Tag: chronic pain

Chronic lower back, shoulder and neck pain and reciprocal twins.

Chronic lower back, shoulder, and neck pain and reciprocal twins. What is a reciprocal twin?    A reciprocal twin is when you develop a problem in a hip capsule and it affects the opposite shoulder on the other side due to mechanical and neurological adaptations, the most common being shoulder impingement, rib pain, or a frozen shoulder.   You can also develop these problems on the same side as well where the hip affects the shoulder.   Conversely, a chronic shoulder problem can affect the hips, in the same way, altering the way you walk and resulting in lower back pain. A Read More »

The frozen shoulder that wasn’t and how to get the right care for you.

The frozen shoulder that wasn’t and how to get the right care for you. Patients are often diagnosed with all sorts of shoulder conditions based on their symptoms rather than the functional reason for the pain.   It seems that they are often inevitably sent to an orthopedic who inevitably after taking some x-rays and injecting the shoulder refers them to someone else who follows a prescription for therapy to the area of complaint. This one size fits all approach often fails to resolve the problem since it works on the symptom while improperly diagnosing why your shoulder hurts. Typical one Read More »

Stop chasing pain! Do this instead to avoid surgery and disabilities later in life.

Stop chasing pain! Do this instead to avoid surgery and disabilities later in life. After 36+ years of healthcare practice, it is amazing to me that people are still being directed to treat their pains instead of finding and resolving the reason people hurt. Most high utilizes for painful conditions in the healthcare system have little to show from the doctor’s visits, medications, and rehabilitation regimens other than the poor quality of life they now have. Often, it is not exactly their fault as doctors would medicate and test in the absence of a thorough musculoskeletal evaluation and take history Read More »

Pain is the 5th vital sign campaign was the tool used to market opioids; chiropractic can safely help you feel better.

Pain is the 5th vital sign campaign was the tool used to market opioids; chiropractic can safely help you feel better. If you saw the series Dopesick on Hulu or had heard about the Opioid crisis and how it happened, you know about the pain is the 5th vital sign campaign used to sell the drugs to patients in pain. In marketing, developing a catchy easy way to recommend pain medication-using charts was brilliant.  Medical physicians having had poor training in evaluating and treating musculoskeletal pain now had criteria for prescribing opioids.    Having the profession prioritize pain control in Read More »

The KISS principle in solving chronic pain.

The KISS principle in solving chronic pain. When you want to help someone feel and function better, I find that the KISS principle often helps me help others more effectively and efficiently.   KISS stands for keep it simple stupid. The healthcare system has done a great job at making healthcare complicated, risky, and costly. Health professions, hospital systems, group practices, insurance companies, drug companies, and other healthcare manufacturers and facilities have taken their places in society.  Welcome to the disease model of care. Patients are educated from early on with pediatricians that their medical providers and the systems they work Read More »