Unit 8 Flashcards
How is chiropractic care viewed in the west form a medical standpoint?
Chiropractic straddles a fine line between conventional medical practice and CAM. Traditionally, in North America, chiropractors have not had hospital privileges. However, the American Medical Association, the Canadian Medical Association, governments, health-funding agencies, and insurance plans recognize chiropractic therapy and treatment, and therefore include practitioners’ fees in their payment schedules.
What type of training is needed for chiropractors?
Chiropractic is regulated and taught through accredited programs and colleges in Canada, the United States, and other countries. Its five-year educational program curriculum covers a broad spectrum of study areas. Provincially, chiropractors are regulated under the Health Professions Act with protection of title for Chiropractor, Doctor of Chiropractic, and the abbreviation D.C.
What is the difference between osteopathy and chiropractors?
Chiropractic shares some common ground with osteopathy which also practices manipulation of the spine and other body parts. Osteopathy emphasizes the manipulation of bones and joints to increase blood circulation in order to maintain or restore health. By contrast, chiropractic focuses on spinal vertebrae adjustments to allow uninterrupted neural transmission to all parts of the body.
What can chiropractors do in their practice?
In their practice, chiropractors can examine, diagnose, and treat through chiropractic adjustment and other means to maintain and promote health and wellness
What can chiropractors use to provide a diagnosis?
They can use X-ray, massage, heat, ultra-sound, and electrotherapy to diagnose, analyse, and treat clients.
What can a chiropractor not do?
they cannot prescribe or administer medications or anesthetics, and they cannot perform internal examinations or surgery, or treat infectious diseases.
What does chiropractic treatment stress?
Chiropractic treatment stresses the development and refinement of manual therapies and promotes total body health and individual responsibility for health. To this end some chiropractors will also ascribe lifestyle recommendations such as exercise and nutrition.
What are the contraindications for chiropractic care?
Contraindicated in areas where the following occur:
malignancies bone and joint infections acute myelopathy and caudal equine syndrome fractures and dislocations ligament ruptures rheumatoid arthritis juvenile avascular necrosis os odontoideum
Which condition do chiropractors spend most of their time treating?
Does evidence support it’s use?
lower back pain
pain slightly improves in the short term but no studies to accurately show long term positive results for people with lower back pain
does chiropractic care provide any value
the evidence is really weak
what are the risks of chiropractic alignment?
There are several possible risks associated with chiropractic treatment. For several years there has been controversy regarding the possible risk of stroke that has been linked to chiropractic treatment of the neck. The author of the text chapter argues that, first, the risk is extremely low, and, second, that the problem may, in reality, be that persons experiencing the early stage of a stroke are seeking chiropractic treatment rather than that chiropractic treatment is causing a stroke.
However, Ernst (2010) came to an altogether different conclusion:
. . . . numerous deaths have been associated with chiropractic neck manipulations. There are reasons to suspect that under-reporting is substantial and reliable incidence figures do not exist. The risks of chiropractic neck manipulations by far outweigh their benefits. Healthcare professionals should advise the public accordingly.
How can you determine credible information when given contradictory information?
Such contradictory opinions are a perennial problem when assessing CAM therapies. In such situations it is important to ask ourselves the following question: Which of the authors have the most credibility?
How do practitioners of chiropractic usually deal with patients who have cancer?
They do not treat patients with cancer
For many years the explanation for how chiropractic works was based on the concept that subluxations are due to misaligned vertebrae. These are manipulated back into line. A more modern concept centres on intervertebral motion and segmental dysfunction. Explain what is meant by this modern concept.
Intervertebral motion and segmental dysfunction assumes that the cause of many disorders (the subluxation) is a loss of proper spinal joint mobility. This means that the subluxation always involves an interruption in the normal dynamic relationship between two articulating joint surfaces.
What is the origin of chiropractic?
Chiropractic started with a case report in the 1890s of a janitor in the U.S. being cured of his deafness by Daniel David Palmer performing a spinal adjustment. Palmer then developed the concept of subluxation and founded his chiropractic school.
From the perspective of chiropractic what is the key difference between how they treat pain and how conventional physicians typically treat pain.
Practitioners of chiropractic often claim that they treat pain by dealing with the true cause of the problem whereas conventional physicians typically treat pain by supressing the symptoms.
Which type of treatment do chiropractors not administer?
medications
Define “spinal manipulative therapy” (SMT).
SMT consists of adjustments or manipulations of any portion of the spine using the practitioners’ hands or a machine.
Which type of disorder is not treated by chiropractors?
skin infections
Discuss the nature of chiropractic care
Emphasizes healing without drugs
It’s practitioners are portal of entry providers licensed for diagnosis and treatment and is limited by procedures and not anatomical regions
Almost 90% of patients see chiropractors for neuromuscular complaints
Must go through a four year chiropractor school before licensing
Deal with neck, back and headache pains as the principle source of complaints
A wide range of countries recognize chiropractors by national health authorities
What are the two fundamental premises of chiropractors?
that vertebral subluxation (spinal misalignment causing abnormal nerve signalling) is the primary cause of all disease
Chiropractic adjustment (manipulation of the subluxation) is the cure
What is the reason for existence of chiropractors?
the detection and correction of spinal subluxations
What do chiropractors believe to be the underlying mechanism of action for chiropractic adjustment?
somatoautonomic reflex is the underlying physiological mechanism where signals that are initiated by spinal adjustment are transmitted through autonomic pathways to internal organs
How has chiropractic theory developed over the years?
through observational analysis where new treatments are applied on an intuitive basis and noted some were more effective than others. They then theorized why this was
What are the seven fundamental principles of natural healing from a chiropractic perspective
1) humans have an innate healing ability
2) assessing this healing is the goal of healing arts
3) addressing the cause of illness should take precedence over suppressing symptoms
4) pharmaceutical suppression can compromise natural healing
5) natural measures should be used first
6) a balanced diet is crucial
7) regular exercise is crucial to proper body function
What do the core chiropractic principles reveal about chiropractic practice?
Although most people associate chiropractic care with pain relief, it’s focus is on correction of structural and functional imbalances which may cause pain
What is the difference between straight and mixer chiropractors?
Straight see their approach as subluxation based rather than symptom based and confine themselves to analyzing the spine to fix subluxations. reject heat electrical stimulation
Mixers approach chiropractic care from a symptom based approach and aim to treat both cause and symptoms. Embrace modern technologies such as heat and electrical stimulation
What is the bone out of place theory?
Assumed adjustments worked by moving misaligned vertebrae back into alignment, relieving pressure on spinal nerve
allows for free flow nerve impulses
yet radiographs rarely show any discernible changes in spinal alignment
What is motion theory and segmental dysfunction?
The dominant chiropractic model of this era
contends that loss of proper spinal joint mobility is the key issue of vertebral subluxation complex.
The subluxation always involves more than a single vertebrae and involves an interruption between two articulating joint surfaces
Describe the theory of restricted joint motion
termed a fixation
fixation-subluxations are the easiest form of spinal manipulation
What are three signs which point to segmental dysfunction
1) point tenderness or altered pain threshold in adjacent paraspinal musculature of spinner process
2) abnormal contraction within adjacent paraspinal musculature
3) loss of normal motion in one or more planes
What is segmental facilitation and it’s effects?
A lower threshold for firing in a spinal cord segment caused by afferent bombardment of the dorsal horn due to spinal lesions.
The effects include local pain or visceral organ dysfunction
“the central focus for chiropractic practice is the analytical process for determining…”
1) when and where spinal manipulation therapy is appropriate
2) the type of adjustment most appropriate in a given situation
Where is chiropractic adjustment contraindicated?
malignancies bone and joint infections fracture rupture arthritis juvenile avascular necrosis unstable os odontoideum
What are the types of manual internets used by chiropractors?
high velocity thrust with recoil
low velocity thrust
flexion distraction
adjustment with mechanically assisted drop-piece tables
adjustment with compression wave instruments
various specific light touch techniques
Where do chiropractors practice?
in olympics for sports and workplace injuries
in health care settings
How are referrals treated among physicians to chiropractors?
they are rare going both ways
What is the diagnostic logic of chiropractors?
they seek to evaluate individual symptoms
trained to take histories and perform physical exams
they produce sustainable balance in a persons health
What is the criteria for referring a patient to a physician?
mandate timely referral to a physician when out of the chiropractors scope
After 1 month of treatment if they fail they refer
