Dooley Noted: 5/3/2016
Dear patients,
After a year of solid treatment for neck pain, a patient of mine decided to get some quick relief from a local chiropractor while I was out of town.
I have zero issues with this, since I co-care with people of many disciplines.
I did have a problem with the doctor telling my patient she has osteoarthritis (OA), without any imaging. He also used OA as an explanation for her discomfort, which has little to no validity.
He also noted she had inflammation, by putting a tool used by old-school chiropractors to predict joint inflammation.
No, the tool has no evidentiary support.
No, he did not suggest bloodwork to assess markers for inflammation.
He ran a tool up her neck.
Then, he tried to sell her the idea of getting adjusted how ever many times.
I feel for my patient.
I battled severe neck pain and migraines for the bulk of my twenties.
And yes, chiropractic helped with my symptoms.
But it wasn’t until I met a rehabilitative chiropractor that someone suggested my neck pain was the result of the neck working too hard.
His name was Dr. Brett Winchester.
For the first time, I was offered a reason why my neck hurt.
He explained the muscle tightness as a way to protect and limit the hypermobile neck. I had a neck stability problem – not a mobility problem.
And here I was, getting it rubbed out and adjusted every week, when my lazy trunk rotators and buttocks weren’t picking up the slack.
I see nothing wrong with getting palliative care. I still adjust often in my practice.
But it’s less than 5 minutes of my 45-minute treatment, if it happens at all.
Consider why your neck is tight in the first place.
Perhaps you need a long-term focus on not overusing some of its parts.
Consider that your tightness and pain is a present – your body’s effort of limiting what doesn’t work for you.
I tried to self-crack, self-massage, anything to get some relief. But this tightness was reflexive and trying to help me!
Your tendency to want to crack and relieve tension in your own neck, along with joint noise, supports the idea that the joints move too much already.
When I learned to strengthen and stabilize, like many of my patients do, then I rarely had to get adjusted or adjust others.
I have created stability for my own neck after years of chiropractic care.
Now I only get adjusted on a must-need-it basis, which is a few times a year maximum.
The adjustment should be reserved for mobility problems – not stability problems.
And regarding OA, this condition is a very, very poor predictor for pain and discomfort. Many don’t even know they have it until a radiograph is taken.
OA occurs at a joint because its surfaces are moving too much already, causing the body to seek stability by laying down more bone.
Thus, adjustments at those segments may be counterproductive.
I have created a supreme focus on stability, and I want to help others do the same.
I am a chiropractor. And I love to adjust.
I am someone who could sell that theory and adjust 15 people an hour, making 5 times what I do now in income.
But I don’t.
I know the righteous path is the one I took for myself as a patient, and it’s the reason I have zero pain anywhere in my body.
I love chiropractic for joint mobility problems. No one adjusts better. They have the most training.
When looking for a chiropractor, however, I highly recommend one with a rehabilitative focus.
Make sure they utilize the Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA). This assessment helps indicate when to adjust – and when to leave a joint alone.
It’s the difference between pain relief in the moment – versus long-term relief and prevention.
As always, it’s your call.
– Dr. Kathy Dooley
