People are often surprised at the improvements seen in many different facets of health once they start on chiropractic care. Take a look at these research studies that prove the power of chiropractic and then give us a call to experience it for yourself!
Chiropractic Research from the Chiropractic Essence Health Library
Research Shows That Sciatica Can Be Improved By Chiropractic
Dr. TJ Alger, Chiropractor and Owner of Chiropractic Essence in Council Bluffs, IA brings you the latest research about the benefits, cost-effectiveness and safety of chiropractic care on a range of health concerns. As always, feel free to discuss this material, along with any other topics with Dr. Alger and his chiropractic team.
Non-operative treatments for sciatica: a pilot study for a randomized clinical trial. Bronfort G, Evans RL, Anderson AV et al. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics October 2000, Vol. 23 No. 8.
This is a prospective, observer-blinded, pilot randomized clinical trial of 20 patients aged 20-65 with low back-related leg pain. Patients were divided into three groups. One group was given medical care, one group chiropractic care and one group steroid injections. All groups showed substantial improvement at the end of the 12 week study.
Lack of effectiveness of bed rest for sciatica. Patrick CAJ, Vroomen MD, Marc CTFM, et al. The New England Journal of Medicine. 1999;340:418-423.
Many medical doctors prescribe bed rest for sciatica, yet according to the authors: “For low back pain, bed rest has traditionally been considered effective, although there is little objective data to support this view. In recent years evidence of the ineffectiveness of bed rest for low back pain has accumulated, but bed rest continues to still be widely used for treatment of sciatica.”
From the conclusion: “Among patients with symptoms and signs of a lumbosacral radicular syndrome, bed rest is not a more effective therapy than watchful waiting.”
From Mobilization of the Spine (1984) by Grieve GP Churchill Livingston, London/New York, 4th edition, 22-23.
“All those experienced in manipulation can report numerous examples of migrainous headaches, disequilibrium (vertigo), subjective visual disturbances, feelings of retro-orbital pressure, dysphagia, dysphonia, heaviness of a limb, extra segmental paraesthesia, restriction of respiratory excursion, abdominal nausea and the cold sciatic leg being relieved by manual or mechanical treatment of the vertebral column.”
Low force chiropractic care of two patients with sciatic neuropathy and lumbar disc herniation. Richards GL et al. Am J Chiro Med Mar 1990;3(1):25-32.
From the abstract:
Two patients with sciatic neuropathy and confirmed disc herniation were treated with low force treatment regimen consisting of Activator instrument adjusting, pelvic blocking, high voltage galvanic current and exercises. Follow-up CAT scans in the first case (revealed) complete absence of disc herniation. The second case follow up scan revealed the continued presence of a silent disc bulge at the L3-4 level and partial decrease in a herniation at the L4-5 level. The bulge appeared to have shifted away from the nerve root. Both patients’ pain levels decreased from severe to minimal. The patients regained the ability to stand, sit and walk for longer periods without discomfort; lifting tasks also became easier. The patients were able to return to full work capacity at three and nine months respectively.
We invite the Council Bluffs community to learn more about the benefits of chiropractic and the impact it can have on your health. Feel free to reach out to Dr. TJ Alger during his health talks, screenings and other community events with any questions you may have.
TJ Alger, DC
Chiropractic Essence
3424 W Broadway
Council Bluffs, IA 51501
Chiropractic Research from the Chiropractic Essence Health Library
Research Shows That Stress Can Be Improved By Chiropractic
Dr. TJ Alger, Chiropractor and Owner of Chiropractic Essence in Council Bluffs, IA brings you the latest research about the benefits, cost-effectiveness and safety of chiropractic care on a range of health concerns. As always, feel free to discuss this material, along with any other topics with Dr. Alger and his chiropractic team.
How Big of a Role Does Stress Play in Your Overall Level of Health?
Chiropractic understands that stress, whether it be physical, chemical or emotional in nature. Stress affects the body’s ability to properly function and leads to poor health from the affects of subluxation. More and more research keeps piling up to support this concept, but the short and long-term effects of stress and subluxation are hardly ever addressed by the modern medical system. The medical community is not about to accept the theory that there is one cause for all disease (i.e. stress and subluxation). This is contrary to every major medical premise. Yet this is exactly what happened in 1964 when Hans Selye, M.D. was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine!
In the 1950’s, Dr. Selye studied the effect of stress on the human body and presented his work to the world in the concept of the “General Adaptation Syndrome,” for which he won the 1964 Nobel Prize. This was a revolutionary concept of mental and physical illness and it was, at the time, acclaimed as the most important and far-reaching idea in the history of medicine…that STRESS is the cause of all disease.
In his book, “The Stress of Life,” Selye described how, as a medical student, he first noticed that the early signs of many illnesses were identical—loss of energy and appetite, generalized aches and pains, and so on. He wondered why these vague symptoms were taken for granted by his instructors. Years of research gradually led him to realize that these commonly related symptoms were actually part of a pattern, the arousing of the body’s resistance to a stress-causing agent. It did not matter whether the stressor came from a mechanical, chemical, nutritional, biological, or even emotional source. The body always reacted in an identical manner.
According to Selye, the body produces an alarm reaction to any form of stress that threatens its well-being. Unless the stress is unusually strong, we are not even aware of the body’s response. This initial alarm reaction is followed by a period of adaptation to the stress, or compensation, if the stress continues unabated. This process will continue until the body’s vital energy is exhausted and symptoms become apparent. It is at this point that the patient usually seeks help but usually from an over-the-counter remedy at the pharmacy, not in a doctor’s office. If the symptoms continue and the body’s ability to maintain normal function becomes more exhausted, professional help must be sought. For most problems, the process is a slow and a gradual slide into a disease that can be measured and eventually named. The diseased person then becomes, we are told, the exclusive property of the medical and insurance communities.
I do not have a problem with disease and degeneration coming under the medical umbrella. That is what medical professionals are trained to deal with. I do have difficulty with the concept of their ability to recognize disease before a pathological process can be identified. The truth is, the patient must be diseased (quantified and qualified) before medicine can hope to be effective. Otherwise, it is just guesswork. Chiropractic can be applied to anyone to improve the overall health of the individual, regardless if symptoms are present or not. In this respect, chiropractic is a universal health care option, whereas medicine is limited to treating disease rather than restoring health. There is a HUGE difference.
Every diseased patient has already gone through the periods of stress, alarm, reaction, adaptation or compensation, and exhaustion BEFORE the disease was named and specific therapy begun. During this period of time, whether a specific disease has been identified or not – a chiropractor using a careful case history and examination can identify the stress, assist in its removal, and correct the most damaging effect of stress on the bodies normal function – the subluxation. In this way, disease can be prevented and an enormous service rendered to humanity, through a service no medicine is able to provide – the adjustment.
Dr. Selye’s book says, “Apparently, disease is not just suffering, but a fight to maintain the homeostatic balance of our tissues, despite damage. Could all of this vagueness be translated into the precise terms of modern medical science? Could it point a way to explore whether or not there is some non-specific defence system built into our body, a mechanism to fight any kind of disease?”
Chiropractic deals with this inborn defence system, and complements the body’s inherent ability to heal itself when there is no interference to the function of the nervous system.
Duke University Releases Headache Evidence Report
Substantial Evidence Shows Efficacy of Chiropractic for Tension and Cervicogenic Headaches
In 1996, the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) was scheduled to produce a set of clinical practice guidelines on available treatment alternatives for headaches. Previously the agency utilized the same historic clinical guidelines for, Acute Low Back Problems in Adults, released late in December 1994. This headache project was based on the systematic evaluation of the literature by a multidisciplinary panel of experts. Due to largely political circumstances, however, their efforts never came to fruition. The work was never released as guidelines, but was instead transformed with modifications and budget cuts into a set of evidence reports on only migraine headaches by the staff at the Center for Clinical Health Policy Research at Duke University.
The Foundation for Chiropractic Education and Research (FCER) is proud to announce that with its efforts and funding from the National Chiropractic Mutual Insurance Company (NCMIC), evidence reports have now been updated on both cervicogenic and tension-type headaches. This new report, Evidence Report: Behavioral and Physical Treatments for Tension-type and Cervicogenic Headache, essentially updates and releases much of the information on treatment alternatives for tension and cervicogenic headaches that had been suppressed earlier.
Among the many treatment alternatives supported by evidence, chiropractic is buoyed by substantial evidence in this report as to its efficacy in the management of both tension-type and cervicogenic headaches:
Compared to amitriptyline use, chiropractic is shown to produce slightly lesser effects during the treatment period, but markedly superior results afterward in the treatment of a tension-type headache.
Compared to various soft tissue procedures, a course of chiropractic treatments is shown to produce sustained improvement in headache frequency and severity in the treatment of cervicogenic headache.
Compared to various soft tissue procedures, there was evidence to indicate that a course of chiropractic treatments produced further improvement in headache frequency and severity in the treatment of an episodic tension-type headache.
This particular study’s findings have important implications in choosing alternatives in procedures for managing different types of headaches. This new undertaking mandated the staff at the Duke Center to screen citations from the literature, abstract the data into evidence tables, analyze the quality and magnitude of results from these studies, and draft an evidence report with peer review from a panel of 25 reviewers, including researchers and clinicians in chiropractic.
Starting with over 2,500 citations from such online sources as MEDLINE, MANTIS, CRAC, CINAHL, PsychoINFO, the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register, and additional articles obtained by referral, the panel obtained bibliographies of both physical and behavioral options for treating headache that were prospective, controlled trials aimed at either relief from or prevention of attacks of tension-type or cervicogenic headache.
Among the physical interventions reviewed in this report:
Among the behavioural interventions reviewed are:
This report clearly positions Chiropractic as the most viable treatment and notes that Chiropractic lacks the detrimental and sometimes fatal side effects of conventional treatment options for managing tension and cervicogenic headache patients.. Compared to other physical treatment methods (including physiotherapy, acupuncture, and electrical stimulation), the evidence overwhelmingly supports Chiropractic as having the most statistically significant benefits.
We invite the Council Bluffs community to learn more about the benefits of chiropractic and the impact it can have on your health. Feel free to reach out to Dr. TJ Alger during his health talks, screenings and other community events with any questions you may have.
TJ Alger, DC
Chiropractic Essence
3424 W Broadway
Council Bluffs, IA 51501
Advancements in Red light Therapy Have Made it a Powerhouse for Soft Tissue Treatment Along with Other Benefits to the Body.
Lets dive into the advancing research around infrared laser therapy and its incredible benefits for your overall well-being. Here we will uncover the science behind this cutting-edge treatment and how it could be a game-changer for your health.
Understanding Laser Therapy
Medical laser therapy is a non-invasive and innovative medical treatment that utilizes focused beams of infrared light to stimulate cellular activity and promote healing in various tissues of the body. This therapeutic approach harnesses the unique properties of infrared light, which lies beyond the visible spectrum, to penetrate deep into the targeted tissues. The primary mechanism of action involves the absorption of this light energy by cellular components, such as mitochondria, initiating a cascade of biochemical reactions that enhance cellular function and repair.
Inflammation Reduction
The focused beams of infrared light penetrate deep into tissues, triggering biochemical responses that not only alleviate pain but also actively reduce inflammation. This makes it a game-changer for conditions like arthritis and other inflammatory disorders, offering a natural and non-pharmaceutical approach to managing discomfort.
Healing and Tissue Repair
At the cellular level, infrared red light laser therapy stimulates mitochondria, the powerhouses of our cells. This stimulation enhances energy production, accelerating the natural healing processes of the body. Whether recovering from an injury or surgery, the therapy supports tissue repair, promoting a faster and more efficient recovery.
Muscle Recovery
By increasing cellular energy and reducing inflammation, it aids in quicker recuperation after intense physical activity. This means less downtime and more consistent performance, allowing individuals to push their limits without compromising on recovery.
Enhanced Blood Flow
The therapy dilates blood vessels and improves microcirculation, ensuring that oxygen and nutrients reach cells more efficiently. Enhanced blood flow not only supports healing but also promotes optimal organ function and overall vitality.
Infrared laser therapy is a transformative approach to holistic health. From reducing inflammation to promoting muscle recovery. Its benefits span a wide spectrum. As we continue to unlock the potential of this innovative therapy, it stands as a beacon of light guiding us toward a healthier, more vibrant future. Illuminate your health—explore the possibilities of infrared red light laser therapy today.
The Essence thee arrows branding in Council Bluffs, IA is not
only a healthcare group, but a lifestyle brand. Our three arrows logo was
created by the owners Brean & Dr. TJ Alger when they started Chiropractic
Essence and later Essence Med, which would soon become Essence Health Group in
Council Bluffs. The Green, Gold, and Blue arrows are representative of a few
things. First, the number three was selected because in the eyes of the Greek Philosophers,
the number 3 was considered as the perfect number, the number of harmony,
wisdom, and understanding. It is because it is the first number to which the
meaning “all” was given. It is The Triad, being the number of the whole as it
contains the beginning, a middle and an end. The power of three is universal
and representative of the tripartite nature of the world and human as body, soul,
and spirit.
The idea of this harmony and wisdom play into how they
founded their healthcare clinic. When Brean & Dr. TJ Alger started Essence
they had a firm belief in the importance of educating the community on
healthcare in relation to the innate intelligence of the human body. The
beating of your heart, the regulation of your breathing or body temperature,
the healing of a scratch or scrape, our bodies do these tasks without being
taught – that is called our innate intelligence. Leveraging that to refocus
reactive healthcare into preventative care is something they have focused their
clinic around.
Their healthcare clinic has a wellness-based focus to allow
your body to heal in the most natural way possible by leveraging conservative medical
interventions. “Our goal is to improve the health of our patients with care
that is focused on preserving the natural state of the body as best we can. We
are continuously doing research on ways to harness the body’s healing systems
and utilize them to better serve our patients. From Dr. TJ providing advanced
chiropractic techniques to our medical staff and PA performing PRP and HA
injections, we’re doing this every single day while getting amazing patient results.
Using products and sciences that work in harmony with the natural state of your
body, in our opinion, is the best way we can serve our patients.” Said Brean,
co-owner of Essence Med & Chiropractic Essence.
The other part of the logo is the meaning behind the arrows.
It means the person is ready to go into the future and is willing to take on
new adventures and dreams. Because of the commitment our patients make to their
health and this new journey at Essence when they begin care, it felt fitting to
brand Essence with the arrows. “An arrow must be pulled back before it is shot
forward,” Said Dr. TJ Alger, “which is very representative of the journey so
many have when they come see us. They usually come to us with symptoms and health
concerns that have weighed them down and held them back from the lifestyle they
want to live. As they begin care, we start stripping away years of damage that
has been done to their bodies which is a process that will then drive towards a
more optimal state of wellness.”
For more information, visit: www.ChiropracticEssence.com
Chiropractic Research from the Chiropractic Essence Health Library
Research Shows That Whiplash Can Be Improved By Chiropractic
Dr. TJ Alger, Chiropractor and Owner of Chiropractic Essence in Council Bluffs, IA brings you the latest research about the benefits, cost-effectiveness and safety of chiropractic care on a range of health concerns. As always, feel free to discuss this material, along with any other topics with Dr. Alger and his chiropractic team.
Long term damage to the spine and head is especially common in auto accidents. Doctors of chiropractic have for years recognized the need for neuro-structural integrity in these areas and that most victims of automobile injuries do not fully recover under medical care; they may continue to have problems for years after the accident. This is especially the case of those who have whiplash and concussion injuries. This of course underscores the need for chiropractic care for accident victims. New medical terms acknowledging the chronicity and incomplete healing of accident victims have recently arisen. The terms used are: Postconcussion Syndrome (PCS), Whiplash Syndrome (WS), Post Whiplash Syndrome (PWS), Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries (MTBI), and mild head injury (MHI).
The chiropractic profession owes a debt to Arthur Croft, DC of San Diego, California who taught of, and researched the need for the caring of patients who had the above conditions years before these conditions were acknowledged in the medical literature.
This paper presents case studies on the detection and management of pediatric whiplash injuries.
Case study one.
A six-year-old female was involved in a rear end collision while sitting in the front seat. She and her mother were taken to the hospital where the mother was examined, x-rayed, collared and released. The child was briefly examined, the mother was told that the child was okay and was discharged. The child complained to the mother of headaches and neck stiffness, was taken to the pediatrician who said the child was fine. The complaints persisted and the mother brought the child to the chiropractor. Infrared thermography scans disclosed abnormalities of the head, neck and upper extremities. Radiographs revealed ligamentous instability, cervical subluxations and myospasm. The mother said that the child began to experience “black-outs” and a neurologist diagnosed Petit Mal seizures. The child improved under medical and chiropractic care and often said that the adjustment gave her the greatest relief and she would often ask her mother to bring her to the chiropractor.
Case study two
An eight year-old boy was involved in an auto accident and complained that his leg and head hurt. Doctors in the emergency room said he was fine. Infrared thermography scans of the child revealed abnormalities due to vertebral subluxations and spinal biomechanical insult. Post adjustment scans showed a return to normal and correlated to the child’s symptomatic improvement.
The goal of this paper was “to determine which patients with chronic whiplash will benefit from chiropractic treatment.” 93 patients were interviewed in “structured telephone interviews.”
From the conclusion: “Whiplash injuries are common. Chiropractic is the only proven effective treatment in chronic cases.”
From the Abstract:
A retrospective study was conducted of 57 subjects who had experienced an acceleration/deceleration (whiplash) injury.. With subluxation-based chiropractic care, the subject population showed significant increases in cervical flexion and extension, muscle strength, and a decrease in the neck pain disability index. Atlas/axis and Jackson’s angles varied inversely from presentation to MCI (maximum chiropractic improvement). Longer durations of care were correlated with the lower ratios (fewer adjustments/week), while shorter durations of care to reach MCI were correlated to higher ratios (average adjustments/week).
Post whiplash syndrome. Bogduk, N. Australian Family Physician Vol. 23, No. 12 December 1994 Pp. 2303-2307.
This article, from one of the world’s leading anatomists and cervical spine researchers is an excellent paper for the study of whiplash. His observation of the limitations of the medical approach to whiplash: “The treatment of whiplash is based on fashion and faith” (p.2306) underlies the importance of using chiropractic first before resorting to drugs and surgery. In discussing the “core of patients who do not recover”, Professor Bogduk describes medicine’s failure to help these people as the fault of a “system that denies the problem discourages research and puts the blame for the problem on the patients.” (P. 2307).
From the introduction:
Whiplash is a poorly understood problem that attracts accusations of malingering and compensation neurosis. Recent research has revealed a variety of occult lesions that can be responsible for the chronic pain and suffering after whiplash; however, appropriate diagnostic techniques are still either lacking or not widely used. While there are reasonable options for acute management there is no proven therapy for the chronic situation.
Comment: Some studies have documented attention deficits in symptomatic whiplash patients as well as memory loss while other studies have not. This paper reviews the value of the studies done by others in this field and found them to have designs that were “insufficient.” The chiropractic interest in this subject is more than that of the neuromusculoskeletal condition of whiplash, but of the brain function that is affected by presumed subluxations of the cervical spine. This work should be read in concert with Gorman’s and Zhang’s papers in the Improved Brain Function section of this report.
From the abstract:
Attentional functional and memory of common whiplash patients were evaluated during the first two years after experiencing injury….All (117) patients had a similar socioeconomic background, all being injured in automobile accidents and fully covered by insurance plans. Two years following initial trauma, 21 patients remained symptomatic.
When compared with matched controls, the 21 symptomatic patients had no memory impairment but did have attention functional (difficult of follow-up of tasks with divided attention).
In this study, a postal questionnaire was sent to a population of (mild head injury) MHI patients 1 to 5 years post accident and a control group to measure subjective and psychological complaints, distresses and discomforts often mentioned by MHI patients. Interestingly, the distresses and symptoms of the MHI group were indistinguishable from the non-MHI, however the MHI group’s symptoms were significantly more severe.
The conclusion from the abstract was interesting: “The results support the hypothesis that MHI may not ever be completely reversible.”
From the abstract:
The authors review post-traumatic headache (PTH). The most common symptom following head injury, PTH is paradoxically most severe after mild head injury. Although most cases resolve within 6-12 months, many patients have protracted or even permanent headache. Because PTH generally has no objective findings, it is often controversial whether the symptom is “real,” “psychogenic,” or “fabricated.” Despite persisting beliefs by physicians, attorneys, and insurers that PTH resolves upon legal settlement, recent studies have shown that “permanent” PTH is usually present several years after a legal settlement. Often PTH affects family life, recreation, and employment. Patients require education and support as well as appropriate evaluation and treatment.
From the abstract:
In the period following mild closed brain injury, diseases of the viscera and the body’s systems develop as a result of diffuse lesions in the brain regions. Experimental studies have shown that this is associated with impaired self-regulatory mechanisms responsible for energy metabolic processes in the brain.
It has been observed that people who suffer from whiplash injuries develop low back pain. This study interviewed 52 patients who had been involved in a whiplash type injury and found that 85% of them reported lower back pain after the whiplash.
The patients in this study had no previous motor vehicle accidents, were wearing lap and harness seat belts and had no previous low back pain.
Initial examinations of 117 whiplash patients were performed a few days after the accident, and 3, 6 and 12 months afterwards. After one year, 28 patients (24% of total) were symptomatic. Poor improvements were associated with severity of injury, previous history of head trauma and headache, sleep disturbance immediately after accident, nervousness and reduced speed of information processing.
About 10-15% of motor vehicle cervical injuries fail to achieve a functional recovery 2-3 years after the accident.
62% of the people injured in a whiplash soft-tissue trauma will have continued complaints between 10 and 15 years after the date of the accident..
From the abstract:
Whiplash associated disorders are a medicolegally controversial condition becoming increasingly worrisome to the western world. This study was designed to evaluate perfusion and glucose metabolism in [the] whiplash brain.
The study involved six patients suffering from whiplash syndrome and 12 normal controls. They gave everyone chemicals that reveal brain function when viewed by specialized equipment (PET and SPECT) that is similar to a CAT scan for the brain. In the patient group, there was “significant hypometabolism” or decreased brain function and hypoperfusion or decreased blood in the parieto-occipital regions on the right and left side compared to the control group.
But most revealing was the authors’ statement as to the possible cause of the brain changes after they ruled out direct injury to the brain and brain structures: “It is hypothesized that parieto-occipital hypometabolism may be caused by activation of nociceptive afferent nerves from the upper cervical spine.”
This double-blind placebo-controlled trial implicates the facet joints as the most common pain source from whiplash type injury. It builds on other research pointing to the same source of whiplash pain.
We invite the Council Bluffs community to learn more about the benefits of chiropractic and the impact it can have on your health. Feel free to reach out to Dr. TJ Alger during his health talks, screenings and other community events with any questions you may have.
TJ Alger, DC
Chiropractic Essence
3424 W Broadway
Council Bluffs, IA 51501
