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Water Instead of Diet Drinks & Neuromobilization In The Chronic Neck
Water Instead of Diet Drinks & Neuromobilization In The Chronic Neck
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
INTRO
Today we’re going to talk about Water Instead of Diet Drinks & Neuromobilization In The Chronic Neck
But first, here’s that sweet sweet bumper music
Purchase Dr. Williams’s book, a perfect educational tool and chiropractic research reference for the daily practitioner, from the Amazon store TODAY!
WELCOME BACK
Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Chiropractic Forward Podcast. I’m Dr. Jeff Williams, and I’m glad you’re spending a few minutes of your day with me. This is the podcast where we don’t just talk about chiropractic — we build the case for it, one piece of research at a time. Evidence-based, patient-centered, and unapologetically.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
THINGS TO DO
Real quick — just a few things I’d love for you to do:
Number one — if you haven’t already, grab a copy of my book on Amazon. It’s a great resource and it helps support the show.
Number two — come join us on Facebook. Find our page and our group and be part of the conversation.
Number three — and this one I’ll come back to in a minute — please take a moment to leave us a review on whatever podcast platform you’re using. It genuinely helps.
And number four — visit chiropracticforward.com for more content, resources, and information about what we do.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
EPISODE RECAP
This is Episode #387. Last week, in Episode #386, we talked about Exercise & Nutrition In Low Back Pain & Migraine In Chiropractic Patients. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to that one yet, go back and check it out.
Good stuff. You gotta keep up with the class!
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
PERSONAL HAPPENINGS
Alright, let’s talk a little bit about life around here before we get into the research.
I’ve been listening to a new podcast lately that I’m really enjoying — it’s called Dan Snow’s History Hit. Currently I’m working through episodes about military commanders, and they’ve been covering Erwin Rommel. And I have to tell you — I’ve been fascinated by Rommel since I was a kid. I remember watching some documentary when I was young, and they called him the Desert Fox — and I mean, come on. That’s an incredible nickname. Obviously, as a kid you don’t fully grasp the horrors of what the Nazis represented, but you figure that out pretty quickly as you get older. Even so, Rommel as a military figure has always been a genuinely interesting study to me. If you’re into military history at all, check out Dan Snow’s History Hit. Good podcast.
Speaking of podcasts, I would really appreciate it if you would take a minute to review and share this podcast with colleagues you think would benefit from it.
Look, I’ll be honest with you — we spent some time on cruise control, just recording episodes and letting them ride. And that’s fine, but I really want to see growth and real traction here. I want to get to the point where, when somebody asks for a chiropractic podcast recommendation, there are fifteen people immediately pointing to this one.
I’m biased, obviously — but I genuinely believe that evidence-based, patient-centered information is the best thing we can do for our profession and for our communities. Anything that reduces the noise and elevates the people doing it right is good for everyone. So I’d appreciate your help spreading the word.
In other news — I am deep in study mode right now. I’m preparing to take the Qualified Medical Evaluator examination out in California. That test is in April, and I hear they run about a fifty-fifty pass-fail ratio — which is honestly pretty humbling. I do not plan on being on the fail side of that equation, so I am busting my hump to make sure I’m well prepared.
I’ll tell you though — when you’re 53 and you’ve got everything going on in your life that I have going on, sitting down to study isn’t always the easiest thing in the world.
But the tools available now versus when I was in school are just incredible. One thing that’s really helping me is an app called Brainscape. Essentially it’s a flashcard system, but the smart part is that it has you rate how well you know each card — and the cards you don’t know very well keep coming back more frequently until you rate them higher.
That’s a genuinely smart design. There’s also a website called Stuvia that has practice tests and learning materials that have been helpful. Add in a prep class on top of all of that, and I feel like I’m going in well-prepared. But as I always say — we shall see.
And one more piece of good news from the clinic. Our acupuncturist’s husband got a job offer in Missouri, so she and her family will be relocating in May. That’s bittersweet — we love her — but here’s the stroke of luck: our brand new associate, fresh out of chiropractic school, was already interested in learning acupuncture. She’s going through the certification process right now and has her test in April. If all goes well, she’ll be ready to step right in line as soon as our current acupuncturist leaves.
That means she’ll essentially be paying for herself almost immediately, once she takes over the VA acupuncture patients and our regular acupuncture caseload. I like to say even a broken clock is right twice a day — and sometimes God just smiles down on his people. This one felt a little like both.
Alright. Let’s get into the research.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
ITEM #1
The First one today is called, “Effects of Replacing Diet Beverages with Water on Sustained Weight Loss and Type 2 Diabetes Remission — An 18-Month Randomized Clinical Trial” by Farshci et al and was presented at the 85th Scientific Session of American Diabetes Associaiton in Chicago in 2025 and it’s a hot one, stand back
Remember the citations are in the show notes in this episode.
Citation
Farshchi, M., Madjd, A., & Farshchi, H.R. (2025). Effects of Replacing Diet Beverages with Water on Sustained Weight Loss and Type 2 Diabetes Remission — An 18-Month Randomized Clinical Trial. Presented at the 85th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association, Chicago, IL. Abstract 586-P. Published in Diabetes, 74(Supplement 1).
Why They Did It
About one in five Americans drinks a diet beverage every single day. And for a long time, the conventional wisdom was that diet sodas were a safe substitute for full-sugar drinks — especially for people trying to manage their weight or their blood sugar. After all, they’re calorie-free, right?
Well, some emerging research started suggesting that diet beverages might be affecting the body differently than water, and that maybe the “free pass” thinking wasn’t as solid as we assumed.
So these researchers set out to do something no one had done before in this specific population: a long-term, randomized clinical trial looking at what happens when women with type 2 diabetes actually replace their diet drinks with water — and track those results over 18 months.
How They Did It
What They Found
Wrap It Up
The researchers concluded that sustained replacement of diet beverages with water after meals in women with type 2 diabetes may promote greater weight reduction and offer meaningful benefits in glycemic control and long-term diabetes remission.
And look — this is important information for us as chiropractors and conservative care providers. We deal with patients every single day who are managing metabolic conditions, carrying extra weight, dealing with inflammation.
Diet and lifestyle are always part of that conversation. And what this study is telling us is that the advice is almost embarrassingly simple: drink water.
Not a diet soda. Not a zero-calorie something. Water.
A small change with potentially enormous consequences for long-term health. That’s the kind of practical, evidence-based lifestyle counseling we can offer our patients every day without a prescription pad.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
ITEM #2
The second one today is called ‘Routine Physical Therapy With and Without Neural Mobilization in Chronic Musculoskeletal Neck Disorder with Nerve-Related Symptoms: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis’.
And you know, if they’d have just tried a little harder, I feel they could have made that title just a scootch longer if we’re being honest. This one was doen by Lopez-Pardo et al in 2024.
Citation
López-Pardo, M.J., Calvache-Mateo, A., Martín-Núñez, J., Heredia-Ciuró, A., López-López, L., Valenza, M.C., & Cabrera-Martos, I. (2024). Routine Physical Therapy with and without Neural Mobilization in Chronic Musculoskeletal Neck Disorders with Nerve-Related Symptoms: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Healthcare, 12(12), 1225. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12121225
Why They Did It
How They Did It
What They Found
Wrap It Up
So what do we take away from this? The authors concluded that adding neural mobilization to routine physical therapy is a clinically meaningful upgrade over minimal intervention for patients dealing with chronic neck conditions and nerve-related symptoms.
The treatment approach is showing genuine benefit for pain relief and disability reduction. And for us in the chiropractic world, this is validating.
Neural mobilization techniques — neurodynamic work — are conservative, manual-based interventions that fit squarely in what we do and I use it and recommend it daily in our clinic.
Patients with chronic neck pain and radiculopathy-type symptoms are some of the most challenging cases in our offices, and here we have systematic review-level evidence saying that adding these techniques to a physical therapy routine makes a real difference.
If you haven’t incorporated neural mobilization or neurodynamic testing and treatment into your practice toolkit, this is a good time to consider it. The evidence is building, and it points in the right direction.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Alright, that’s going to do it for Episode #387 of the Chiropractic Forward Podcast. Two great papers today — one reminding us that the simplest interventions can be the most powerful, and one confirming that what we do in the treatment room for chronic neck pain with nerve symptoms has solid evidence behind it. That’s the kind of research that makes me proud to be in this profession.
As always, thank you for being here, thank you for caring about evidence and about doing right by your patients. That’s what this podcast is about and that’s what this profession deserves.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Don’t forget to check out our store at chiropracticforward.com. We’ve got resources and tools for chiropractors who want to stay sharp and keep building their practices on a solid foundation.
Purchase Dr. Williams’s book, a perfect educational tool and chiropractic research reference for the daily practitioner, from the Amazon store TODAY!
Alright, that’s it. Keep on keepin’ on. Keep changing our profession from your corner of the world. The world needs evidence-based, patient-centered practitioners driving the bus. The profession needs us in the ACA and involved in leadership of state associations. So quit griping about the profession if you’re doing nothing to make it better. Get active, get involved, and make it happen.
Let’s get to the message. Same as it is every week.
Store
Remember the evidence-informed brochures and posters at chiropracticforward.com.
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 rather than chemical treatments like pills and shots.
When compared to the traditional medical model, research and clinical experience show us patients can get good to excellent results for headaches, neck pain, back pain, and joint pain to name just a few.
It’s safe and cost-effective can decrease surgeries & disability and we do it through conservative, non-surgical means with minimal hassle to the patient.
And, if the patient treats preventatively after initial recovery, we can usually keep it that way while raising the overall level of health!
Key Point:
At the end of the day, patients should have the guarantee of having the best treatment that offers the least harm. When it comes to non-complicated musculoskeletal complaints….
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 and tell us your suggestions for future episodes.
Feedback and constructive criticism is a blessing and so are subscribes and excellent reviews on podcast platforms.
We know how this works by now. If you value something, you have to share it, interact with it, review it, talk about it from time to time, and actively hit a few buttons to support it here and there when asked. It really does make a big difference.
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
Home
Social Media Links
https://www.facebook.com/chiropracticforward/
Chiropractic Forward Podcast Facebook GROUP
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1938461399501889/
Tweets by Chiro_Forward
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtc-IrhlK19hWlhaOGld76Q
iTunes
Player FM Link
https://player.fm/series/2291021
Stitcher:
https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-chiropractic-forward-podcast-chiropractors-practicing-through
TuneIn
https://tunein.com/podcasts/Health–Wellness-Podcasts/The-Chiropractic-Forward-Podcast-Chiropractors-Pr-p1089415/
About the Author & Host
Dr. Jeff Williams – Fellow of the International Academy of Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine (FIANM) and Board Certified Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Professionals (DABFP) – Chiropractor in Amarillo, TX, Chiropractic Advocate, Author, Entrepreneur, Educator, Businessman, Marketer, and Healthcare Blogger & Vlogger
The post Water Instead of Diet Drinks & Neuromobilization In The Chronic Neck appeared first on Chiropractic Forward.
View all episodes
By The Chiropractic Forward Podcast: Evidence-based Chiropractic Advocacy
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Water Instead of Diet Drinks & Neuromobilization In The Chronic Neck
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
INTRO
Today we’re going to talk about Water Instead of Diet Drinks & Neuromobilization In The Chronic Neck
But first, here’s that sweet sweet bumper music
Purchase Dr. Williams’s book, a perfect educational tool and chiropractic research reference for the daily practitioner, from the Amazon store TODAY!
WELCOME BACK
Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Chiropractic Forward Podcast. I’m Dr. Jeff Williams, and I’m glad you’re spending a few minutes of your day with me. This is the podcast where we don’t just talk about chiropractic — we build the case for it, one piece of research at a time. Evidence-based, patient-centered, and unapologetically.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
THINGS TO DO
Real quick — just a few things I’d love for you to do:
Number one — if you haven’t already, grab a copy of my book on Amazon. It’s a great resource and it helps support the show.
Number two — come join us on Facebook. Find our page and our group and be part of the conversation.
Number three — and this one I’ll come back to in a minute — please take a moment to leave us a review on whatever podcast platform you’re using. It genuinely helps.
And number four — visit chiropracticforward.com for more content, resources, and information about what we do.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
EPISODE RECAP
This is Episode #387. Last week, in Episode #386, we talked about Exercise & Nutrition In Low Back Pain & Migraine In Chiropractic Patients. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to that one yet, go back and check it out.
Good stuff. You gotta keep up with the class!
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
PERSONAL HAPPENINGS
Alright, let’s talk a little bit about life around here before we get into the research.
I’ve been listening to a new podcast lately that I’m really enjoying — it’s called Dan Snow’s History Hit. Currently I’m working through episodes about military commanders, and they’ve been covering Erwin Rommel. And I have to tell you — I’ve been fascinated by Rommel since I was a kid. I remember watching some documentary when I was young, and they called him the Desert Fox — and I mean, come on. That’s an incredible nickname. Obviously, as a kid you don’t fully grasp the horrors of what the Nazis represented, but you figure that out pretty quickly as you get older. Even so, Rommel as a military figure has always been a genuinely interesting study to me. If you’re into military history at all, check out Dan Snow’s History Hit. Good podcast.
Speaking of podcasts, I would really appreciate it if you would take a minute to review and share this podcast with colleagues you think would benefit from it.
Look, I’ll be honest with you — we spent some time on cruise control, just recording episodes and letting them ride. And that’s fine, but I really want to see growth and real traction here. I want to get to the point where, when somebody asks for a chiropractic podcast recommendation, there are fifteen people immediately pointing to this one.
I’m biased, obviously — but I genuinely believe that evidence-based, patient-centered information is the best thing we can do for our profession and for our communities. Anything that reduces the noise and elevates the people doing it right is good for everyone. So I’d appreciate your help spreading the word.
In other news — I am deep in study mode right now. I’m preparing to take the Qualified Medical Evaluator examination out in California. That test is in April, and I hear they run about a fifty-fifty pass-fail ratio — which is honestly pretty humbling. I do not plan on being on the fail side of that equation, so I am busting my hump to make sure I’m well prepared.
I’ll tell you though — when you’re 53 and you’ve got everything going on in your life that I have going on, sitting down to study isn’t always the easiest thing in the world.
But the tools available now versus when I was in school are just incredible. One thing that’s really helping me is an app called Brainscape. Essentially it’s a flashcard system, but the smart part is that it has you rate how well you know each card — and the cards you don’t know very well keep coming back more frequently until you rate them higher.
That’s a genuinely smart design. There’s also a website called Stuvia that has practice tests and learning materials that have been helpful. Add in a prep class on top of all of that, and I feel like I’m going in well-prepared. But as I always say — we shall see.
And one more piece of good news from the clinic. Our acupuncturist’s husband got a job offer in Missouri, so she and her family will be relocating in May. That’s bittersweet — we love her — but here’s the stroke of luck: our brand new associate, fresh out of chiropractic school, was already interested in learning acupuncture. She’s going through the certification process right now and has her test in April. If all goes well, she’ll be ready to step right in line as soon as our current acupuncturist leaves.
That means she’ll essentially be paying for herself almost immediately, once she takes over the VA acupuncture patients and our regular acupuncture caseload. I like to say even a broken clock is right twice a day — and sometimes God just smiles down on his people. This one felt a little like both.
Alright. Let’s get into the research.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
ITEM #1
The First one today is called, “Effects of Replacing Diet Beverages with Water on Sustained Weight Loss and Type 2 Diabetes Remission — An 18-Month Randomized Clinical Trial” by Farshci et al and was presented at the 85th Scientific Session of American Diabetes Associaiton in Chicago in 2025 and it’s a hot one, stand back
Remember the citations are in the show notes in this episode.
Citation
Farshchi, M., Madjd, A., & Farshchi, H.R. (2025). Effects of Replacing Diet Beverages with Water on Sustained Weight Loss and Type 2 Diabetes Remission — An 18-Month Randomized Clinical Trial. Presented at the 85th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association, Chicago, IL. Abstract 586-P. Published in Diabetes, 74(Supplement 1).
Why They Did It
About one in five Americans drinks a diet beverage every single day. And for a long time, the conventional wisdom was that diet sodas were a safe substitute for full-sugar drinks — especially for people trying to manage their weight or their blood sugar. After all, they’re calorie-free, right?
Well, some emerging research started suggesting that diet beverages might be affecting the body differently than water, and that maybe the “free pass” thinking wasn’t as solid as we assumed.
So these researchers set out to do something no one had done before in this specific population: a long-term, randomized clinical trial looking at what happens when women with type 2 diabetes actually replace their diet drinks with water — and track those results over 18 months.
How They Did It
What They Found
Wrap It Up
The researchers concluded that sustained replacement of diet beverages with water after meals in women with type 2 diabetes may promote greater weight reduction and offer meaningful benefits in glycemic control and long-term diabetes remission.
And look — this is important information for us as chiropractors and conservative care providers. We deal with patients every single day who are managing metabolic conditions, carrying extra weight, dealing with inflammation.
Diet and lifestyle are always part of that conversation. And what this study is telling us is that the advice is almost embarrassingly simple: drink water.
Not a diet soda. Not a zero-calorie something. Water.
A small change with potentially enormous consequences for long-term health. That’s the kind of practical, evidence-based lifestyle counseling we can offer our patients every day without a prescription pad.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
ITEM #2
The second one today is called ‘Routine Physical Therapy With and Without Neural Mobilization in Chronic Musculoskeletal Neck Disorder with Nerve-Related Symptoms: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis’.
And you know, if they’d have just tried a little harder, I feel they could have made that title just a scootch longer if we’re being honest. This one was doen by Lopez-Pardo et al in 2024.
Citation
López-Pardo, M.J., Calvache-Mateo, A., Martín-Núñez, J., Heredia-Ciuró, A., López-López, L., Valenza, M.C., & Cabrera-Martos, I. (2024). Routine Physical Therapy with and without Neural Mobilization in Chronic Musculoskeletal Neck Disorders with Nerve-Related Symptoms: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Healthcare, 12(12), 1225. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12121225
Why They Did It
How They Did It
What They Found
Wrap It Up
So what do we take away from this? The authors concluded that adding neural mobilization to routine physical therapy is a clinically meaningful upgrade over minimal intervention for patients dealing with chronic neck conditions and nerve-related symptoms.
The treatment approach is showing genuine benefit for pain relief and disability reduction. And for us in the chiropractic world, this is validating.
Neural mobilization techniques — neurodynamic work — are conservative, manual-based interventions that fit squarely in what we do and I use it and recommend it daily in our clinic.
Patients with chronic neck pain and radiculopathy-type symptoms are some of the most challenging cases in our offices, and here we have systematic review-level evidence saying that adding these techniques to a physical therapy routine makes a real difference.
If you haven’t incorporated neural mobilization or neurodynamic testing and treatment into your practice toolkit, this is a good time to consider it. The evidence is building, and it points in the right direction.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Alright, that’s going to do it for Episode #387 of the Chiropractic Forward Podcast. Two great papers today — one reminding us that the simplest interventions can be the most powerful, and one confirming that what we do in the treatment room for chronic neck pain with nerve symptoms has solid evidence behind it. That’s the kind of research that makes me proud to be in this profession.
As always, thank you for being here, thank you for caring about evidence and about doing right by your patients. That’s what this podcast is about and that’s what this profession deserves.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Don’t forget to check out our store at chiropracticforward.com. We’ve got resources and tools for chiropractors who want to stay sharp and keep building their practices on a solid foundation.
Purchase Dr. Williams’s book, a perfect educational tool and chiropractic research reference for the daily practitioner, from the Amazon store TODAY!
Alright, that’s it. Keep on keepin’ on. Keep changing our profession from your corner of the world. The world needs evidence-based, patient-centered practitioners driving the bus. The profession needs us in the ACA and involved in leadership of state associations. So quit griping about the profession if you’re doing nothing to make it better. Get active, get involved, and make it happen.
Let’s get to the message. Same as it is every week.
Store
Remember the evidence-informed brochures and posters at chiropracticforward.com.
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 rather than chemical treatments like pills and shots.
When compared to the traditional medical model, research and clinical experience show us patients can get good to excellent results for headaches, neck pain, back pain, and joint pain to name just a few.
It’s safe and cost-effective can decrease surgeries & disability and we do it through conservative, non-surgical means with minimal hassle to the patient.
And, if the patient treats preventatively after initial recovery, we can usually keep it that way while raising the overall level of health!
Key Point:
At the end of the day, patients should have the guarantee of having the best treatment that offers the least harm. When it comes to non-complicated musculoskeletal complaints….
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 and tell us your suggestions for future episodes.
Feedback and constructive criticism is a blessing and so are subscribes and excellent reviews on podcast platforms.
We know how this works by now. If you value something, you have to share it, interact with it, review it, talk about it from time to time, and actively hit a few buttons to support it here and there when asked. It really does make a big difference.
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
Home
Social Media Links
https://www.facebook.com/chiropracticforward/
Chiropractic Forward Podcast Facebook GROUP
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1938461399501889/
Tweets by Chiro_Forward
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtc-IrhlK19hWlhaOGld76Q
iTunes
Player FM Link
https://player.fm/series/2291021
Stitcher:
https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-chiropractic-forward-podcast-chiropractors-practicing-through
TuneIn
https://tunein.com/podcasts/Health–Wellness-Podcasts/The-Chiropractic-Forward-Podcast-Chiropractors-Pr-p1089415/
About the Author & Host
Dr. Jeff Williams – Fellow of the International Academy of Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine (FIANM) and Board Certified Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Professionals (DABFP) – Chiropractor in Amarillo, TX, Chiropractic Advocate, Author, Entrepreneur, Educator, Businessman, Marketer, and Healthcare Blogger & Vlogger
The post Water Instead of Diet Drinks & Neuromobilization In The Chronic Neck appeared first on Chiropractic Forward.