids & First Provider, Craniocervical Instability

Today, it’s like the olden days here at the Chiropractic Forward Podcast. That’s right. No guests, just moiah. Me. Unfiltered and onery as usual. I’ve had stuff piling up in my archives and we’re going to sprint through some of it and see what sticks. We’re going to talk about the multifidus and some new research on it having to do with disc degeneration, we’ll talk about why what provider you see after low back injury can make all the difference, and we’ll talk about some hint that fibromyalgia and even POTS is theorized to be caused by craniocervical instability. Maybe?

It’s a heaping plate of knowledge noodles so keep your seat, the Italian mama that feeds you too much is in the kitchen. But first, here’s that yummy like a meatball bumper music

OK, we are back. Welcome to the podcast today, I’m Dr. Jeff Williams and I’m your host for the Chiropractic Forward podcast.  

You have shimmied into Episode #84

Before we get started, 

I’m happy to introduce a new sponsor for the Chiropractic Forward Podcast called GoChiroTV. GoChiroTV is a patient education system for your office that will eliminate the need for running cable TV or the same DVDs over and over again on a loop in your waiting room. The bite-sized videos are specifically made to inform your patients about the importance of chiropractic and healthy living, to encourage referrals, and to present the benefits of the specific and different products and services you offer.

It works by using a tailored-fit video playlist that will only promote the products and services available at your practice, and the videos are replaced automatically on a weekly basis. There’s no need to manually update your playlist or learn any complicated software. With this system, you tcan truly just set it and forget it.

Listeners of the Chiropractic Forward Podcast can use the promo code CFP19 at checkout to get 15% off all subscriptions, which also comes with a 45-day free trial to see if it’s right for your practice and…your discounted rate will be locked in for as long as you have a subscription. 

So visit GoChiroMedia.com (that’s g-o-c-h-i-r-o-m-e-d-i-a-.com) to check out the demo reels, and to get started on your free trial. Take your practice to the next level with GoChiroTV.

And thanks to them for being involved in what we’re trying to accomplish here. 

Personal Happenings

If you hear something here that you really like and would like it in written form rather than spoken, just hop onto  chiropracticforward.com, find the episode, and just scroll down to copy and paste it. If you’re using it for content or on your website for some reason, just be cool and give us some credit please. I’d sure appreciate it and I’m sure the researchers we discuss would too. 

Item #1

Our first paper to cover is called “Physical activity attenuates fibrotic alterations to the multifidus muscle associated with intervertebral disc degeneration” and is authored by G. James, D. M. Klyne, et. al. and was published in European Spine Journal in May of 2019(James G 2019). 

Why They Did It

The authors here say that chronic low back pain….chronic…longstanding low back pain literally changes and remodels the multifidus muscles. They go on to say that physical activity reduces the local inflammation that comes before multifidus fibrosis during intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD), but its effect is unknown. This study aimed to assess the development of fibrosis and its underlying genetic network during intervertebral disc degeneration and the impact of physical activity.

How They Did It

This research was actually done on mice. To keep the entertainment value of this podcast as high as possible, I’m not going to get specific here as far as substance P, MMP2, blah blah blah. We’ll just head right to the conclusion of the paper. 

They say “these data reveal the fibrotic networks that promote fibrosis in the multifidus muscel during chronic intervertebral disc degeneration. Furthermore, physical activity is shown to reduce fibrosis and regulate the fibrotic gene network.” 

So they’re saying move it move it move it. 

Item #2

This next paper is called “Initial Provider Specialty Is Associated With Long-term Opiate Use in Patients With Newly Diagnosed Low Back and Lower Extremity Pain” and is authored by TC Azad, D Vail, and J. Bentley et. al. It was published in the esteemed Spine Journal in February of 2019. (Azad TD 2019)

Why They Did It

The authors wanted to determine whether provider specialty influences patterns of opiate utilization long after initial diagnosis. I’d say that’s a great question to be asking these days. When we have 72,000 die in one year from opioid-related causes, that should be up there on the ‘what the hell’ list wouldn’t you agree?

How They Did It

The study was a retrospective longitudinal cohort analysis of patients diagnosed in 2010, with continuous enrollment 6 months prior to and 12 months following the initial visit.

They identified 478,981 newly diagnosed opiate-naive patients. 

They estimated the risk of early opiate prescription and long-term opiate use based on the provider type at initial diagnosis.

What They Found

• 40.4% of the patients received an opiate prescription within 1 year and 4% met the criteria for long-term use. 
• The most common provider was family practice. They were associated with 24.4% risk of early opiate prescription and a 2% risk of long-term opiate use. 
• Risk o freceiving an early opiate prescription was higher among patients initially diagnosed by emergency medicine or at an urgent care. 
• Risk of Long-term opiate use was highest for aptietns initially diagnosed by pain management doctors or by physical medicine and rehabiliation providers. 

Wrap It Up

Initial provider type influences early opiate prescription and long-term opiate use among opiate-naïve patients with newly diagnosed low back and lower extremity pain.

Looky here ya see, I’m just going to lay it out for you. Zero percent of opiate-naive patients get prescribed OR hooked on opiates from seeing a chiropractor. Zero. 

I’ll even go further than that and say that approximately 70-80% of them get good to excellent results and improvement of their complaint. I know this through the ChiroUp tracking system they use across the country. 

You know what else I know through the ChiroUp tracking? I know that these results happen in only about 7 visits. Kow a Chow!! I know you can’t see it but you can picture that karate chop placed precisely to deliver a virtual coup de grace. 

Alright, Enough silliness. On to out final item here. 

But before we do that –  Let’s take a short break to talk about ChiroUp. If you’re a regular listener of our podcast, you I use it and I’ve told everyone how amazing it is since about June of 2018. Well now they’re a sponsor of our show and we are really excited to have ChiroUp on board the train. 

Have you heard about the #1 online resource for chiropractors? Well, let me tell you about it. 

ChiroUp is changing the way we practice by simplifying patient education and here’s what I mean: 

In a matter of seconds, you can send condition-specific reports to your patients with recommendations for treatment, for their activities of daily living, & for their exercises. 

You can see how this saves you time – no more explaining & re-explaining your patient’s care, because they have access to it at their fingertips. 

You can be confident that your patients are getting the best possible care, because the reports are populated based on what the literature recommends and isn’t that re-assuring? All of that work has been done FOR you. 

There are more than 1000 providers worldwide using ChiroUp to empower their treatments, patients, & practice – Including myself! **Short testimony**

If you don’t know what it’s all about or you’d like to check it out, do yourself a favor and go to Chiroup.com today to get started with your FREE TRIAL – Use code Williams99 to pay only $99/month for your first 6 months

That’s ChiroUp.com and super double secret code Williams99. 

Item #3

Item #3 is an article titled “Could Craniocervical Instability Be Causing myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, Fibromyalgia & POTS?” written by Cort Johnson and published in Health rising.org on February 27, 2019. (Johnson 2019)

This was actually sent to me by a cardiologist friend of mine and I’m really glad he sent it my way because it’s interesting as hell. Follow along. 

I’ll read you the first paragraph here, “Jeff had a typical ME/CFS onset: he was a young, healthy and active individual before being felled by a viral infection and a high temperature. The infection left him with headaches, dizziness, muscle weakness and pain, sound and light sensitivity, and a general sense of being worn down that was exacerbated by exercise – which he soon had to stop altogether. Socializing was the next activity to go as he buckled down to focus on getting through graduate school.”

The article goes on to talk about all of his various visits to specialists and how nothing seemed to work. In fact, he continued to decline in health all of the way to the point that he was essentially bedridden with little to no tolerance for any kind of exertion. We’re talking little energy to chew food and being wheeled into the bathroom to take a shower. Serious stuff. 

Turning his head one way could cause him to nearly lose consciousness and he felt a little like a bobble doll when he walked. His head felt heavy. 

Doing his own homework to try to basically save his own life, he stumbled across craniocervical instability, aka atlantoaxial instability, aka cranial-cervical syndrome and things started to make sense for Jeff. 

Here’s another quoted paragraph from the article, “The strange headaches, the heavy head, the problems turning his head in one direction, the autonomic nervous system issues – they could all be explained by loosened or lax ligaments at the junction between his skull and his vertebrae which kept his head properly situated atop his body. 

With his head destabilized, his spinal column was contacting and compressing his brainstem – throwing his autonomic nervous and sensory systems out of whack. His ANS had become so disturbed that even during sleep when it theoretically should have been mostly at rest – it was oscillating up and down causing bizarre heart rates.”

Craniocervical instability has been associated with conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, Downs Syndrome, and other inflammatory conditions. The doctors were dismissive that, outside of any of these conditions, that he could actually have it. 

Just to expound on Ehlers Danlos a bit, one in 15 of EDS patients have craniocervical instability. 1 in 15 is a pretty good amount. Just another good reason to familiarize yourself with the Beighton scale and see if your EDS patients have other issues like we’re discussing here. 

It seems the correct imaging for CCI is a dynamic CT scan with flexion and extension view but not everyone can get dynamic CTs can they? I believe flexion and extension x-rays can give you a hint as well. 

So, skipping to the end of the story, Jeff had a fusion of the top two vertebrae to his skull and all symptoms poof disappeared. Which is awesome and good for him for diagnosing his issue and for being an advocate for himself. Those medical doctors can be a bit pesky when you go against what they think. 

The article also says there are only a few neurosurgeons in the world that can perform this sort of fusion. I sent the article to another friend of mine who just happens to be a neurosurgeon himself. He said that the whole article was really interesting and he was glad I sent it but he was confused why they think that there are only a few in the world that can do this surgery. He said they have to do it all of the time but, admittedly, it’s because of trauma. Not CCI. 

Still, it seem this is a surgery most neurosurgeons can do if needed. 

Great article, and great story that I’m linking in the show notes for you so click on it and check it out for yourself. There is a ton more with differenct patient stories so give it a read through. It’ll make you better. 

The Message

I want you to know with absolute certainty that when Chiropractic is at its best, you can’t beat the risk vs reward ratio because spinal pain is primarily a movement-related pain and typically responds better to movement-related treatment instead of chemical treatments like pills and shots.

When compared to the traditional medical model, research and clinical experience show that many patients get good or excellent results through chiropractic for headaches, neck pain, back pain, joint pain, to name just a few.

Chiropractic care is safe and cost-effective. It can decrease instances of surgery & disability. Chiropractors normally do this through conservative, non-surgical means with minimal time requirements or hassle to the patient. 

And, if the patient develops a “preventative” mindset going forward from initial recovery, chiropractors can likely keep it that way while raising the general, overall level of health of the patient!

Key Point:

Patients should have the guarantee of having the best treatment offering the least harm.

That’s Chiropractic!

Store

Part of making your life easier is having the right patient education tools in your office. Tools that educate based on solid, researched information. We offer you that. It’s done for you. We are taking pre-orders right now for our brand new, evidence-based office brochures available at chiropracticforward.com. Just click the STORE link at the top right of the home page and you’ll be off and running. Just shoot me an email at [email protected] if something is out of sorts or isn’t working correctly. 

If you’re like me, you get tired of answering the same old questions. Well, these brochures make great ways of educating while saving yourself time and breath. They’re also great for putting in take-home folders. 

Go check them out at chiropracticforward.com under the store link. While you’re there, sign up for the newsletter won’t you? We won’t spam you. Just one email per week to remind you when the new episode comes out. That’s it. 

Contact

Send us an email at dr dot williams at chiropracticforward.com and let us know what you think of our show or tell us your suggestions for future episodes. Feedback and constructive criticism is a blessing and so are subscribes and excellent reviews on iTunes and other podcast services. Y’all know how this works by now so help if you don’t mind taking a few seconds to do so.

Help us get to the top of podcasts in our industry. That’s how we get the message out. 

Connect

We can’t wait to connect with you again next week. From the Chiropractic Forward Podcast flight deck, this is Dr. Jeff Williams saying upward, onward, and forward. 

Website

Social Media Links

Chiropractic Forward Podcast Facebook GROUP

Twitter

YouTube

iTunes

Player FM Link

Stitcher:

TuneIn

About the Author & Host

Dr. Jeff Williams – Chiropractor in Amarillo, TX, Chiropractic Advocate, Author, Entrepreneur, Educator, Businessman, Marketer, and Healthcare Blogger & Vlogger

Bibliography

Azad TD, V. D., Bentley J, (2019). “Initial Provider Specialty Is Associated With Long-term Opiate Use in Patients With Newly Diagnosed Low Back and Lower Extremity Pain.” Spine 44(3): 211-218.

James G, K. D., Millecamps M, (2019). “ISSLS Prize in Basic science 2019: Physical activity attenuates fibrotic alterations to the multifidus muscle associated with intervertebral disc degeneration.” Euro Spine J 28(5): 893-904.

Johnson, C. (2019). “Could Craniocervical Instability Be Causing ME/CFS, Fibromyalgia & POTS? Pt I – The Spinal Series.” Health Rising.

The post Multifidus & Disc Degeneration, Opioids & First Provider, Craniocervical Instability appeared first on Chiropractic Forward.

CF 083: w/ Dr. John Van Tassel – Florida State Athletics, Mentoring, & Life/Work Balance

Today we’re going to continue talking with our guest, Dr. John Van Tassell. This is part two of our interview so, if you’ve yet to listen to part one, stop now and go back one week and start there. You don’t want to miss the sage-like wisdom of this amazing chiropractic ambassador.  You are absolutely going to love listening to Dr. Van Tassel talk about Division I college sports, mentoring, and a good healthy life/work balance.

Before we get going with part two, here’s that Miami Vice-like bumper music

OK, we are back. Welcome to the podcast today, I’m Dr. Jeff Williams and I’m your host for the Chiropractic Forward podcast.  

You have twisted and shouted your way right into Episode #83. When you have a guest from Florida, you think of gators and snakes. And Pablo Escobar and Miami Vice but we try to not get too under the table here on the Chiropractic Forward Podcast. 

Before we hop into the episode, let’s talk about GoChiroTV. GoChiroTV is a patient education system for your office that will eliminate the need for running cable TV or the same DVDs over and over again in your waiting room. The bite-sized videos are specifically made to inform your patients about the importance of chiropractic and healthy living, encourage referrals, and present the benefits of all the different products and services you offer.

It works by using a tailored-fit video playlist that will only promote the products and services available at your practice, and the videos are replaced automatically on a weekly basis. There’s no need to manually update your playlist or learn any complicated software. You truly can set it and forget it.

Listeners of the Chiropractic Forward Podcast can use the promo code CFP19 at checkout to get 15% off all subscriptions, which also comes with a 45-day free trial to see if it’s right for your practice. Your discounted rate will be locked in for as long as you have a subscription. 

So visit GoChiroMedia.com (that’s g-o-c-h-i-r-o-m-e-d-i-a-.com) to check out the demo reels, and to get started on your free trial. Take you practice to the next level with GoChiroTV.

Introduction

We’re here to advocate for chiropractic while we also make your life easier using research and some good solid common sense and smart talk. 

Go check our evidence-based brochures out at chiropracticforward.com under the store link. While you’re there, sign up for the newsletter won’t you? 

How about the previous two episodes we did with Dr. Anthony Nicholson on Chronic pain? That was basically a mini-masterclass folks. I hope you know that. If you know nothing of any substance about chronic pain, the previous two episodes are your starting points. 

You have to listen to me here. Just go listen. Thank me later. He is the Niagara Falls of knowledge nuggets folks. 

In personal happenings, my family experienced some unpleasantness this past weekend. My 7 year old blue European Great Dane passed away. We got the Euro Dane because they are supposed to be heartier than their American Dane counterparts. 

They think she developed some sort of tumor that zapped her weight, had her dehydrated, and just unable to walk or do anything. Not cool. It was the opposite of anything fun but, she’s not suffering and that’s the best you can ask for on that sort of deal. 

Now on to our special guest today. INTRODUCTION

He is a heck of a communicator. Any discussion I have seen him take part in on the Forward Thinking Chiropractic Alliance Facebook page….he’s the most thorough, most sensible, most sage-like if you will. I’ve even sent him patients all the way from where I sit here in Amarillo, TX. 

He’s the Yoda of chiropractors and I love reading his stories. If someone asks him a question, he doesn’t respond with a paragraph. He sits down and really thinks about it, considers it at length, and then responds with about a 5 paragraph guidance manual and I love it. 

Not to mention the fact that he’s one of the most accomplished you’ll find in any group anywhere. 

All of that is personal experience and fine and dandy but how about we give him an official introduction?

• Graduating from Logan College of Chiropractic, Dr. John Van Tassel has been a chiropractor since 1991 and is the owner of Athletic and Family Chiropractic in Tallahassee, Florida. 
• He has been an adjunct professor at Tallahassee Community College and Florida State University. 
• He has been the FCA Sports Council Doctor of the Year
• The ProSport Chiropractic Doctor of the Year for the Southeast Region
• And has been a contributing author in various publications

What really gets one’s attention about Dr. Van Tassel is that he is the team chiropractor for the Florida State Seminoles. A perennial powerhouse of anything athletic in the SEC. 

We’re going to talk about all of it and you’re going to be fascinated so here we go. 

Let’s welcome to the show, the pride of Tallahassee, Dr. John Van Tassel. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your schedule to be with us today. 

Let’s start with a little humor. The first thing I want to know is…..what in the heck is up with Florida? There was even a Facebook game going around for a while where you just Google your birthday and the words “Florida man…” Lol. Are Floridians just inherently crazy?

Tell me….we all have a story that got us where we are. I always like to ask this question because chiropractic is a bit of a niche choice when choosing a career. What was your story toward being a chiropractor?

Now I noticed you’re originally from North Carolina. Why the move to Tallahassee. 

We became acquainted either through the evidence based chiropractic group or the forward thinking chiropractic alliance group. I can’t remember which but one of them for sure. They’re great groups. You’ll find people that are bull-headed that it’s their way or they scoff at you but that’s with any group really. Mostly….overall….they’re very friendly, very helpful, and very giving people. Giving of their experience and information as well as giving with their assistance should you need something. 

I always encourage anyone that considers themselves on the evidence-informed spectrum of the profession to join both groups. I learn SOMETHING from each of them just about every week. 

With that being said, I think you’ll agree that you are one of the more active members of the FTCA. Tell me about how you got involved with the Forward Thinking Chiropractic Alliance and what keeps you coming back daily.

One of the things that obviously sets you apart from the run-of-the-mill chiropractor is your involvement with Florida State. Let’s start at the beginning and just talk about that for a bit. How did you get started with a D-I program? Was it a specific certification that moved you in that direction? What’s it like day to day, month to month, and year to year? And has it morphed through the years? 

In our preparation for this episode, you mentioned that you enjoy mentoring younger practitioners. With that in mind, what advice do you feel is vital for someone just starting out trying to open or build their own practice?

Continuing with the mentoring theme, what do you find to be the important aspects of maintaining a healthy work/life balance?

You seem to have a unique ability to recall things. For example, I can’t remember what I had for lunch yesterday but you can recall happenings and conversations from 20 years ago. 

I really think, and I believe most of the FTCA members would agree, that you have the best stories and should probably be working on your first book by now. 

With that in mind, can you re-tell the one you shared yesterday about the carpal tunnel patient that went to the GP who basically told her you didn’t know what you were talking about?

Now, the reason I asked for that one specifically, is because you’re in an arena where you commonly interact with other practitioners from the medical field. Are you experiencing this sort of bias against chiropractic in that world as well? Why do you think MD’s still don’t understand what it is that we do?

One of my favorite stories of your was about your Wall of Fame down your hallway. I’m sure there are plenty of recognizable names on that but your favorite is Mrs. Jones. Someone nobody outside of your practice and her personal circle would know. Is that a story you would mind sharing with us?

I want to close with this because this may be something that people can really use as the key takeaway from our time together today. 

I was reading one of your posts that went like this, “I was just thinking about something while A plumber unclogs my system at the house. I tell people, patients and students and athletes mostly, that desire and passion and determination are key. But it’s our habits that get us where we are going. We accomplish goals by developing habits.”

Now, I don’t know how a plumber brings to mind things like goals and habits but, I couldn’t agree more. What would you say are your core habits that have made the difference in your career?

You have slithered right into Episode #82. When you have a guest from Florida, you think of gators and snakes. And Pablo Escobar and Miami Vice but we try to not get too under the table here on the Chiropractic Forward Podcast. 

Before we hop into the episode, let’s talk about GoChiroTV. GoChiroTV is a patient education system for your office that will eliminate the need for running cable TV or the same DVDs over and over again in your waiting room. The bite-sized videos are specifically made to inform your patients about the importance of chiropractic and healthy living, encourage referrals, and present the benefits of all the different products and services you offer.

It works by using a tailored-fit video playlist that will only promote the products and services available at your practice, and the videos are replaced automatically on a weekly basis. There’s no need to manually update your playlist or learn any complicated software. You truly can set it and forget it.

Listeners of the Chiropractic Forward Podcast can use the promo code CFP19 at checkout to get 15% off all subscriptions, which also comes with a 45-day free trial to see if it’s right for your practice. Your discounted rate will be locked in for as long as you have a subscription. 

So visit GoChiroMedia.com (that’s g-o-c-h-i-r-o-m-e-d-i-a-.com) to check out the demo reels, and to get started on your free trial. Take you practice to the next level with GoChiroTV.

Introduction

We’re here to advocate for chiropractic while we also make your life easier using research and some good solid common sense and smart talk. 

Go check our evidence-based brochures out at chiropracticforward.com under the store link. While you’re there, sign up for the newsletter won’t you? 

How about the previous two episodes we did with Dr. Anthony Nicholson on Chronic pain? That was basically a mini-masterclass folks. I hope you know that. If you know nothing of any substance about chronic pain, the previous two episodes are your starting points. 

You have to listen to me here. Just go listen. Thank me later. He is the Niagara Falls of knowledge nuggets folks. 

In personal happenings, my family experienced some unpleasantness this past weekend. My 7 year old blue European Great Dane passed away. We got the Euro Dane because they are supposed to be heartier than their American Dane counterparts. 

They think she developed some sort of tumor that zapped her weight, had her dehydrated, and just unable to walk or do anything. Not cool. It was the opposite of anything fun but, she’s not suffering and that’s the best you can ask for on that sort of deal. 

Now on to our special guest today. INTRODUCTION

He is a heck of a communicator. Any discussion I have seen him take part in on the Forward Thinking Chiropractic Alliance Facebook page….he’s the most thorough, most sensible, most sage-like if you will. I’ve even sent him patients all the way from where I sit here in Amarillo, TX. 

He’s the Yoda of chiropractors and I love reading his stories. If someone asks him a question, he doesn’t respond with a paragraph. He sits down and really thinks about it, considers it at length, and then responds with about a 5 paragraph guidance manual and I love it. 

Not to mention the fact that he’s one of the most accomplished you’ll find in any group anywhere. 

All of that is personal experience and fine and dandy but how about we give him an official introduction?

• Graduating from Logan College of Chiropractic, Dr. John Van Tassel has been a chiropractor since 1991 and is the owner of Athletic and Family Chiropractic in Tallahassee, Florida. 
• He has been an adjunct professor at Tallahassee Community College and Florida State University. 
• He has been the FCA Sports Council Doctor of the Year
• The ProSport Chiropractic Doctor of the Year for the Southeast Region
• And has been a contributing author in various publications

What really gets one’s attention about Dr. Van Tassel is that he is the team chiropractor for the Florida State Seminoles. A perennial powerhouse of anything athletic in the SEC. 

We’re going to talk about all of it and you’re going to be fascinated so here we go. 

Let’s welcome to the show, the pride of Tallahassee, Dr. John Van Tassel. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your schedule to be with us today. 

Let’s start with a little humor. The first thing I want to know is…..what in the heck is up with Florida? There was even a Facebook game going around for a while where you just Google your birthday and the words “Florida man…” Lol. Are Floridians just inherently crazy?

Tell me….we all have a story that got us where we are. I always like to ask this question because chiropractic is a bit of a niche choice when choosing a career. What was your story toward being a chiropractor?

Now I noticed you’re originally from North Carolina. Why the move to Tallahassee. 

We became acquainted either through the evidence based chiropractic group or the forward thinking chiropractic alliance group. I can’t remember which but one of them for sure. They’re great groups. You’ll find people that are bull-headed that it’s their way or they scoff at you but that’s with any group really. Mostly….overall….they’re very friendly, very helpful, and very giving people. Giving of their experience and information as well as giving with their assistance should you need something. 

I always encourage anyone that considers themselves on the evidence-informed spectrum of the profession to join both groups. I learn SOMETHING from each of them just about every week. 

With that being said, I think you’ll agree that you are one of the more active members of the FTCA. Tell me about how you got involved with the Forward Thinking Chiropractic Alliance and what keeps you coming back daily.

One of the things that obviously sets you apart from the run-of-the-mill chiropractor is your involvement with Florida State. Let’s start at the beginning and just talk about that for a bit. How did you get started with a D-I program? Was it a specific certification that moved you in that direction? What’s it like day to day, month to month, and year to year? And has it morphed through the years? 

In our preparation for this episode, you mentioned that you enjoy mentoring younger practitioners. With that in mind, what advice do you feel is vital for someone just starting out trying to open or build their own practice?

Continuing with the mentoring theme, what do you find to be the important aspects of maintaining a healthy work/life balance?

You seem to have a unique ability to recall things. For example, I can’t remember what I had for lunch yesterday but you can recall happenings and conversations from 20 years ago. 

I really think, and I believe most of the FTCA members would agree, that you have the best stories and should probably be working on your first book by now. 

With that in mind, can you re-tell the one you shared yesterday about the carpal tunnel patient that went to the GP who basically told her you didn’t know what you were talking about?

Now, the reason I asked for that one specifically, is because you’re in an arena where you commonly interact with other practitioners from the medical field. Are you experiencing this sort of bias against chiropractic in that world as well? Why do you think MD’s still don’t understand what it is that we do?

One of my favorite stories of your was about your Wall of Fame down your hallway. I’m sure there are plenty of recognizable names on that but your favorite is Mrs. Jones. Someone nobody outside of your practice and her personal circle would know. Is that a story you would mind sharing with us?

I want to close with this because this may be something that people can really use as the key takeaway from our time together today. 

I was reading one of your posts that went like this, “I was just thinking about something while A plumber unclogs my system at the house. I tell people, patients and students and athletes mostly, that desire and passion and determination are key. But it’s our habits that get us where we are going. We accomplish goals by developing habits.”

Now, I don’t know how a plumber brings to mind things like goals and habits but, I couldn’t agree more. What would you say are your core habits that have made the difference in your career?

The Message

Subscribe Button

The Message

I want you to know with absolute certainty that when Chiropractic is at its best, you can’t beat the risk vs reward ratio because spinal pain is primarily a movement-related pain and typically responds better to movement-related treatment instead of chemical treatments like pills and shots.

When compared to the traditional medical model, research and clinical experience show that many patients get good or excellent results through chiropractic for headaches, neck pain, back pain, joint pain, to name just a few.

Chiropractic care is safe and cost-effective. It can decrease instances of surgery & disability. Chiropractors normally do this through conservative, non-surgical means with minimal time requirements or hassle to the patient. 

And, if the patient develops a “preventative” mindset going forward from initial recovery, chiropractors can likely keep it that way while raising the general, overall level of health of the patient!

Key Point:

Patients should have the guarantee of having the best treatment offering the least harm.

That’s Chiropractic!

Contact

Send us an email at dr dot williams at chiropracticforward.com and let us know what you think of our show or tell us your suggestions for future episodes. Feedback and constructive criticism is a blessing and so are subscribes and excellent reviews on iTunes and other podcast services. Y’all know how this works by now so help if you don’t mind taking a few seconds to do so.

Help us get to the top of podcasts in our industry. That’s how we get the message out. 

Connect

We can’t wait to connect with you again next week. From the Chiropractic Forward Podcast flight deck, this is Dr. Jeff Williams saying upward, onward, and forward. 

Website

Social Media Links

Chiropractic Forward Podcast Facebook GROUP

Twitter

YouTube

iTunes

Player FM Link

Stitcher:

TuneIn

About the Author & Host

Dr. Jeff Williams – Chiropractor in Amarillo, TX, Chiropractic Advocate, Author, Entrepreneur, Educator, Businessman, Marketer, and Healthcare Blogger & Vlogger

I want you to know with absolute certainty that when Chiropractic is at its best, you can’t beat the risk vs reward ratio because spinal pain is primarily a movement-related pain and typically responds better to movement-related treatment instead of chemical treatments like pills and shots.

When compared to the traditional medical model, research and clinical experience show that many patients get good or excellent results through chiropractic for headaches, neck pain, back pain, joint pain, to name just a few.

Chiropractic care is safe and cost-effective. It can decrease instances of surgery & disability. Chiropractors normally do this through conservative, non-surgical means with minimal time requirements or hassle to the patient. 

And, if the patient develops a “preventative” mindset going forward from initial recovery, chiropractors can likely keep it that way while raising the general, overall level of health of the patient!

Key Point:

Patients should have the guarantee of having the best treatment offering the least harm.

That’s Chiropractic!

Contact

Send us an email at dr dot williams at chiropracticforward.com and let us know what you think of our show or tell us your suggestions for future episodes. Feedback and constructive criticism is a blessing and so are subscribes and excellent reviews on iTunes and other podcast services. Y’all know how this works by now so help if you don’t mind taking a few seconds to do so.

Help us get to the top of podcasts in our industry. That’s how we get the message out. 

Connect

We can’t wait to connect with you again next week. From the Chiropractic Forward Podcast flight deck, this is Dr. Jeff Williams saying upward, onward, and forward. 

Website

Social Media Links

Chiropractic Forward Podcast Facebook GROUP

Twitter

YouTube

iTunes

Player FM Link

Stitcher:

TuneIn

About the Author & Host

Dr. Jeff Williams – Chiropractor in Amarillo, TX, Chiropractic Advocate, Author, Entrepreneur, Educator, Businessman, Marketer, and Healthcare Blogger & Vlogger

The post w/ Dr. John Van Tassel – (Part Two) Florida State Athletics, Mentoring, & Life/Work Balance appeared first on Chiropractic Forward.

Today we’re going to talk with one of the neatest gentlemen I have had the honor of interacting with in the last couple of years. You are absolutely going to love this conversation with Dr. John Van Tassel from Tallahassee, Florida about being a chiropractor for Florida State, a Division I college. You just wait, you’ll see what I mean. 

But first, here’s that sneaky like a Florida gator bumper music

OK, we are back. Welcome to the podcast today, I’m Dr. Jeff Williams and I’m your host for the Chiropractic Forward podcast.  

You have slithered right into Episode #82. When you have a guest from Florida, you think of gators and snakes. And Pablo Escobar and Miami Vice but we try to not get too under the table here on the Chiropractic Forward Podcast. 

Before we hop into the episode, let’s talk about GoChiroTV. GoChiroTV is a patient education system for your office that will eliminate the need for running cable TV or the same DVDs over and over again in your waiting room. The bite-sized videos are specifically made to inform your patients about the importance of chiropractic and healthy living, encourage referrals, and present the benefits of all the different products and services you offer.

It works by using a tailored-fit video playlist that will only promote the products and services available at your practice, and the videos are replaced automatically on a weekly basis. There’s no need to manually update your playlist or learn any complicated software. You truly can set it and forget it.

Listeners of the Chiropractic Forward Podcast can use the promo code CFP19 at checkout to get 15% off all subscriptions, which also comes with a 45-day free trial to see if it’s right for your practice. Your discounted rate will be locked in for as long as you have a subscription. 

So visit GoChiroMedia.com (that’s g-o-c-h-i-r-o-m-e-d-i-a-.com) to check out the demo reels, and to get started on your free trial. Take you practice to the next level with GoChiroTV.

Introduction

We’re here to advocate for chiropractic while we also make your life easier using research and some good solid common sense and smart talk. 

Go check our evidence-based brochures out at chiropracticforward.com under the store link. While you’re there, sign up for the newsletter won’t you? 

How about the previous two episodes we did with Dr. Anthony Nicholson on Chronic pain? That was basically a mini-masterclass folks. I hope you know that. If you know nothing of any substance about chronic pain, the previous two episodes are your starting points. 

You have to listen to me here. Just go listen. Thank me later. He is the Niagara Falls of knowledge nuggets folks. 

In personal happenings, my family experienced some unpleasantness this past weekend. My 7 year old blue European Great Dane passed away. We got the Euro Dane because they are supposed to be heartier than their American Dane counterparts. 

They think she developed some sort of tumor that zapped her weight, had her dehydrated, and just unable to walk or do anything. Not cool. It was the opposite of anything fun but, she’s not suffering and that’s the best you can ask for on that sort of deal. 

Now on to our special guest today. INTRODUCTION

He is a heck of a communicator. Any discussion I have seen him take part in on the Forward Thinking Chiropractic Alliance Facebook page….he’s the most thorough, most sensible, most sage-like if you will. I’ve even sent him patients all the way from where I sit here in Amarillo, TX. 

He’s the Yoda of chiropractors and I love reading his stories. If someone asks him a question, he doesn’t respond with a paragraph. He sits down and really thinks about it, considers it at length, and then responds with about a 5 paragraph guidance manual and I love it. 

Not to mention the fact that he’s one of the most accomplished you’ll find in any group anywhere. 

All of that is personal experience and fine and dandy but how about we give him an official introduction?

• Graduating from Logan College of Chiropractic, Dr. John Van Tassel has been a chiropractor since 1991 and is the owner of Athletic and Family Chiropractic in Tallahassee, Florida. 
• He has been an adjunct professor at Tallahassee Community College and Florida State University. 
• He has been the FCA Sports Council Doctor of the Year
• The ProSport Chiropractic Doctor of the Year for the Southeast Region
• And has been a contributing author in various publications

What really gets one’s attention about Dr. Van Tassel is that he is the team chiropractor for the Florida State Seminoles. A perennial powerhouse of anything athletic in the SEC. 

We’re going to talk about all of it and you’re going to be fascinated so here we go. 

Let’s welcome to the show, the pride of Tallahassee, Dr. John Van Tassel. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your schedule to be with us today. 

Let’s start with a little humor. The first thing I want to know is…..what in the heck is up with Florida? There was even a Facebook game going around for a while where you just Google your birthday and the words “Florida man…” Lol. Are Floridians just inherently crazy?

Tell me….we all have a story that got us where we are. I always like to ask this question because chiropractic is a bit of a niche choice when choosing a career. What was your story toward being a chiropractor?

Now I noticed you’re originally from North Carolina. Why the move to Tallahassee. 

We became acquainted either through the evidence based chiropractic group or the forward thinking chiropractic alliance group. I can’t remember which but one of them for sure. They’re great groups. You’ll find people that are bull-headed that it’s their way or they scoff at you but that’s with any group really. Mostly….overall….they’re very friendly, very helpful, and very giving people. Giving of their experience and information as well as giving with their assistance should you need something. 

I always encourage anyone that considers themselves on the evidence-informed spectrum of the profession to join both groups. I learn SOMETHING from each of them just about every week. 

With that being said, I think you’ll agree that you are one of the more active members of the FTCA. Tell me about how you got involved with the Forward Thinking Chiropractic Alliance and what keeps you coming back daily.

One of the things that obviously sets you apart from the run-of-the-mill chiropractor is your involvement with Florida State. Let’s start at the beginning and just talk about that for a bit. How did you get started with a D-I program? Was it a specific certification that moved you in that direction? What’s it like day to day, month to month, and year to year? And has it morphed through the years? 

In our preparation for this episode, you mentioned that you enjoy mentoring younger practitioners. With that in mind, what advice do you feel is vital for someone just starting out trying to open or build their own practice?

Continuing with the mentoring theme, what do you find to be the important aspects of maintaining a healthy work/life balance?

You seem to have a unique ability to recall things. For example, I can’t remember what I had for lunch yesterday but you can recall happenings and conversations from 20 years ago. 

I really think, and I believe most of the FTCA members would agree, that you have the best stories and should probably be working on your first book by now. 

With that in mind, can you re-tell the one you shared yesterday about the carpal tunnel patient that went to the GP who basically told her you didn’t know what you were talking about?

Now, the reason I asked for that one specifically, is because you’re in an arena where you commonly interact with other practitioners from the medical field. Are you experiencing this sort of bias against chiropractic in that world as well? Why do you think MD’s still don’t understand what it is that we do?

One of my favorite stories of your was about your Wall of Fame down your hallway. I’m sure there are plenty of recognizable names on that but your favorite is Mrs. Jones. Someone nobody outside of your practice and her personal circle would know. Is that a story you would mind sharing with us?

I want to close with this because this may be something that people can really use as the key takeaway from our time together today. 

I was reading one of your posts that went like this, “I was just thinking about something while A plumber unclogs my system at the house. I tell people, patients and students and athletes mostly, that desire and passion and determination are key. But it’s our habits that get us where we are going. We accomplish goals by developing habits.”

Now, I don’t know how a plumber brings to mind things like goals and habits but, I couldn’t agree more. What would you say are your core habits that have made the difference in your career?

The Message

I want you to know with absolute certainty that when Chiropractic is at its best, you can’t beat the risk vs reward ratio because spinal pain is primarily a movement-related pain and typically responds better to movement-related treatment instead of chemical treatments like pills and shots.

When compared to the traditional medical model, research and clinical experience show that many patients get good or excellent results through chiropractic for headaches, neck pain, back pain, joint pain, to name just a few.

Chiropractic care is safe and cost-effective. It can decrease instances of surgery & disability. Chiropractors normally do this through conservative, non-surgical means with minimal time requirements or hassle to the patient. 

And, if the patient develops a “preventative” mindset going forward from initial recovery, chiropractors can likely keep it that way while raising the general, overall level of health of the patient!

Key Point:

Patients should have the guarantee of having the best treatment offering the least harm.

That’s Chiropractic!

Contact

Send us an email at dr dot williams at chiropracticforward.com and let us know what you think of our show or tell us your suggestions for future episodes. Feedback and constructive criticism is a blessing and so are subscribes and excellent reviews on iTunes and other podcast services. Y’all know how this works by now so help if you don’t mind taking a few seconds to do so.

Help us get to the top of podcasts in our industry. That’s how we get the message out. 

Connect

We can’t wait to connect with you again next week. From the Chiropractic Forward Podcast flight deck, this is Dr. Jeff Williams saying upward, onward, and forward. 

Website

Social Media Links

Chiropractic Forward Podcast Facebook GROUP

Twitter

YouTube

iTunes

Player FM Link

Stitcher:

TuneIn

About the Author & Host

Dr. Jeff Williams – Chiropractor in Amarillo, TX, Chiropractic Advocate, Author, Entrepreneur, Educator, Businessman, Marketer, and Healthcare Blogger & Vlogger

The post w/ Dr. John Van Tassel – Chiropractor for Florida State on Mentorship, Work-Life Balance, & Life Long Lessons (Part One) appeared first on Chiropractic Forward.

CF 080: w/ Dr. Anthony Nicholson – Decoding Chronic Pain (Part Two)

Today we’re going to be fortunate enough to be joined by Dr. Anthony Nicholson from Australia. It was so nice we had to do it twice. This time around though, we are focusing mostly on chronic pain. Pain in the frame, if you will. If you are new to the concept of chronic pain as part of a centralized experience, buckle up because the school bus is about to arrive

But first, here’s that delightful bumper music

OK, we are back. Welcome to the podcast today, I’m Dr. Jeff Williams and I’m your host for the Chiropractic Forward podcast.  

You have skidded your way into Episode #80 and we are glad to have you. 

We here at the Chiropractic Forward Podcast have gotten fancy. 

I’m happy to introduce a new sponsor for the Chiropractic Forward Podcast called GoChiroTV. GoChiroTV is a patient education system for your office that will eliminate the need for running cable TV or the same DVDs over and over again in your waiting room. The bite-sized videos are specifically made to inform your patients about the importance of chiropractic and healthy living, encourage referrals, and present the benefits of all the different products and services you offer.

It works by using a tailored-fit video playlist that will only promote the products and services available at your practice, and the videos are replaced automatically on a weekly basis. There’s no need to manually update your playlist or learn any complicated software. You truly can set it and forget it.

Listeners of the Chiropractic Forward Podcast can use the promo code CFP19 at checkout to get 15% off all subscriptions, which also comes with a 45-day free trial to see if it’s right for your practice. Your discounted rate will be locked in for as long as you have a subscription. 

So visit GoChiroMedia.com (that’s g-o-c-h-i-r-o-m-e-d-i-a-.com) to check out the demo reels, and to get started on your free trial. Take you practice to the next level with GoChiroTV.

Store

Go check out chiropracticforward.com and go to the store link. That’s where you’ll find brochures a plenty to get you started with some good, solid patient education. They look sharp and they read smart if you’re picking up what I’m throwing down. 

Do it do it, chiropracticforward.com and sign up for our newsletter while you’re at it, won’t you?

I want to thank Dr. Nickell in Kansas City for your recent feedback and for all of your encouraging words. Made my day and I appreciate it. 

DACO

Let’s talk a bit about the DACO program. Not a lot to talk about right now. Just studying my little hiney off. I li e. Not about the studying. About being little. I’m a big guy. The studying part is good. I enjoy going back through the courses. 

It’s funny to see the sort of student I am at this time in my life compared to me in school. Lol. I guess I thought I HAD to do it the first time through so I wasn’t as interested as I probably should have been. NOW, I want to be learning so I’m all in and my notes and study habits certainly reflect the fact. 

Personal Happenings

If you hear something here that you really like and would like it in written form rather than spoken, just hop onto  chiropracticforward.com, find the episode, and just scroll down to copy and paste it. If you’re using it for content or on your website for some reason, just be cool and give us some credit please. I’d sure appreciate it and I’m sure the researchers we discuss would too. 

Now, let’s get to our incredible guest today. Dr. Tim Bertelsman, one of the most talented speakers out there on the circuit today, says that our guest is just one of those people that really make you proud to be a chiropractor and I agree 187%. 

That’s a glowing endorsement but that not my official intro. Here’s the official intro:

Dr Anthony Nicholson is the CEO of Chiropractic Development International (CDI), a global continuing education organization for chiropractors that he co-founded in 2002.  

CDI’s innovative online learning technology has led to formal accreditation in over 35 states in North America, along with a growing learner base in the UK, Europe and South East Asia.

  https://www.chiropracticforward.com/w-dr-christine-goertz-chiropractic-research-what-does-the-science-say-and-where-are-we-going/

CDI provides 250 hours of advanced online clinical training for the Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine Program offered by the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut and had developed an online board examination for the Academy of Chiropractic Orthopedics.

As a partner of Spine Partners Wahroonga in Sydney Australia, Dr Nicholson is also a full-time chiropractic physician in private practice, is a board certified chiropractic neurologist (DACNB) and is board certified in Chiropractic Orthopedics (FACO).  That means he has a Diplomate in Neurology AND Orthopedics. 

In addition, he is an adjunct senior lecturer in Neuromusculoskeletal Diagnosis and Evidence-based Practice at Macquarie University ion Sydney’s north shore.  

Welcome to the show Dr. Nicholson thank you for joining us for the second time.

We already had you on the show for a two-part discussion so we have already covered a lot of topics from medical marketing, to CDI, to the DACO. For this episode, I’d like to concentrate mostly on the topic of pain. Particulary centralized pain. 

When I started the DACO program I had no idea what you were talking about. I was slow to the show but find myself fascinated by it all. 

I don’t know if this is the best starting point or not but….What is pain? What basic responses are needed in response to a noxious stimulus? 

OK, now we know what pain is…can you tell us….what is chronic pain? How is it defined?

I believe this questions will lead us into the big concept. Can you tell us a bit about neuroplasticity? What is it? What does the term mean and what do we know about it now vs. traditional thinking on neuroplasticity?

OK….here’s the big question and the reason I wanted to do this interview with you. This question may just take up the majority of the episode and that’s OK. That’s what we’re here for and this questions gets to the foundation of it. 

For our audience’s benefit, what’s the difference between peripheral pain sources and central pain sources and what exactly is an upregulated or a sensitized central nervous system?

Let’s say someone has a bad shoulder for a while…..does anyone that has had literally anything hurting for 3 months or more now have an upregulated CNS?

Other than hurting chronically, are there other signs and symptoms that can give us a clue someone is suffering from chronic pain or are in chronic pain syndrome?

To me, having chronic pain at one site seems different than chronic pain SYNDROME. Let’s continue with the person with the bad shoulder for six months. Is that considered being in chronic pain syndrome vs. just having chronic shoulder pain?

What are we learning about centralized chronic pain and how to treat it effectively? What do you do in your office to treat it?

Let’s say someone doesn’t have the time or maybe the money to go through the DACO. Where would you tell them to start searching to learn more on the condition?

The Message

I want you to know with absolute certainty that when Chiropractic is at its best, you can’t beat the risk vs reward ratio because spinal pain is primarily a movement-related pain and typically responds better to movement-related treatment instead of chemical treatments like pills and shots.

When compared to the traditional medical model, research and clinical experience show that many patients get good or excellent results through chiropractic for headaches, neck pain, back pain, joint pain, to name just a few.

Chiropractic care is safe and cost-effective. It can decrease instances of surgery & disability. Chiropractors normally do this through conservative, non-surgical means with minimal time requirements or hassle to the patient. 

And, if the patient develops a “preventative” mindset going forward from initial recovery, chiropractors can likely keep it that way while raising the general, overall level of health of the patient!

Key Point:

Patients should have the guarantee of having the best treatment offering the least harm.

That’s Chiropractic!

Contact

Send us an email at dr dot williams at chiropracticforward.com and let us know what you think of our show or tell us your suggestions for future episodes. Feedback and constructive criticism is a blessing and so are subscribes and excellent reviews on iTunes and other podcast services. Y’all know how this works by now so help if you don’t mind taking a few seconds to do so.

Help us get to the top of podcasts in our industry. That’s how we get the message out. 

Connect

We can’t wait to connect with you again next week. From the Chiropractic Forward Podcast flight deck, this is Dr. Jeff Williams saying upward, onward, and forward. 

Website

Social Media Links

Chiropractic Forward Podcast Facebook GROUP

Twitter

YouTube

iTunes

Player FM Link

Stitcher:

TuneIn

About the Author & Host

Dr. Jeff Williams – Chiropractor in Amarillo, TX, Chiropractic Advocate, Author, Entrepreneur, Educator, Businessman, Marketer, and Healthcare Blogger & Vlogger

The post w/ Dr. Anthony Nicholson – Decoding Chronic Pain (Part Two) appeared first on Chiropractic Forward.

CF 080: w/ Anthony Nicholson – Decoding Chronic Pain

Today we’re going to be fortunate enough to be joined by Dr. Anthony Nicholson from Australia. It was so nice we had to do it twice. This time around though, we are focusing mostly on chronic pain. Pain in the frame, if you will. If you are new to the concept of chronic pain as part of a centralized experience, buckle up because the school bus is about to arrive

But first, here’s that delightful bumper music

OK, we are back. Welcome to the podcast today, I’m Dr. Jeff Williams and I’m your host for the Chiropractic Forward podcast.  

You have skidded your way into Episode #80 and we are glad to have you. 

We here at the Chiropractic Forward Podcast have gotten fancy. 

I’m happy to introduce a new sponsor for the Chiropractic Forward Podcast called GoChiroTV. GoChiroTV is a patient education system for your office that will eliminate the need for running cable TV or the same DVDs over and over again in your waiting room. The bite-sized videos are specifically made to inform your patients about the importance of chiropractic and healthy living, encourage referrals, and present the benefits of all the different products and services you offer.

It works by using a tailored-fit video playlist that will only promote the products and services available at your practice, and the videos are replaced automatically on a weekly basis. There’s no need to manually update your playlist or learn any complicated software. You truly can set it and forget it.

Listeners of the Chiropractic Forward Podcast can use the promo code CFP19 at checkout to get 15% off all subscriptions, which also comes with a 45-day free trial to see if it’s right for your practice. Your discounted rate will be locked in for as long as you have a subscription. 

So visit GoChiroMedia.com (that’s g-o-c-h-i-r-o-m-e-d-i-a-.com) to check out the demo reels, and to get started on your free trial. Take you practice to the next level with GoChiroTV.

Store

Go check out chiropracticforward.com and go to the store link. That’s where you’ll find brochures a plenty to get you started with some good, solid patient education. They look sharp and they read smart if you’re picking up what I’m throwing down. 

Do it do it, chiropracticforward.com and sign up for our newsletter while you’re at it, won’t you?

I want to thank Dr. Nickell in Kansas City for your recent feedback and for all of your encouraging words. Made my day and I appreciate it. 

DACO

Let’s talk a bit about the DACO program. Not a lot to talk about right now. Just studying my little hiney off. I li e. Not about the studying. About being little. I’m a big guy. The studying part is good. I enjoy going back through the courses. 

It’s funny to see the sort of student I am at this time in my life compared to me in school. Lol. I guess I thought I HAD to do it the first time through so I wasn’t as interested as I probably should have been. NOW, I want to be learning so I’m all in and my notes and study habits certainly reflect the fact. 

Personal Happenings

If you hear something here that you really like and would like it in written form rather than spoken, just hop onto  chiropracticforward.com, find the episode, and just scroll down to copy and paste it. If you’re using it for content or on your website for some reason, just be cool and give us some credit please. I’d sure appreciate it and I’m sure the researchers we discuss would too. 

Now, let’s get to our incredible guest today. Dr. Tim Bertelsman, one of the most talented speakers out there on the circuit today, says that our guest is just one of those people that really make you proud to be a chiropractor and I agree 187%. 

That’s a glowing endorsement but that not my official intro. Here’s the official intro:

Dr Anthony Nicholson is the CEO of Chiropractic Development International (CDI), a global continuing education organization for chiropractors that he co-founded in 2002.  

CDI’s innovative online learning technology has led to formal accreditation in over 35 states in North America, along with a growing learner base in the UK, Europe and South East Asia.  

CDI provides 250 hours of advanced online clinical training for the Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine Program offered by the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut and had developed an online board examination for the Academy of Chiropractic Orthopedics.

As a partner of Spine Partners Wahroonga in Sydney Australia, Dr Nicholson is also a full-time chiropractic physician in private practice, is a board certified chiropractic neurologist (DACNB) and is board certified in Chiropractic Orthopedics (FACO).  That means he has a Diplomate in Neurology AND Orthopedics. 

In addition, he is an adjunct senior lecturer in Neuromusculoskeletal Diagnosis and Evidence-based Practice at Macquarie University ion Sydney’s north shore.  

Welcome to the show Dr. Nicholson thank you for joining us for the second time.

We already had you on the show for a two-part discussion so we have already covered a lot of topics from medical marketing, to CDI, to the DACO. For this episode, I’d like to concentrate mostly on the topic of pain. Particulary centralized pain. 

When I started the DACO program I had no idea what you were talking about. I was slow to the show but find myself fascinated by it all. 

I don’t know if this is the best starting point or not but….What is pain? What basic responses are needed in response to a noxious stimulus? 

OK, now we know what pain is…can you tell us….what is chronic pain? How is it defined?

I believe this questions will lead us into the big concept. Can you tell us a bit about neuroplasticity? What is it? What does the term mean and what do we know about it now vs. traditional thinking on neuroplasticity?

OK….here’s the big question and the reason I wanted to do this interview with you. This question may just take up the majority of the episode and that’s OK. That’s what we’re here for and this questions gets to the foundation of it. 

For our audience’s benefit, what’s the difference between peripheral pain sources and central pain sources and what exactly is an upregulated or a sensitized central nervous system?

Let’s say someone has a bad shoulder for a while…..does anyone that has had literally anything hurting for 3 months or more now have an upregulated CNS?

Other than hurting chronically, are there other signs and symptoms that can give us a clue someone is suffering from chronic pain or are in chronic pain syndrome?

To me, having chronic pain at one site seems different than chronic pain SYNDROME. Let’s continue with the person with the bad shoulder for six months. Is that considered being in chronic pain syndrome vs. just having chronic shoulder pain?

What are we learning about centralized chronic pain and how to treat it effectively? What do you do in your office to treat it?

Let’s say someone doesn’t have the time or maybe the money to go through the DACO. Where would you tell them to start searching to learn more on the condition?

The Message

I want you to know with absolute certainty that when Chiropractic is at its best, you can’t beat the risk vs reward ratio because spinal pain is primarily a movement-related pain and typically responds better to movement-related treatment instead of chemical treatments like pills and shots.

When compared to the traditional medical model, research and clinical experience show that many patients get good or excellent results through chiropractic for headaches, neck pain, back pain, joint pain, to name just a few.

Chiropractic care is safe and cost-effective. It can decrease instances of surgery & disability. Chiropractors normally do this through conservative, non-surgical means with minimal time requirements or hassle to the patient. 

And, if the patient develops a “preventative” mindset going forward from initial recovery, chiropractors can likely keep it that way while raising the general, overall level of health of the patient!

Key Point:

Patients should have the guarantee of having the best treatment offering the least harm.

That’s Chiropractic!

Contact

Send us an email at dr dot williams at chiropracticforward.com and let us know what you think of our show or tell us your suggestions for future episodes. Feedback and constructive criticism is a blessing and so are subscribes and excellent reviews on iTunes and other podcast services. Y’all know how this works by now so help if you don’t mind taking a few seconds to do so.

Help us get to the top of podcasts in our industry. That’s how we get the message out. 

Connect

We can’t wait to connect with you again next week. From the Chiropractic Forward Podcast flight deck, this is Dr. Jeff Williams saying upward, onward, and forward. 

Website

Social Media Links

Chiropractic Forward Podcast Facebook GROUP

Twitter

YouTube

iTunes

Player FM Link

Stitcher:

TuneIn

About the Author & Host

Dr. Jeff Williams – Chiropractor in Amarillo, TX, Chiropractic Advocate, Author, Entrepreneur, Educator, Businessman, Marketer, and Healthcare Blogger & Vlogger

The post w/ Dr. Anthony Nicholson – (Part One) Decoding Chronic Pain appeared first on Chiropractic Forward.

CF 079: w/ Dr. Kris Anderson – FQHC, Chiropractic Research, and Professionalism

Today we’re going to be joined by a special guest Dr. Kris Anderson from North Dakota. Yes, North Dakota’s finest is here to tell us about some of the stuff he’s got shaking and there’s a lot of stuff shaking thanks to this amazing guy. 

But first, here’s that silky satiny bumper music

OK, we are back. Welcome to the podcast today, I’m Dr. Jeff Williams and I’m your host for the Chiropractic Forward podcast.  

You have collapsed into Episode #79

Introduction

We’re here to advocate for chiropractic while we also make your life easier using research and some good solid common sense and smart talk. 

Store

Part of making your life easier is having the right patient education tools in your office. Tools that educate based on solid, researched information. We offer you that. It’s done for you. I just got in my first box. I started with the non-surgical spinal decompression brochures. I wanted them for myself and ordered enough to send you some too!

If you’re like me, you get tired of answering the same old questions. Well, these brochures make great ways of educating while saving yourself time and breath. They’re also great for putting in take-home folders. 

Go check them out at chiropracticforward.com under the store link. While you’re there, sign up for the newsletter won’t you? We won’t spam you. Just one email per week to remind you when the new episode comes out. That’s it. 

DACO

Let’s talk a bit about the DACO program. I’m still studying. Nothing sexy there. I will say that the second time through the material is really really valuable. At least for me it is. I forget so much. Especially being 46. Not only am I older and I don’t remember things at the level I once did, but I also think I’m undiagnosed ADD. 

If I see anything shiny, man, I’m off in a completely different direction. When you have computers and phones dinging at you all the damn time, it’s tough. I have tried to minimize my notifications on the electronics. I’ve tried to keep my phone turned to do not disturb and all that good stuff. I can’t deal with all the racket when I’m trying to focus on something. 

So, yes, the second time through, for me, is of high value. 

Personal Happenings

If you hear something here that you really like and would like it in written form rather than spoken, just hop onto  chiropracticforward.com, find the episode, and just scroll down to copy and paste it. If you’re using it for content or on your website for some reason, just be cool and give us some credit please. I’d sure appreciate it and I’m sure the researchers we discuss would too. 

Now, let’s get ot our guest today. 

Sometimes, we have doctors on as guests that not everyone knows. I think that if you do not know our next guest, you either should or will know him in due time. He is a mover and shaker in our profession and is really just getting started. Some people cannot be ignored and I think our guest is one of those. Without a doubt. 

He is the current President of the North Dakota Chiropractic Association and was voted Chriopractor of the Year last year for the NDCA. That’s a pretty big deal. 

He has worked on behalf of the State of North Dakota with payers, legislatyors, government agencies, and other healthcare and community stakeholders. We’ll be finding out more about that in a bit. 

He has helped conduct research on safety as well on a smoking cessation pilot study.  

He was part of a study team whose systematic review of manual therapy for pediatric patients was published in BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 

He treats part time as an employee of his local FQHC. Which stands for Federally Qualified Health Center. He’s their first chiropractor so I can’t wait to learn more about how that is progressing and what challenges he is encountering as he goes. 

If all of that were not enough, he is currently the AMA RUC HCPAC ACA Alternate Advisor. Don’t feel bad if you don’t know what that is because I had to ask too. We’ll tell you about it. Some of it is super double top secret but interesting for sure. 

He is also in the middle of a North Dakota Department of Health grant to help expand detection and management of hypertension within our profession. 

Now….now do you see why we have him here with us today? You may or may not know the name Kris Anderson but I feel confident the entire profession is going to know who he is by the time he’s done leaving his dent on our profession. 

We are happy to welcome Dr. Kris Anderson to the Chiropractic Forward Podcast today. Thank you for joining us today Dr. Anderson. 

My first question for you is, “When the hell do you ever sleep?” You have a ton of stuff going on.

I noticed on your CV that you worked as a barista at Starbuck’s during your time at Palmer. I’m not sure how anyone can hold a job while going through chiropractic college but, is this a skill that has paid off for you? Do you have an espresso machine in your office?

When I go through your information, you are involved in so many things. For example, I see your are District 4’s representative for Clinical Compass, Delphi Panelist, Grantee from ND Dept. of Health, Committee member for Notrh Dakota State Board of Chiropractic Examiners, ACA, and on and on. Where does all of this stem from? I’ve never even considered district representative for Clinical Compass was even a thing. Lol. 

We covered a paper you were part of back in Episode #68. In fact, that may be how we became familiar with each other. The paper was callled “Manual therapy for the pediatric population: a systematic review. It was in the BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine(Prevost C 2019) just this year. I want to know all about it. How did you get involved with the team? Tell us a little about the process. 

This study came out at just about the same time as the Australians and certain spots in Canada started dealing with attacks on their rights to treat pediatric patients woith chiropractic care. What amazing timing. First, are pediatric patients a significant part of your practice and secondly, what has been the reception globally in regards to the paper’s findings?

As you probably well know, Texas has been in quite a battle with our state medical association. You are clearly as deeply involved in your state’s association. What challenges are the North Dakota chiropractors facing in 2019?

Do you have any specific goals to work on as President of the North Dakota Chiropractic Association?

Tell me about the gig with the FQHC? Dr. James Lehman was on our podcast in episode #55 and he was discussing the FQHC’s and integrating. He felt integration into them would be helped by completing a specialization like the DACO or something like that. What is your opinion on that? How did you get involved? 

What does your day at the FQHC look like?

Being the FQHC’s first chiropractor, what biases or other issues are you finding yourself having to address and navigate?

Tell us more about the grant you are in the middle of for the North Dakota Department of Health? How did it come about? What is the mission?

Let’s talk about alphabet soup….. AMA RUC HCPAC ACA Alternate Advisor. I promise, almost no person alive knows what all of that stands for so do us a favor and break it down for us and tell me what the purpose is. What’s the goal and how does it help chiropractors?

Those of us that have been active know the difference between being a member and being an active member. What has it meant to you both personally and professionally to not only be a member of your state association but to also be active in it? 

When we are sitting in our offices in Amarillo, TX or in Grand Forks, North Dakota, Washington DC and the ACA seems far away and somewhat out of reach. What have you seen is an effective way to become active with the ACA on a national level?

What’s coming down the pike for you in the next 5 years and in the next 10 years? Where do you see all of your efforts headed. Or where do you hope they’re headed?

Thanks for joining us

The Message

I want you to know with absolute certainty that when Chiropractic is at its best, you can’t beat the risk vs reward ratio because spinal pain is primarily a movement-related pain and typically responds better to movement-related treatment instead of chemical treatments like pills and shots.

When compared to the traditional medical model, research and clinical experience show that many patients get good or excellent results through chiropractic for headaches, neck pain, back pain, joint pain, to name just a few.

Chiropractic care is safe and cost-effective. It can decrease instances of surgery & disability. Chiropractors normally do this through conservative, non-surgical means with minimal time requirements or hassle to the patient. 

And, if the patient develops a “preventative” mindset going forward from initial recovery, chiropractors can likely keep it that way while raising the general, overall level of health of the patient!

Key Point:

Patients should have the guarantee of having the best treatment offering the least harm.

That’s Chiropractic!

Contact

Send us an email at dr dot williams at chiropracticforward.com and let us know what you think of our show or tell us your suggestions for future episodes. Feedback and constructive criticism is a blessing and so are subscribes and excellent reviews on iTunes and other podcast services. Y’all know how this works by now so help if you don’t mind taking a few seconds to do so.

Help us get to the top of podcasts in our industry. That’s how we get the message out. 

Connect

We can’t wait to connect with you again next week. From the Chiropractic Forward Podcast flight deck, this is Dr. Jeff Williams saying upward, onward, and forward. 

Website

Social Media Links

Chiropractic Forward Podcast Facebook GROUP

Twitter

YouTube

iTunes

Player FM Link

Stitcher:

TuneIn

About the Author & Host

Dr. Jeff Williams – Chiropractor in Amarillo, TX, Chiropractic Advocate, Author, Entrepreneur, Educator, Businessman, Marketer, and Healthcare Blogger & VloggerBibliography

Prevost C, G. B., Carleo B, (2019). “Manual therapy for the pediatric population: a systematic review.” BMC Comp Altern Med 19(60).

The post w/ Dr. Kris Anderson – FQHC, Chiropractic Research, and Professionalism appeared first on Chiropractic Forward.

CF 078: The Evidence For Low Back Surgery, Searching for How We Help, and Opioid vs. Non-Opioid

Today we’re going to talk about evidence for low back surgery, we’ll talk about if spinal manipulative therapy is partyly in the brain, opioid information for back, hip, or knee osteoarthritis….what does the research say?

But first, cool like a velvet Elvis, here’s that bumper music

OK, we are back. Welcome to the podcast today, I’m Dr. Jeff Williams and I’m your host for the Chiropractic Forward podcast.  

You have flip flopped into Episode #78

Introduction

We’re here to advocate for chiropractic while we also make your life easier using research and some good solid common sense and smart talk. 

Store

I should have in my first order of the decompression brochures in in just a few days. These dudes are going to look great. I’ll put some pics in the show notes and in the email we send out once a week to our email list. 

If you’re like me, you get tired of answering the same old questions. Well, these brochures make great ways of educating while saving yourself time and breath. They’re also great for putting in take-home folders. 

Go check them out at chiropracticforward.com under the store link. While you’re there, sign up for the newsletter won’t you? We won’t spam you. Just one email per week to remind you when the new episode comes out. That’s it. 

Personal Happenings

I’ve been asked to emcee the Texas Chiropractic Association’s President’s Gala which will be during the ChiroTexpo event in Dallas, TX on June 8th. 

I’m trying to figure out if I need to be making fun of everyone I introduce or not. Maybe I should trip them? You know we chiropractors….some of us can’t take a joke right? We’ll see how it goes. Most of the guys and gals in the TCA are pretty good with having fun. 

I always heard that people don’t join state associations because they think they’re made up of a bunch of old white dudes sitting around bitching. 

Well, not at the TCA, people. We have young people and certainly not all white. That doesn’t happen in Texas these days. We are a pretty mixed state in regard to ethnicity. We are also mixed in respect to gender. Several smart and highly capable women are either on the board or in a position of influence. Heck, we have a female going through the executive chairs starting in June. I’m excited to hear her ideas and see where we go under her direction. This girl is making it happen. She has young ones too. Nothing slows her down it seems. 

Let’s get to the topics today. 

Item #1

The first item we’re talking about is called “Randomised trial support for orthopaedic surgical procedures” authored by Hyeung Lim, Sam Adie, Justine Naylor, and Ian Harris(Lim HC 2014) and published in Plos One in June 13, 2014. 

This is an interesting one because we think that the surgical procedures we undergo have been fully validated. Fully vetted. Hell, you wouldn’t lay someone open unless it’s been researched and proven beyond a doubt to fix the issue would you? One would think so…..but…..let’s dive in a bit. 

Why They Did It

The authors wanted to investigate the proportion of orthopedic procedures supported by evidence from randomized controlled trials. Trials that compared surgical procedures to non-surgical alternatives. 

How They Did It

• Orthopedic procedures conducted in 2009, 2010 and 2011 across three metropolitan teaching hospitals were identified, grouped and ranked
• Searches of the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) and the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE) were performed to identify RCTs evaluating the most commonly performed orthopaedic procedures
• A risk of bias analysis was conducted for included studies using the Cochrane Collaboration’s Risk of Bias tool
• 9,392 orthopedic procedures were performed across the index period

What They Found

Of the 83 RCTs, 23% were classified as supportive of operative intervention.23%. Twenty three percent were supportive of operative intervention. 

Only 37% of the total volume of procedures were supported by at least one RCT showing surgery to be superior to a non-operative alternative. ONLY 37% y’all. 

19.6% of the total volume of procedures were supported by at least one low risk of bias RCT showing surgery to be superior to a non-operative alternative.

Sounds crazy right? 

Of the most common orthopedic surgical interventions….the most common…..of those surgeries, less than 20% of them had a low risk of bias randomized controlled trial backing them up. 

I have some problems with cussing in my personal life but I’m determined to keep this show mostly PG-13 but man. 

That’s just shocking. Cutting people open with no better evidence than that. 

One word – two syllables. Day-um. 

The Conclusion was “The level of RCT support for common orthopaedic procedures compares unfavourably with other fields of medicine.” 

Good Lord I hope the other areas of medicince have more scientific support. 

What procedures are we talking about? Let’s be fair, we’re mostly spine people and the majority of the procedures their taling about here have nothing to do with the back. They’re talking about things like:

• Knees
• Hips
• Intrnal fixation of proximal or shaft fracture of the femur
• Ankle fracture fixation
• Shoulder arthroscopy
• Arthroscopy of the ankle…….no studies at all. Lol

It’s just crazy to think about. If we’re talking about evidence-based practice, is this it? 20% of our profession is about half crazy I think. Well, that’s about the same number of procedures they do that only have one RCT with low bias risk. 

Is it evidence-informed? I don’t know. That still sound awfully low to even consider it evidence-informed. 

I don’t know all of the answers and I don’t pretend to. Do what you do, but…..why they hell do they question spinal manipulation and say we have weak evidence to perform it? What? Stupid. 

Makes me want to cuss in Spanish.

Item #2

This one is just building on what we understand about what a manipulation does. It doesn’t answer any questions definitively but it does lay more groundwork for the future. 

It’s called “Spinal manipulation therapy: is it all about the brain? A current reveiew of the nurophysiological effects of manipulation.” It is authored by Gile Gyer, Jimmy Michael (never trust a guy with two first names. Especially if he’s left handed), Jame INklebarger, and Jaya Tedla. Published in the Journal of Integrative Medicine in May of 2019(Gyer G 2019). 

Hot stuff coming up

Why They Did It

While spinal manipulation has become more and more accepted after being more and more validated by research, the fact remains that we still don’t know exactly HOW it works and according to my interview with Dr. Christine Goertz in Episode 67, we are far away from having that satisfaction. The authors say there are certainly biomechanical and neurophysiological reasons for it’s effectiveness, 

The paper says, “Although both biomechanical and neurophysiological phenomena have been thought to play a role in the observed clinical effects of spinal manipulation, a growing number of recent studies have indicated peripheral, spinal and supraspinal mechanisms of manipulation and suggested that the improved clinical outcomes are largely of neurophysiological origin.”

“The body of literature reviewed herein suggested some clear neurophysiological changes following spinal manipulation, which include neural plastic changes, alteration in motor neuron excitability, increase in cortical drive and many more.” The nerual plastic changes part of that is really fascinating. It was once thought that the brain is the brain and we just start chipping away at brain cells as we age and go stupid stuff. Lol. 

They’re finding out that the brain changes. It can be trained. It can be built sort of like a muscle but in a neural sense. It’s fascinating. But that’s a different episode all together. 

I don’t have access to this full paper but, the point is, they’re trying to find out HOW we are effective through spinal manipulation and they recommend we plan for long-term follow up studies to help us determine the clinical significance of the neural responses that happen from spinal manipulation. 

Pretty interesting stuff there. 

Item #3

Last one for this week. It’s called “Effect of Opioid vs Nonopioid Medications on Pain-Related Function in Patients With Chronic Back Pain or Hip or Knee Osteoarthritis Pain: The SPACE Randomized Clinical Trial.” It was authored by Dr. Erin Krebs, MD et. al(Krebs E 2018). and published in JAMA on March 6 of 2018 so a little over a year ago. 

The question to answer here was, “For patients with moderate to severe chronic back pain or hip or knee osteoarthritis pain despite analgesic use, does opioid medication compared with nonopioid medication result in better pain-related function?”

How They Did It

They had 240 patients and found that the use of opioid vs. nonopioid medication did not result in significantly better pain-related function over 12 months. But they may have gotten some folks addicted in on the way to the conclusion. Lol. 

Basically, this study says stay away from opioids for moderate to severe chronic back pain or hip and knee osteoarthritis. the official conclusions was, “Treatment with opioids was not superior to treatment with nonopioid medications for improving pain-related function over 12 months. Results do not support initiation of opioid therapy for moderate to severe chronic back pain or hip or knee osteoarthritis pain.”

Boom. Pop. Pow.

I feel like I’m preaching to the choir here but you never know who listens. 

Speaking of that, Dr. David Graber shared with me that after his episodes with us, he got an email all the way from Switzerland from a chiropractor that was pretty jazzed by his comments and thoughts and Dr. Graber wanted me to know that we are indeed reaching folks and influencing on some level. 

I can’t tell you how incredibly satisfying that is. Every now and then, I get a little bit of encouraging feedback but honestly, not enough. You never know what the reach is. Are you enjoying the show? Are you listening regularly? Send me an email at [email protected] and let me know. I love to hear from you guys. I really do. 

Not only is it inspirational like filling up your gas tank…..but feedback can help me direct the show in a direction that I know you guys are interested in or focused on. Feed back only helps me learn more and get better so send me an email won’t you?

The Message

I want you to know with absolute certainty that when Chiropractic is at its best, you can’t beat the risk vs reward ratio because spinal pain is primarily a movement-related pain and typically responds better to movement-related treatment instead of chemical treatments like pills and shots.

When compared to the traditional medical model, research and clinical experience show that many patients get good or excellent results through chiropractic for headaches, neck pain, back pain, joint pain, to name just a few.

Chiropractic care is safe and cost-effective. It can decrease instances of surgery & disability. Chiropractors normally do this through conservative, non-surgical means with minimal time requirements or hassle to the patient. 

And, if the patient develops a “preventative” mindset going forward from initial recovery, chiropractors can likely keep it that way while raising the general, overall level of health of the patient!

Key Point:

Patients should have the guarantee of having the best treatment offering the least harm.

That’s Chiropractic!

Contact

Send us an email at dr dot williams at chiropracticforward.com and let us know what you think of our show or tell us your suggestions for future episodes. Feedback and constructive criticism is a blessing and so are subscribes and excellent reviews on iTunes and other podcast services. Y’all know how this works by now so help if you don’t mind taking a few seconds to do so.

Help us get to the top of podcasts in our industry. That’s how we get the message out. 

Connect

We can’t wait to connect with you again next week. From the Chiropractic Forward Podcast flight deck, this is Dr. Jeff Williams saying upward, onward, and forward. 

Website

Social Media Links

Chiropractic Forward Podcast Facebook GROUP

Twitter

YouTube

iTunes

Player FM Link

Stitcher:

TuneIn

About the Author & Host

Dr. Jeff Williams – Chiropractor in Amarillo, TX, Chiropractic Advocate, Author, Entrepreneur, Educator, Businessman, Marketer, and Healthcare Blogger & Vlogger

Bibliography

• Gyer G, M. J., Indlebarger J, Tedla JS, (2019). “Spinal manipulation therapy: Is it all about the brain? A current review of the neurophysiological effects of manipulation.” J Integrative Med.
• Krebs E (2018). “Effect of Opioid vs Nonopioid Medications on Pain-Related Function in Patients With Chronic Back Pain or Hip or Knee Osteoarthritis Pain The SPACE Randomized Clinical Trial.” JAMA 319(9): 872-882.
• Lim HC, A. S., Naylor JM, Harris IA (2014). “Randomised Trial Support for Orthopaedic Surgical Procedures.” PLoS One 9(6).

The post The Evidence For Some Surgeries, Searching for How We Help, and Opioid vs. Non-Opioid appeared first on Chiropractic Forward.

CF 077: w/ Dr. David Graber (Part Two) – Chiropractic Technique, Chiropractic Gurus, Teaching

Today we’re going to be talking with Dr. David Graber from New Jersey. Parsippany, NJ to be specific. 

But first, here’s that bumper music

OK, we are back. Welcome to the podcast today, I’m Dr. Jeff Williams and I’m your host for the Chiropractic Forward podcast.  

Introduction

We’re here to advocate for chiropractic while we also make your life easier using research and some good solid common sense and smart talk. 

Store

Part of making your life easier is having the right patient education tools in your office. Tools that educate based on solid, researched information. We offer you that. It’s done for you. We are taking pre-orders right now for our brand new, evidence-based office brochures available at chiropracticforward.com. Just click the STORE link at the top right of the home page and you’ll be off and running. Just shoot me an email at [email protected] if something is out of sorts or isn’t working correctly. 

If you’re like me, you get tired of answering the same old questions. Well, these brochures make great ways of educating while saving yourself time and breath. They’re also great for putting in take-home folders. 

Go check them out at chiropracticforward.com under the store link. While you’re there, sign up for the newsletter won’t you? We won’t spam you. Just one email per week to remind you when the new episode comes out. That’s it. 

F4CP

We will be launching an athletes and opioids eBook toward the end of this month. It’s called A case for chiropractic disrupting the cycle of pain, prescriptions, and addiciton. I’m linking it in the show notes so go get and check it out. 

DACO

Let’s talk a bit about the DACO program

Let’s get to our guest today. As I mentioned at the top of the show, we have Dr. DavidCF ep. 76 Graber with us today. 

• Dr. Graber graduated from New York Chiropractic College in 1985 and got his Sports Diplomate in 1996. 
• He is a fromer NYCC assistant instructor of diagnosis and technique. 
• He developed and taught over 20 different post-graduate courses in Chiropractic technique and theory, and rehabilitation. 
• He was voted chiropractor of the year in 2012 by the Association of New Jersey Chiropractors
• He is the charman of the ANJC council on technique and clinical excellence. 
• And he’s here with us today. 

1. I can’t think of anyone better than you to ask this question of. I see so many polar opinions concerning this: with the rising popularity of the YouTube folks like Cipriano and Gregory Johnson, AKA – Ring Dinger – what is you opinion of the Y-axis adjustment? Is it as dangerous as some think?
2. You were a speaker at Parker Vegas this year so some of our listeners may be already very aware of you. Tell me a little about your presentation and the whole experience. I saw a lot of very positive vibes on Facebook coming from evidence-based chiropractors. 
3. You have been teaching chiropractors for some time now. One of the power points I have is called Contextual healing in Chiropractic: The Roles of Placebo, Nocebo, and Intension. I’m not too proud to admit that there is information here that I’m not 100% up on. It looks fascinating. Can you give us a summary of what is in the course. The big ideas essentially. 
4. You are very visible in the evidence-based facebook groups like the Chiropractic Practice Research group and the Forward Thinking Chiropractic Alliance and others that are very similar in regard to being based on science and evidence-based practice. You are particularly prolific in posting research papers of all kinds. First, where do you typically get your research? Secondly, what avenue of research seems to be your area of the most interest?
5. You say that Evidence-based Chiropractic doesn’t exist in actual practice. OK, what you talkin’ ‘bout, Willis?
6. I have to give you some serious props. Going through your power point from Parker Vegas….let’s just say that I just finished 300 hours of education to sit for the DACO testing to get the Diplomate for Orthopedics. So much of what we learned in that course, you are already on top of. It’s already in this power point. Things like downregulation of central faciliatation, vestibular effects, neuroplasticity, mechanoreceptor stimulation, release of entrapped synovial folds of the facet joints – I know where I learned all of this stuff. Assuming you haven’t gone through the DACO yet, where did you pick it up? Was it the Sports Diplomate?
7. When you discuss some of the unsupported and ‘Unfavorable’ testing like manual muscle testing, paraspinal skin temperature readings, surface EMG, or x-rays to localize a site of care…..how much push back do you typically encounter and how do you go about handling that? We both know there are people that will argue these things until their last breath. 
8. Tell me…..how does one practice non-subluxation based Chiropractic that’s not considered the same thing as a PT
9. I wrote an article for my blog at one time called “Back Alignment: Useful Terminology Or Outdated Idea?” I noticed one of your slides that made me want to jump and cheer because we are definitly on the same page. It said “Adjustments Improve Motion, Not Alignment.” I’d love for chiropractors to hear more on* that. Can I get you to elaborate briefly on that for us? 
10. 10.When it comes to what we do as chiropractors, in general, it can be a concept, a therapy we’re not utilizing….whatever you think…..but, what is the biggest thing we are missing as a profession? From our email exchanges, it may have to do with just getting better at what we do?
11. 11.I’ve heard chiropractic in New York is not so good but do not know specifics on that. Being right next door to New York, can you tell me about chiropractic in New Jersey? What are your State Association’s battles?
12. 12.After going through your Parker Vegas power point, you have a fan in me. Where will you be in the future? How do we keep up with you and hopefully catch you at a seminar and hear all of this awesome information?

The Message

I want you to know with absolute certainty that when Chiropractic is at its best, you can’t beat the risk vs reward ratio because spinal pain is primarily a movement-related pain and typically responds better to movement-related treatment instead of chemical treatments like pills and shots.

When compared to the traditional medical model, research and clinical experience show that many patients get good or excellent results through chiropractic for headaches, neck pain, back pain, joint pain, to name just a few.

Chiropractic care is safe and cost-effective. It can decrease instances of surgery & disability. Chiropractors normally do this through conservative, non-surgical means with minimal time requirements or hassle to the patient. 

And, if the patient develops a “preventative” mindset going forward from initial recovery, chiropractors can likely keep it that way while raising the general, overall level of health of the patient!

Key Point:

Patients should have the guarantee of having the best treatment offering the least harm.

That’s Chiropractic!

Contact

Send us an email at dr dot williams at chiropracticforward.com and let us know what you think of our show or tell us your suggestions for future episodes. Feedback and constructive criticism is a blessing and so are subscribes and excellent reviews on iTunes and other podcast services. Y’all know how this works by now so help if you don’t mind taking a few seconds to do so.

Help us get to the top of podcasts in our industry. That’s how we get the message out. 

Connect

We can’t wait to connect with you again next week. From the Chiropractic Forward Podcast flight deck, this is Dr. Jeff Williams saying upward, onward, and forward. 

Website

Social Media Links

Chiropractic Forward Podcast Facebook GROUP

Twitter

YouTube

iTunes

Player FM Link

Stitcher:

TuneIn

About the Author & Host

Dr. Jeff Williams – Chiropractor in Amarillo, TX, Chiropractic Advocate, Author, Entrepreneur, Educator, Businessman, Marketer, and Healthcare Blogger & Vlogger

The post w/ Dr. David Graber (Part Two) – Chiropractic Technique, Chiropractic Gurus, Teaching appeared first on Chiropractic Forward.

CF 076: w/ Dr. David Graber (Part One) – Chiropractic Technique, Chiropractic Gurus, Teaching

Today we’re going to be talking with Dr. David Graber from New Jersey. Parsippany, NJ to be specific. 

But first, here’s that bumper music

OK, we are back. Welcome to the podcast today, I’m Dr. Jeff Williams and I’m your host for the Chiropractic Forward podcast.  

You have collapsed into Episode #76

Introduction

We’re here to advocate for chiropractic while we also make your life easier using research and some good solid common sense and smart talk. 

Store

Part of making your life easier is having the right patient education tools in your office. Tools that educate based on solid, researched information. We offer you that. It’s done for you. We are taking pre-orders right now for our brand new, evidence-based office brochures available at chiropracticforward.com. Just click the STORE link at the top right of the home page and you’ll be off and running. Just shoot me an email at [email protected] if something is out of sorts or isn’t working correctly. 

If you’re like me, you get tired of answering the same old questions. Well, these brochures make great ways of educating while saving yourself time and breath. They’re also great for putting in take-home folders. 

Go check them out at chiropracticforward.com under the store link. While you’re there, sign up for the newsletter won’t you? We won’t spam you. Just one email per week to remind you when the new episode comes out. That’s it. 

F4CP

We will be launching an athletes and opioids eBook toward the end of this month. It’s called A case for chiropractic disrupting the cycle of pain, prescriptions, and addiciton. I’m linking it in the show notes so go get and check it out. 

DACO

Let’s get to our guest today. As I mentioned at the top of the show, we have Dr. DavidCF ep. 76 Graber with us today. 

• Dr. Graber graduated from New York Chiropractic College in 1985 and got his Sports Diplomate in 1996. 
• He is a fromer NYCC assistant instructor of diagnosis and technique. 
• He developed and taught over 20 different post-graduate courses in Chiropractic technique and theory, and rehabilitation. 
• He was voted chiropractor of the year in 2012 by the Association of New Jersey Chiropractors
• He is the charman of the ANJC council on technique and clinical excellence. 
• And he’s here with us today. 

• Welcome to the show
• Tell me about your journey into chiropractic
• Tell me about your journey into evidence-based chiropractic
• When did you start getting into speaking and giving presentations? How did that come about?
• I noticed a powerpoint where you taught cervical adjusting. After going through the powerpoint, how many ways are there to adjust a neck?  Minus the techniques Rambo and Chuck Norris use of course : )
• You say you know how to suck at a technique. I don’t know anyone that wants to suck but, in order to avoiding sucking, you must explain. 
• You mention the people that are publishing research and teaching courses on Chiropractic technique and how to approach them as if they were a financial planner. Can you explain that a little further for us?
• I can’t think of anyone better than you to ask this question of. I see so many polar opinions concerning this: with the rising popularity of the YouTube folks like Cipriano and Gregory Johnson, AKA – Ring Dinger – what is you opinion of the Y-axis adjustment? Is it as dangerous as some think?

The Message

I want you to know with absolute certainty that when Chiropractic is at its best, you can’t beat the risk vs reward ratio because spinal pain is primarily a movement-related pain and typically responds better to movement-related treatment instead of chemical treatments like pills and shots.

When compared to the traditional medical model, research and clinical experience show that many patients get good or excellent results through chiropractic for headaches, neck pain, back pain, joint pain, to name just a few.

Chiropractic care is safe and cost-effective. It can decrease instances of surgery & disability. Chiropractors normally do this through conservative, non-surgical means with minimal time requirements or hassle to the patient. 

And, if the patient develops a “preventative” mindset going forward from initial recovery, chiropractors can likely keep it that way while raising the general, overall level of health of the patient!

Key Point:

Patients should have the guarantee of having the best treatment offering the least harm.

That’s Chiropractic!

Contact

Send us an email at dr dot williams at chiropracticforward.com and let us know what you think of our show or tell us your suggestions for future episodes. Feedback and constructive criticism is a blessing and so are subscribes and excellent reviews on iTunes and other podcast services. Y’all know how this works by now so help if you don’t mind taking a few seconds to do so.

Help us get to the top of podcasts in our industry. That’s how we get the message out. 

Connect

We can’t wait to connect with you again next week. From the Chiropractic Forward Podcast flight deck, this is Dr. Jeff Williams saying upward, onward, and forward. 

Website

Social Media Links

Chiropractic Forward Podcast Facebook GROUP

Twitter

YouTube

iTunes

Player FM Link

Stitcher:

TuneIn

About the Author & Host

Dr. Jeff Williams – Chiropractor in Amarillo, TX, Chiropractic Advocate, Author, Entrepreneur, Educator, Businessman, Marketer, and Healthcare Blogger & Vlogger

The post w/ Dr. David Graber (Part One) – Chiropractic Technique, Chiropractic Gurus, Teaching appeared first on Chiropractic Forward.

CF 075: Chiropractic Residencies, Fat Cat Drug Dealers, Osteoporosis & Yoga, & Pain Science

Today we’re going to talk about chiropractic residencies, fat cat drug dealers, Osteoporosis and Yoga, and we’ll talk a bit about some pain facts. You’ll find something for everyone in this episode so just sit back and enjoy a cornucopia of tasty knowledge nuggets won’t you?

But first, here’s that bubbalicious bumper music

OK, we are back. Welcome to the podcast today, I’m Dr. Jeff Williams and I’m your host for the Chiropractic Forward podcast.  

You have skipped gleefully into Episode #75

Introduction

We’re here to advocate for chiropractic while we also make your life easier using research and some good solid common sense and smart talk. 

F4CP

We has launched an athletes and opioids eBook called “A case for chiropractic: disrupting the cycle of pain, prescriptions, and addiciton.” I’m linking it in the show notes so go get and check it out. 

DACO

Let’s talk a bit about the DACO program. I freshened up my info on BPPV recently while going back through the drills and reviewing the material. Did you know that 85%-90% of BPPV is caused by the particles drifting off into the posterior canal? Epley maneuver is the best technique to take care of it when in the posterior canal. 

As a side note: If you want to sound smart, those particles are actually called otoliths until they move into a semicircular canal. When they do that, they become canaliths. Probably because they’re in a canal? Makes sense to me. 

Epley Maneuver knocks out BPPV of the posterior canal in about 85% of cases. However, if it does not knock it out, start looking at the horizontal canal, 10% of the time, or check for the anterior canal. There are other head maneuvers to try for those different instances so you’ll have to get smarter at that point or refer to a specialist. When they’re in a different canal, they can get a bit nasty. 

Personal Happenings

I have to tell you all that 2019 has been a bit of a freak year for growth around here. Absolutely crazy. April was a record-breaking month for me as you’ve probably heard me talk about in past episodes. We are looking at bringing on an associate to help us with the load. The thing you worry about is, “Is it a fluke and we slow down to the point that we don’t need the extra help and now I’m stuck with an associate?” 

I don’t move into anything quickly without a lot of thought. But, even if it did slow up a bit, an associate should be there to help grow the practice rather than just take some heat off the owner, right? These are the thoughts keeping me busy at the moment. I’m sure I’m not the only one out there thinking them either. 

If you have any comments or suggestions, shoot them to me at [email protected] and I’ll probably share them in a future podcast. That may be an interesting topic. 

Let’s get to the good stuff

Item #1

Our first item is called “Establishing a residency program for a chiropractic specialty in a public hospital system: Experiences from Denmark” by O’Neill, et. al. and published in Journal of Chiropractic Education in April of 2019[1]. 

As you may guess, this one has to do with establishing a residency program for chiropractors in Denmark. Just as the title mentions. The paper describes experiences and lessons from a 5-year postgraduate, hospital-based residency program. 5 Years. 

One word – two syllables – Day-um

Three pilot programs were done between 2009 and 2016. What they decided so far is that there needs some improvement to structure and content that they’re on the right track for sure. And…..wouldn’t you agree?

How much better would we be individually and as a group if we had a year or two of residency in a hospital setting? Our profession would be in a completely different space right now. That’s a guarantee I don’t mind making. 

While I’m sure students aren’t quick to jump on the idea, just imagine the network you’d build while doing your residency. The connections. The learning going forward. The benefits of residency programs throughout the globe are endless. 

I’d love to see our profession move in that direction sooner rather than later. I know a couple of schools have started this in American and I believe Canada but I’m not sure which ones and to what extent just yet. If you have that info, shoot it to me. I’d love to hear more about it. 

Item #2

Let’s move on to a Fat Cat Drug Dealer – aka John Kapoor, the owner of Insys Therapeutics. His claim to fame? The first pharmaceutical boss to be convicted in a case linked to the US opioid crisis according to an article in BBC News[2]. 

“A Boston jury found Kapoor and four colleagues conspired to bribe doctors to prescribe addictive painkillers, often to patients who didn’t need them. The former billionaire was found guilty of racketeering conspiracy for his role in a scheme which also misled insurers.”

“The court heard that Kapoor – who was arrested in 2017 on the same day President Donald Trump declared the opioid crisis a “national emergency” – ran a scheme that paid bribes to doctors to speak at fake marketing events to promote Subsys.”

Alright, there is more to the article but that’s good enough for our purposes. I have to say that it’s hard for me to get excited about someone going to jail for up to 20 years but I have to say, in this case, gimme a hell yeah, and amen, and why didn’t he get more time? Really, when you consider this dude contributed to over 72,000 opioid related deaths in one freaking year…..why isn’t he getting life in prison?

And this dude looks like a fat crypt-keeper. Like an unsavory Mr. Scrooge. He fits the part perfectly. I don’t know how anyone can get in this dude’s corner. Seriously. Terrible. Good riddance and if someone ever deserved to be worth 1.8 billion and then lose it and go to prison, it’s someone like this knucklehead. 

I’m not against medication. Hell, I’m not even against opioids when absolutely necessary and with close oversight. Medication certainly has its place. But not when it’s done like this guy did it. 

Good riddance and take out the garbage. 

Item #3

This next item is called “11 Important Things To Know About Pain” written by Nick Efthimiou who is an osteopath. It was published on April 30, 2018 so just a little over a year ago….published in Integrative Osteopathy and cited in the show notes[3]. 

I mentioned a week or so ago that pain has really started to move into my head space in a way that it never did prior to going through the DACO program. Pain plays a big part in the DACO and, as a result, I find myself more and more fascinated with the topic. 

I love the way the article suggests that we know more about pain typically than our patients know and it is hard to convey that information effectively so they suggest we use concrete language rather than abstract language, we use examples that relate well to us or the patient, and we repeat the key concepts until they stick with the patient so there’s no misunderstanding. 

1. Pain doesn’t equal tissue damage – He says this is the most important thing to understand about pain. He says there are countless examples of people experiencing tissue damage and not feeling any pain at all and vice versa. 
2. Pain is protective – Whether it is protective of an injured body part or protective of a threat to our brain’s concept of self pain is a biological process that is meant to keep us safe.
3. Pain is produced by the brain and localized to the body – Our brains produce a conscious experience based on input from the sensory nerves. Nociception is “noise” from the body. Sensory nerves that respond to thermal, mechanical or chemical stimulation are constantly sending signals to the spinal cord. Most of this is blocked, because it is just that – noise. However, when when those nerves are stimulated to a greater degree – think an injury, or contacting a hot surface – then your brain becomes aware of the change to the noise levels. Your brain, not knowing exactly what is going on, will respond by producing pain, and will decide to protect the area where the increased nociception is coming from. To make matters even more complex, we can have pain in the absence of nociception – think of amputees with phantom limb pain
4. Chronic Pain is Different To Acute Pain – Acute pain is usually a response to either a tissue injury or other immediate threat, it subsides as the injury or threat does. Chronic pain is the result of changes to the nervous system which make it more sensitive. This means the nervous system and brain become “hyper protective”, generating pain with little or no provoking stimulus. If something is wrong with the central control room, then everything linked to it (which is everything), can be affected.
5. Recurrent pain and multisite pain are both forms of chronic pain – Both recurrent pain and multisite pain are forms of chronic pain, and need to be managed as such. Often multisite pain starts as a single site, and progresses to multisite, chronic pain. 
6. Pain is never simple, even when it seems so – Pain is not linear, as in this happened and now this hurts. It is emergent. An emergent process is when two or more things combine to form something that doesn’t share the properties of the things that make it up. Because of this, and all the invisible and unconscious factors that contribute to us experiencing pain, we can never say that pain is simple.
7. Pain is not caused by “poor posture” weak muscles or being “out of alignment.” – It actually, many time, just the reverse. Poor posture is more likely caused by pain and poor posture is adopted as a defensive mechanism. Bam. That’s where I see minds exploding across our listenership. Kapow! 
8. Osteopaths (and other practitioners) don’t “fix” pain – When it comes to pain, the resolution lies within your own body and brain. Even pain relieving drugs can only work if you are in the right context – morphine doesn’t always help, while sometimes a placebo pill works better than the real thing. Pow. Snap. Kabam!
9. Everything can “work” –  There are claims from therapists, doctors and other kinds of healers about all kinds of treatments for all kinds of pain. It’s likely all of these people have numerous success stories to confirm that what they do works. This is not a bad thing at all. It is actually the goal of many therapies. The problem comes, when interventions are sold in misleading ways, i.e. they are sold as doing something unrealistic or impossible. Uhuh. I know some pretty whacky chiropractors. Of course let’s be fair. I know some wacky medical physicians as well. 
10. 10.Inflammation is a good thing – Inflammation is the body’s way of healing.Yes, it can be painful, but pain is a protective response. And you know what needs protecting? Injured tissues. That is not to say you need to completely rest an injured tissue by the way. It is simply saying that suppressing inflammation (particularly with drugs) can impair and delay healing. Stop with the ice. They also say though, chronic inflammation is not a good thing and should be managed differently than acute inflammation. 
11. How you live is more important than what you do – What is most important, particularly for sufferers of chronic pain, is living well, despite your pain. Healthy lifestyle habits contribute to healthy bodies and brains.

This stuff lines up with the DACO, it’s crazy. The folks that generated the DACO information, Dr. Anthony Nicholson and Matthew Long could have written this article. Word for word. In fact, before I got the end of the article and finally saw the name of the author, I emailed the article to Dr. Nicholson asking him if it was him that wrote it. Lol. 

Item #4

One more very short one. This one is called “Soft tissue and bony injuries attributed to the practice of yoga: a biomechanics analysis and implications for management.” It was authored by Lee, et. al. and published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings in March of 2019[4]. 

Here’s the conclusion, “Yoga potentially has many benefits, but care must be taken when performing positions with extreme spinal flexion and extension. Patients with osteopenia or osteoporosis may have higher risk of compression fractures or deformities and would benefit from avoiding extreme spinal flexion. Physicians should consider this risk when discussing yoga as exercise.”

News you can use people. I do hope you enjoy the show as much as I enjoy bringing it to you. It’s a blast. Do us a favor and tell someone won’t you?

This week, I want you to go forward with these points:

1. Establishing a chiropractic residency program for every school should be priority #1. For the school, the student, the patients, and the profession. 
2. Drug dealers usually get what they have coming to them. 
3. Chronic pain is a beast although it IS a fascinating beast. 
4. Don’t do any crazy yoga if you have osteopenia or osteoporosis.

The Message

I want you to know with absolute certainty that when Chiropractic is at its best, you can’t beat the risk vs reward ratio because spinal pain is primarily a movement-related pain and typically responds better to movement-related treatment instead of chemical treatments like pills and shots.

When compared to the traditional medical model, research and clinical experience show that many patients get good or excellent results through chiropractic for headaches, neck pain, back pain, joint pain, to name just a few.

Chiropractic care is safe and cost-effective. It can decrease instances of surgery & disability. Chiropractors normally do this through conservative, non-surgical means with minimal time requirements or hassle to the patient. 

And, if the patient develops a “preventative” mindset going forward from initial recovery, chiropractors can likely keep it that way while raising the general, overall level of health of the patient!

Key Point:

Patients should have the guarantee of having the best treatment offering the least harm.

That’s Chiropractic!

Contact

Send us an email at dr dot williams at chiropracticforward.com and let us know what you think of our show or tell us your suggestions for future episodes. Feedback and constructive criticism is a blessing and so are subscribes and excellent reviews on iTunes and other podcast services. Y’all know how this works by now so help if you don’t mind taking a few seconds to do so.

Help us get to the top of podcasts in our industry. That’s how we get the message out. 

Connect

We can’t wait to connect with you again next week. From the Chiropractic Forward Podcast flight deck, this is Dr. Jeff Williams saying upward, onward, and forward. 

Website

Social Media Links

Chiropractic Forward Podcast Facebook GROUP

Twitter

YouTube

iTunes

Player FM Link

Stitcher:

TuneIn

About the Author & Host

Dr. Jeff Williams – Chiropractor in Amarillo, TX, Chiropractic Advocate, Author, Entrepreneur, Educator, Businessman, Marketer, and Healthcare Blogger & Vlogger

Bibliography

1. O’Neill SFD, Establishing a residency program for a chiropractic specialty in a public hospital system: Experiences from Denmark. J Chiropr Educ, 2019.

2. Insys Therapeutics founder John Kapoor convicted in US opioid case. BBC News, 2019.

3. Efthimiou N 11 Important Things To Know About Pain. Integrative Osteopathy, 2018.

4. Lee M, Soft Tissue and Bony Injuries Attributed to the Practice of Yoga: A Biomechanical Analysis and Implications for Management. Mayo Clin Proc, 2019. 94(3): p. 424-431.

The post Chiropractic Residencies, Fat Cat Drug Dealers, Osteoporosis & Yoga, & Pain Science appeared first on Chiropractic Forward.