Have you heard of ‘car surfing’? It’s when someone gets out of a moving vehicle and stands on the roof, like they were surfing. Sometimes it’s even the driver that gets out while the car drives itself. It’s crazy and severely dangerous but unfortunately getting more popular. I like to call it ‘job security’ because it is so crazy that it will lead to many future injuries that I no doubt will have to deal with.

As a Chiropractor, I’m always looking to find the cause of a particular pain or problem. So, one thing I always do is a thorough history to see if there is any past medical history that might have lead to some one’s issues.

You see, many of our problems do not begin when the first symptom appears. But rather several years, if not decades prior. This can be a hard thing for people to grasp. Recently I had a middle aged women who came back after her initial visit and said that she had thought a little more about my “past traumatic incident” question. She was wondering if a fall, when she was a teenager, off a horse going at full speed, could have lead to her back pain? With the straightest face, I said “Yes, it’s possible”.

I can see myself in a couple of years answering a similar question, “Doc, do you think it was because of a fall while car surfing?” Yeah, maybe it was…

I have a saying that I’ve been using for a long time… Patients are interested in two things:

1. Getting out of PAIN and
2. Getting out of PAYING.

For the past ten years, I think I’ve done a pretty good job of providing that first thing. And for the most part, I have always tried to limit patients’ out of pocket expenses too. But that seems to just be a losing battle now. You see, insurance payments and coverages are just getting plain bad!

And 2011 has started out to be just another year in which costs for patients continue to mount. To be honest, I’ve always believed in trying to waive and remove co-payments and deductibles in an attempt to make sure that the patient gets the service they need. And by “eating” some of that out of pocket expense, I would still benefit by then receiving the insurance portion of the bill. Yes, some people say I leave a lot of money on the table but I’ve always felt that it works out in the end. I truly believe in the motto that: “You have to give to receive.”

Insurance companies are just clamping down on benefits, coverage, and reimbursements. I understand how hard it is to pay the ‘expensive’ monthly health insurance premium and then to have to pay out of pocket during your visit. But the level of reimbursement has gone down so much that a lot of the times your co-payment IS THE REIMBURSEMENT!

So, I’m sorry if you notice that you now have a co-payment or that we are charging you a deductible. It really is out of my hands…

Another pain medication is pulled off the market this week by the FDA. You might have heard of Darvocet, which is a narcotic pain reliever. It was removed from store shelves due to serious adverse reactions. Apparently it causes heart arrhythmia’s that can be fatal. I guess that’s one way of relieving pain…

This is yet another story in the big book of harmful medications. Darvocet was one of the more common mild to moderate pain medications but amongst pain specialist it is widely known to be ineffective in pain management. Well, it turns out that the risk associated with taking Darvocet outweighs the benefits.

It is important to consult with your physician if you are taking Darvocet. Using conservative management treatments such as chiropractic, acupuncture, homeopathy, massage, and nutrition therapy can be great alternatives to using pain medication for musculoskeletal pain. Even though it is easy to pop a pill and hope it helps, the side effects can be serious. So don’t be sacred of trying new forms of treatment and prevention.

I’m reminded of the song by Alanis Morissette, “Isn’t It Ironic”.  The proverbial “recent research study” was released that showed some pretty surprising negative effects of a group of drugs called bisphosphonates. You’ve probably heard of these drugs, they’re for treatment of osteoporosis or low bone density.

So, it turns out that the medication that was suppose to limit fractures from osteoporosis actually causes an increase in fractures. Yeah, isn’t it ironic. Or maybe it’s just sad. We continue to think that there is a pill, potion or cream for anything that we classify as a ‘disease’.

If you’re taking Fosamax, Fosamax Plus D, Actonel, Actonel with Calcium, Boniva, Atelvia or their generic versions, please contact your doctor to see if you should stop. This might be one of those cases where the side effect might be worse than the original problem.

When will we stop buying into the pharmaceutical model that they can solve every single problem for us. Health comes from the inside out not the other way around…

Yes, you read right. I am offering you a tip today that will only cost you a quarter yet can save you a lot of money in the long run. Now let me preface this with the usual legalese that you should seek the help of a qualified health care professional to evaluate any conditions you might be having. OK, let’s get down to this easy and cheap tip.

But first, you might or might not be aware of my propensity to suggest the use of ice (cryotherapy). I’m a big believer in using cold to lower inflammation and reduce pain. That being said, my tip today has to do with the use of ice therapy. There are some really strong studies that show the benefit of using cold to lower swelling and help ease pain. Just keep in mind that inflammation, while being initially beneficial to help an area heal, can be detrimental if prolonged or repetitive. If you continue to get inflamed or swollen in an area, like in chronic back pain, it can lead to scare tissue formation that will only make your condition worse.

So, when that back or neck pain starts to act up what can you do to lower inflammation and help prevent it from happening again? Just take a zip lock bag (spring for the big kind with strong zipper) and fill it with crushed ice and water. Make sure to try to remove as much air as possible. Using the water will allow for more surface area penetration and thus getting the maximum benefit of ice therapy. You might want to use a paper towel over the area to make sure the ice is not too cold that it burns you. But it should be really cold! Again, I can’t repeat that enough. It should be cold and unlike using moist heat that soothes, ice therapy can be uncomfortable but immensely beneficial.

Now, you might have one of those gel packs. You might have even got one from me. Please continue to use the gel pack, it serves a similar purpose as to provide a good surface area contact to provide the most benefit. But you might not be carrying around an ice pack at all times (at least I sure hope you’re not). It’s much easier to carry around a zip-lock bag and if your a mom you probably already carry one around. The benefits of using ice therapy are maximized if used as close to the onset of any pain or discomfort. So, carry around that $0.25 zip-lock bag that you can use as soon as you start to feel something. It will be much cheaper than waiting till the pain worsens, trust me…

It never ceases to amaze me! Inevitably, after about ten minutes of listening to a patient list all the medications (prescription and over the counter) they are taking for pain, they will lean over to me and say “Doc, your not gonna adjust my neck right? I’m scared of that!”

At this point I take a deep breath in and push down my instinct to say “But your fine taking medication that’s constantly being scrutinized for negative effects or even recalled right?” But my cooler head usually wins and I end up saying something funny like “Don’t be scared of a little snap, crackle and pop”.

I used to be a lot worse handling this when I started practicing. I would actually take it personally. Like if people actually thought I would do something deliberately to hurt them. Don’t they realize that they’ve been tricked by Hollywood into thinking that a small twist in the neck can cause a Karate like death move. The truth is that you would be able to jump off my adjusting table before I could ever get your neck into a position that would hurt you. And that is a FACT!

I chose the chiropractic profession for the reason that I love being able to help people with my hands and with little to no negative effects. So, I guess my point is that we should be focusing on the true potential for harm in constant use and abuse of pain medication. I tell patients that they are more likely to experience a big problem taking Tylenol than anything I can do to them in an adjustment. But, there I go again and getting too serious. So, I’ll revert back to my saying: “Don’t be afraid of a little snap, crackle and pop…”

The other day I had the pleasure of meeting a young kid who was in his early twenties. It’s not unusual for me to see young kids or even children in the office (but I digress). What was unusual was the fact that this young man told me, “Doc, I’ve been feeling good but I want to make sure I stay healthy and avoid back problems”. Turns out that when he was a teenager his dad had brought him to a chiropractor because he thought he looked “crooked”. He remembered getting adjusted and feeling better.

He recently got a new job that offers him health insurance for the first time in his life. So naturally he wants to use it to keep himself “healthy” right? The only problem is that his particular “Health Insurance” does not allow for healthcare benefits. What do I mean?

Let me try to explain this with an analogy. Lets say you have a front tire on your car that is wearing away faster than the others. What would your auto insurance say if you called them to cover the cost of replacing your tire. It might be hard to hear what they say while they’re laughing so hard. But now what happens if you fail to “maintain” or keep your car “healthy” by replacing the tire and it blows out and you crash into a tree? That’s when your auto insurance kicks in and now has to cover the cost of the repair plus replace that tire as well.

Health insurance is getting to this point. My new patient has a plan that does not cover “maintenance” adjustments. That means he basically has to wait till he has pain for his benefits to kick in. Sounds crazy I know, but health insurance is turning our health care system into a “sick care” system. Fortunately, there still are a lot of plans that cover some form of maintenance but I wouldn’t count on these plans being around too long. So stop kicking the tires and get your spine checked out today!

There was some news this past week about what’s the best password length and configuration. It got me thinking about how important and painfully complicated passwords have become. Every site requires one and we now have so many sites we log into on a regular basis. Choosing a secure yet memorable password is essential and can even be vital to your health…

More and more physicians are starting to use ‘medical portals’. Portals are websites that are setup by your physician that allows you access to your medical information. For example, you could check your recent lab results, diagnostic reports, or current medication list. Portals can be real empowering to patients because you can get immediate access to “your” health information, which let’s face it, can be sometimes tough to get from your doctors office when you really need it.

But this opens up another possibility, your personal health information accessed by non-authorized individuals. Having a strong password is just one thing you can do to make sure your private stuff stays private. The current recommendations include using a 12 character password that includes letters, numbers, and symbols. It is even suggested you use different passwords for each different website. Now if your like me, you don’t have time to be keeping up with so many different passwords and changing them all the time. That’s why I use a password manager (LastPass). But you can use any of the several different ones out there.

The latest password cracking software can crack a six letter-only password in under one minute, scary right? So make sure your password is not simple, short, and easy to recognize, your health may depend on it…

Many patients come into our office saying, “Doc, I’m getting old. That’s why my back hurts”. And I always tell them that it’s not that their getting old, it’s that their “problems” are getting old. We don’t realize that a lot of our issues actually started when we where kids. There was a study done a while back that I remember, which said that by the time kids turn 11 years old they’ve fallen about ten thousand times. We’ve all seen kids take a fall and just get right up. Well, there is a price for all those hard knocks.