"StandUpRight News" by Dr. Donaldson

Spinal X-rays – The Missed Opportunity?

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Herniated Disc Doctor writes:

"I had x-rays and MRIs and they say nothing is wrong except arthritis."

"My doctor says my insurance company tells him I don't need x-rays of my back and that I should just take these drugs and my back pain would go away. Well, it didn’t. My back keeps hurting and all they do is keep giving me drugs. What’s wrong?"

 

Both of these stories point out the missed opportunity of spinal x-rays.

 

Sometimes people come to us with page after page of x-ray, CT and MRI reports and still have never had a good explanation of why they have not gotten any better. On the other hand we see people come to us with long-standing back pain that they can't get rid of and who have never been x-rayed. Some insurance companies refuse to pay for x-rays in the first thirty days, yet Medicare thinks the x-ray is important.

 

So what is the proper use of x-rays for back pain?

For When Simple Pain Relief Measures Are Not Enough

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Herniated Disc Doctor writes:

Sometimes all it takes to get you feeling better and back to your normal activities is a week or two or three of spinal adjustments and some pain control therapies. If this is the case then we’ll discharge you when you have recovered to as good as you need to be and the doctor is confident that you will not end up right back here in pain a couple of weeks after stopping treatment.

But sometimes your spine is more messed up than you thought it was. Sometimes the pain stays longer that you’d like it to. Or sometimes your pain just keeps coming back… and back … and back.

Warbler's Neck Can Be a Real Pain

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Neck Pain Doctor writes:

Tonight the skies will be filled with migrating birds of all kinds. The NexRad radar shows swarms of them moving northward with the warmer weather. So this weekend birders will be out in force.

It will be a particularly great time for spotting warblers. Warblers are tiny birds that fly from as far away as South America to northern Canada and back each year. Spring is the best time of year to see them since the trees are still bare and the birds are in their spring breeding colors, making identification easier than when they make their return trip South in the fall.

After a long night flight, they rest and feed during the day. On a good day you may be able to identify two or three dozen different species of warblers in your own neighborhood park. With names like Yellow Warbler, Orange-Crowned Warbler, Hooded, Palm, Prairie, Black-throated Green, Bay-breasted, Chestnut-sided, Golden-winged, Yellow-throated, Yellow-rumped, Black-throated Blue, and Black-and-White Warbler it's no wonder so many people love the challenge of spotting them. 

President Obama Reaffirms Chiropractic Support

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Back Pain Doctor writes:

In a letter to the American Chiropractic Association, President Obama has reaffirmed his support of access to full-scope chiropractic care for all Americans. 

He wrote, "I believe steps should be taken to acknowledge the important care provided by doctors of chiropractic. We need to knock down unreasonable barriers of access and discriminatory insurance coverage so Americans in need of quality chiropractic care can acces it without difficulty. We need to expand the range of chiropractic services covered by Medicare, facilitate integration of doctors of chiropractic into the health care systems of the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense, and allow commission of doctors of chiropractic as officers in the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service. And again, under my health care plan, many, if not all, chiropractic services would be included in the benefit package offered in the public plan.

America faces challenges both at home and abroad. To remain competitive, we must ensure that our health care system is accessible for every American. That is why my plan ensures quality, accessible health care for all Americans. Doctors of chiropractic will play an important role in achieving this goal."

Millions of Americans are now not even aware of how they could use chiropractic care to maintain a healthy spine for their lifetime. If he can make this happen it would save billions of dollars by minimizing the need for more invasive procedures. It would also keep Americans more pain-free, more active and more productive.

Be sure to voice your support for this measure by writing to your elected officials. Change is possible.

Unless Hope Leads to Action, There is No Change

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist writes: Constant pain can really get to you. There are two common responses to pain that are particularly damaging and usually make things even worse.

One is trying to ignore the problem and just cover it up with drugs. This has become particularly problematic since the COX-2 inhibitors (Vioxx, Celebrex, and Bextra) were taken off the market for contributing to heart problems. With the decline in the use of these drugs came a nearly equal increase in the use of Narcotic analgesics like Oxycontin and Oxycodone which have become drugs of choice with addictive personalities.

The other response is to limit activities so the pain isn't worsened on the chance that it will go away and the person won't have to put any attention on it.

I have seen people get so resigned to their pain that they decide to just give in and try to avoid the pain. They start to do a bit less each day, watch more television, do fewer of their favorite activities. It's like they gradually shut down their life without realizing it.

One time a lady came in whom I hadn’t seen in a while. I checked her out. She could hardly move and she was having back pain that shot into her leg. Yet she said she was doing "just fine." She couldn’t stand for more than a couple minutes, couldn’t sit long, and on days when she could go to work was so limited that she had delegated nearly every function to someone else.

But she said she was OK. As long as she didn’t do ANYTHING, she was OK. When I asked her what she would do if it got worse, she said it wouldn’t get worse because she just refused to do the activities that aggravated her. And if something started to bother her, she just wouldn’t do it anymore.

Well, eventually just getting up out of bed in the morning is going to aggravate her! So her life will become just lying in bed all day, but she will be "OK."

Not really. Not for long anyway.

Because when you decide to ignore the problem by taking drugs or by limiting your daily life, the pain doesn’t just go away. Gravity never quits. So the force on your spine doesn’t either. Eventually you will either drug yourself and limit your life so much that you have no life or you will have to act to confront the reason the problem is there. These are the only two options really.

Sorry, but I can’t help someone who is OK with giving up. Enjoying life less and less. Waiting for the next bad thing to happen. And just ignoring the real problem. I don’t think that is you.

But if it is OK with you to have no life then just keep on doing what you are doing, then take the drugs, get the shots, and wait until you beg for surgery. Use your cane, when that doesn’t work, get a walker, and then get a wheelchair.

But if you decide that is not for you then you have to take action. No-one else can do it for you but we are here to help.

Call (414)355-0433 to schedule a No-Risk Qualification Exam for one of our StandUpRight Spinal Rehabilitation Programs.

Your Workout May Be Doing You More Harm Than Good!

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist writes:

Sometimes people tell me "I thought I would just exercise to strengthen my core muscles and my back pain would go away." Well... sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't.

Imagine pounding a bent nail into a board. Sometimes it goes in straight, but more often the nail bends even more. Exercising on a damaged spine is sometimes like pounding in that bent nail. You might do more damage than good if you are doing the wrong exercises.

To actually be helpful, not only do the exercises have to work with your back instead of against it, but they have to exercise the correct muscles in the proper manner also.

Some muscles are built for great strength, like your arms and legs. But the strength only lasts a relatively short time before the muscle fatigues.

To test this,

StandUpRight Structural Pain Solution Programs

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist writes:
Our daily lives can often be filled with stress—and not just emotional stress. A lifetime of sitting at a computer, driving long distances, or repetitive bending and lifting at work are all normal daily activities that over time place tremendous physical stress on the neck and spine. Even eating food laden with artificial chemicals while breathing in polluted air can be a major stress on the body.
Physical, chemical and emotional stressors combine to amplify each other: A nagging headache makes us irritable; a tough day at work leaves our bodies feeling tense and uncomfortable. An accumulation of stress can deteriorate our spinal alignment and posture, which we feel in our bodies as back and neck pain, headaches, and fatigue. This can progress over time and lead to serious degenerative conditions of the spine which may become disabling.
 

Live in Wisconsin? You're Likely Deficient in Vitamin D!

Does your back ache all the time? Are your legs weak? Do you avoid sunlight because of fear of cancer? Do you lather on the sun-block when you go outdoors? Then you may be deficient in Vitamin D.

 A study of Madison women during the winter of 2005 to spring of 2006 showed 59% were found to have low Vitamin D status. Another study in Minnesota showed that 93% of people with persistent nonspecific musculoskeletal pain had deficient levels of Vitamin D and were at high risk for the many consequences of Vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D  deficiency used to be thought of just in the form of rickets. But recently scientists have found that Vitamin D is crucial for many functions in the body besides just bone formation.

Even moderate deficienty is responsible for increased osteoporosis risk, leg muscle weakness and risk of falling. May women who are deficient in Vitamin D are misdiagnosed with fibromyalgia.

Low Vitamin D status is associated with:

• Bone Loss

• Infection

• Immune Dysfunction

• Increased cancer risk

• Multiple Sclerosis

• Hypertension

• Diabetes Mellitus

• Muscle Weakness

• Many “Age-related” problems

Your body makes Vitamin D in your skin if there is enough sun exposure. In Wisconsin most people are unable to make enough even in the summer months unless they work outside full time. People with dark skin are particularly at risk. Homebound people simply do not get out in the sun as much as they used to. And in Wisconsin in winter the amount of sunlight is totally inadequate to stimulate enough Vitamin D.

Salmon, mackerel and sardines have Vitamin D as do eggs and dairy products. But getting enough from dietary sources is tougher to do than most doctors realize.

Current consensus recommendations suggest that supplementation of up to 2600 IU is required to achieve optimal levels. This amount is available as a single drop of a liquid supplement. At this level there is a wide margin for safety without toxicity. If your levels are lower you may require more.

Ask Dr. Donaldson if you should be checked for Vitamin D deficiency. There is a simple blood test we can order that will guide your need. We also usually stock an excellent and economical Vitamin D supplement, stop at the front desk or call us at (414) 355-0433 for more information.

Eat Your Way to A Pain-Free Life

Milwaukee Neck and Back Pain Doctor writes: 

Herniated and degenerative discs are sometimes painful and sometimes not. You may have a herniated disc that causes no pain for months. Then it suddenly flares when you do just the wrong movement causing horrible pain and disability. Sometimes the pain lasts for weeks, months or even years and seems like it never heals.

If the disc can be herniated for months or years without pain, could there be other factors that contribute to the pain too? Yes. For years medical scientists have known that pain has an inflammatory component, that’s why they sell anti-inflammatories and COX-2 inhibitors. Now they are learning that the inflammation is not just at the site of the injury but may be widespread throughout the body.

While inflammation is an important step in the normal healing process, it can get out of control and become a process that the body allows to persist long after the initial healing benefit is past. The more widespread the inflammation is throughout the body, the more likely the damaged nerve is to stay sensitized.

If the nerve is persistently sensitized by an abnormal chemical environment in the surrounding tissue (like too acidic or too alkaline) then the nerve may trigger pain more easily, more frequently and more persistently than normal and it can continue to be irritated long after the initial insult is relieved. This is why sometimes we see improvement in the strength, speed and flexibility tests for your back even before we see improvements in the pain levels.

When You Start To Feel Better, You Become Dangerous To Yourself!

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist writed: Some day you may come to the office and say to me, "I'm hurting again, almost as bad as when I first came in here. What did you do to me, doc?" Don't be surprised if I smile.

If you say this to me, I know that:

1. What we are doing is working, otherwise you wouldn't have felt better in the first place. And

2. You were feeling enough better to try to do more of the things that you want to be doing, maybe not a lot, but just enough to overload the delicate healing tissues and cause pain to trigger off again. And

3. The underlying dysfunction that was aggravated by the activity is still not corrected even though the pain was letting up for a while. We still have some work to do.