Is Spinal Manipulation Right For You?

Do you implement spinal manipulation with your any of your low back pain patients? 

Many of our patients have preconceived beliefs about spinal manipulation - some swear by it while others are afraid of it.

Some are regulars at their chiropractors while others have never had low back pain until now.  

Each and every patient we treat, we must educate about what it is we are providing them. Especially when it comes to something like spinal manipulation.

When safety is a concern, when pain is acute, when outcomes are uncertain, our job is to educate to provide evidence and clarity. 

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What Can You Do For Neck Pain Radiating to the Arm?

Pain, numbness, burning, tingling, weakness...Cervical Radiculopathy can be a scary diagnosis for your patients.

How can you incorporate better education into their treatment?

Remember, they haven't been through PT school, they don't know all that we do about different treatments and outcomes...

For them, in addition to pain, this numbness, tingling, and weakness is uncomfortable, unknown, and unsettling...all of which can illicit a fear response, which we know can perpetuate the condition. 

Here is a post all about What Cervical Radiculopathy is and the best treatment options that yield the best results....

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Whiplash Treatment: Exercise & Advice

Whiplash injuries are the most common injury following a car accident.

Many Whiplash patients get better with time – usually within 2 to 3 weeks of the injury. Current research, however, is showing that about 50% of people still complain of neck pain even one year after the injury. One study even found that 58% of patients report having symptoms 30 months after.

Although there are a plethora of different treatment options we can offer patients with Whiplash Associated Disorders, the evidence suggests that prescribing basic exercise and giving simple advice early on yields the best outcomes...

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Relief For Chronic Neck Pain

For patients with chronic neck pain, key impairments we will likely find are weakness and a lack of coordination and endurance in the Deep Neck Flexor Muscles.

In fact, people with chronic neck pain have significantly poorer performance when compared to people without neck pain on the craniocervical flexion test.

In addition to strength and endurance issues, people with chronic neck pain also have altered proprioception, balance disturbances, altered eye movement control, and altered postural activity of cervical muscles.

Here's a post all about Chronic Neck Pain for your patients with Movement Coordination Impairments - that educates about the importance of improving strength, endurance, and coordination of the Deep Neck Flexors + Exercise Videos...

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What To Do For a Stiff Neck

It should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyways – evidence shows the treatment that targets a specific classification of neck pain (mobility deficits, headaches, sprain, etc.) has better outcomes than just general treatment for neck pain.

So what does a typical person who has a stiff neck (neck pain with mobility deficits) look like?-

• Younger than 50 years old
• Acute neck pain lasting less than 12 weeks
• Symptoms are only in the neck (referred pain may or may not be present)
• Restricted neck range of motion
• Limited mobility of the cervical (neck) and thoracic (mid-upper back) spine

For patient's who match this criteria for neck pain with mobility deficits, we should match our treatment accordingly... 

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