For many, ocean waves are calming. For Burlington and Hamilton neck pain and back pain patients, feeling the wave of relief from
pain can be the same if they understand it. For those who don’t realize that pain will come and go while healing, the wave of
healing can be upsetting. Spinal Care Clinic helps our
patients understand the wave of healing, are
aware of the research behind our relieving treatment plan, and celebrate
the pain relief they experience.
DESCRIBING AND RATING PAIN
Since back and neck pain experiences are filled
with fluctuations of symptoms as they get better,
researchers tried to come up with a system
to classify neck pain patients and their pain patterns by studying
1208 neck pain patients. They came up with 16 subgroups! Wow.
The largest subgroup was “mild persistent fluctuating” with 25%
of the patients in it reporting pain as a 3.4 out of 10 (10
worst pain). The “moderate episodic” group had 24% reporting
pain at a 2.7. “Persistent fluctuating” pain patients
were those disturbed more by pain than the others. (1) Instead
of just labeling and rating pain, researchers had
patients describe their pain using a visual picture scale about
their pain intensity and symptomatology over a year. The
patient responses were very similar in explaining
the pain intensity but not so much for the symptoms and their
characteristics. (2) Spinal Care Clinic finds that everybody
experiences pain in slightly different ways
and that they find certain sorts of pain more annoying than others
do. All of our Burlington and Hamilton chiropractic patients are distinctive!
THE HEALING “WAVE”
For 12 months, another study followed
1124 neck pain patients who saw a chiropractor. Neck pain patients
experiencing “persistent pain” – 75% to 63% over 12 months - and very minor pain remained relatively stable. Those
who had “episodic pain” – 21% to 24% over the year – had greater changes in their pain patterns. (3) This is the reason we inform
our back and neck pain patients that recovery is more wavelike
than a straight line. While healing, pain comes and goes.
Going away more than it comes is a solid signal of
healing and pain relief. Spinal Care Clinic reminds our Burlington and Hamilton
neck pain and back pain patients to not be discouraged along the way. We’ll get there together!
CHIROPRACTIC IN MANAGING BACK AND NECK PAIN PATTERNS
Research such as explained here regarding
the patterns of neck pain and back pain sufferers reflects
the on-going need for them to have team members like their
chiropractors along with general practitioners to manage
it, understand it, and care for it. A researcher explained
how a patient who had spinal surgery 30 years ago now experienced
neck pain and cervical arm pain due to adjacent segment disease – a condition
often seen in spinal discs above and below a spinal level that
underwent back surgery - was treated with cervical manipulation, flexion
distraction decompression (Cox®), soft-tissue mobilization, and therapeutic ultrasound
for resolution of pain. (4) Again, pain relief is rarely
sudden, but rather systematic with treatment,
coming/going pain intensity, patience, and appreciation for the relief gotten
be it 50%, 70% or 90% as explained by the 50% Rule of Cox®
Technic.
CONTACT Spinal Care Clinic
Listen to this PODCAST
with Dr. John Murray on The
Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he presents patient
cases that were complicated and yet attained
relief with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management with
time.
Schedule your Burlington and Hamilton chiropractic
appointment soon. Together, we will aim for
the calming wave of healing and celebrate the pain relief.
