McHenry Chiropractic Newsletter for February 2017
Combined DC/MD Care is Beneficial
Doctors working together benefits patients. Working with a McHenry healthcare colleague to help one of our McHenry chiropractic patients is always an honor! A new study reports that when family medicine residents and chiropractors cooperatively care for older patients with back pain, everyone wins. Patients liked it. Both types of doctors liked getting to know each other’s treatment approaches. (1) While another study reveals that multidisciplinary conferences involving many types of doctors decrease the use of spinal fusion for low back and improve the matching of surgical type to the proper patient type. (2) It’s all good! OrthoIllinois Chiropractic is ready to help!
When Would Back Surgery Be Suitable?
Research reports that 88% of cervical radiculopathy patients and 70% of lumbar radiculopathy patients improve within 4 weeks of symptom onset. Therefore, optimal timing for surgery for cervical radiculopathy (arm/upper extremity pain) is within 8 weeks of symptom onset though 4 weeks may be considered and between 4 and 8 weeks for lumbar radiculopathy (leg/lower extremity pain). (3) Naturally, OrthoIllinois Chiropractic works toward surgery necessity but knows when to refer appropriate patients for surgical care. There are times when it is. Trust OrthoIllinois Chiropractic for your back and neck pain care needs.
Eat Healthy!
It’s not just a slogan! Eating healthily reduces the risk of osteoporosis and improves bone mineral density. Those who consume more vegetables and fruits have less osteoposis and higher bone mineral density in middle and older age. If you are one of those McHenry chiropractic patients who don’t like vegetables much, you are in luck! Fruit more so than vegetables seems to be better. (4) Eat some fruit and vegetables today for less osteoporosis and pain tomorrow.
Back Pain’s Relationship to Vitamin D
Low vitamin D levels for McHenry chronic low back pain sufferers isn’t good. The good news is that vitamin D supplementation helps! Improved vitamin D levels via supplementation show lowered pain intensity and improved function ability in chronic low back pain patients. (5) OrthoIllinois Chiropractic thinks it’s nice that a simple intervention as a nutritional supplement may mean so much for back pain!
Everything is connected! OrthoIllinois Chiropractic knows this to be true! Researchers suggest that tinnitus may be improved when cervical spine disorders are improved. There’s a connection between the dorsal cochlear nucleus in the auditory pathway and the cervical spine. (6) If tinnitus along with a cervical spine condition bothers you or a friend, let’s see what OrthoIllinois Chiropractic can do to help! McHenry chiropractic may help.
Osteoporosis and Obesity – The Link
When we think about osteoporosis, we used to think thin people were at risk. That’s what OrthoIllinois Chiropractic would think. But not now! New research finds that obesity is a big risk factor for osteoporosis since inflammatory cytokines are used by fat to negatively control bone metabolism. (7) Now, that’s new news. All of us McHenry folks – thin and overweight – must be aware of osteoporosis risk and how to manage it.
If any of these topics affect you or a McHenry loved one, schedule a McHenry chiropractic appointment today with OrthoIllinois Chiropractic. What a great first step toward relief!