The WHO’s Sources For Opinion On Spinal Manipulative Therapy (Part 5)

The Chiropractic Forward Podcast: Evidence-based Chiropractic Advocacy

CF 313: The WHO’s Sources For Opinion On Spinal Manipulative Therapy (Part 5)

Today we’re going to talk about The WHO’s Sources For Opinion On Spinal Manipulative Therapy (Part 5)

But first, here’s that sweet sweet bumper music

OK, we are back and you have found the Chiropractic Forward Podcast where we are giving evidence-based chiropractic a little personality and making it profitable.

We’re not the stuffy, elitist, pretentious kind of research. We’re research talk over a couple of beers. So grab you a bushel.

I’m Dr. Jeff Williams and I’m your host for the Chiropractic Forward podcast. I’m so glad you’re spending your time with us learning together.

Chiropractors – I’m hiring at my personal clinic. I need talent, ambition, smarts, personality, and easy to get along with associates. If this is you and Amarillo, TX is your speed, send me an email at [e-mail]

If you haven’t yet I have a few things you should do.

• Go to Amazon and check our my book called The Remarkable Truth About Chiropractic: A Unique Journey Into The Research. It’s excellent resource for you and is categorized into sections so the information is easy to find and written in a way that is easy to understand for everyone. It’s on Amazon. That’s the Remarkable Truth About Chiropractic by Jeff Williams.
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You have found yourself smack dab in the middle of Episode #313

Now if you missed last week’s episode, we talked about Pet Ownership And Cognitive Decline & PT Effectiveness.

Make sure you don’t miss that info. Keep up with the class.

On the personal end of things…..

Well, we got a mix of stuff this week in the clinic. Our new intern is getting comfortable and settled in and getting up to speed with the way the office works and flows. We are picking back up a little just in time for me to be gone for two work days to attend my quarterly Mastermind meeting. Yes, it gives me anxiety but I’m going. The Mastermind is important.

For this Mastermind, we’ll be joined by Brett Winchester who, in case you are unaware, is probably a genius in the healthcare space but also is borderline crazy personally. He’s hilarious and a lot of fun to be around so I’m definitely looking forward to Brett being int he mix with the rest of our regular crew.

Plus, the January meeting is when new members join the group so that should be fun. It’s always good to meet the newbies and get to know more about them and learn from them. Last year’s newbies said they were intimidated to come into the group. Pffft. They fully integrated quickly and are part of the family now. We have some super smart docs but the ones joining are super smart too and we are just as eager to learn from them as they are to learn from us.

So it works well and we’re looking forward to getting to know them.

So this Monday has gone much better so far than last Monday. If you listened to the podcast last week, we had land mines to avoid last Monday for some reason. Smoother today for sure. We thought it may have been Dontae’s first day jinx so we made him take a shower and wash it off and he’s not allowed to wear those same clothes anymore. I think we have it handled.

We are really buckling down this week to try to determine the best way to get our medical services up to speed and working with 100% efficiency. I think I have an approach of, let’s implement and let’s see what happens. I think that makes sense in the beginning with any service but once you’re up and running, it is time to fine tune.

How are your prices in 2024 vs 2017? The same? You know everything in the world has gone up in price so if your prices are the same, you are making less money overall. Less profit I should say.

Are our medical service and chiropractic services in line with the market and other clinics in our area?? We don’t want to be the cheapest. We don’t want to be the most expensive either. We don’t want to offer an exam, a consultation, a treatment plan, an adjustment, x-rays, and therapy on the first visit for the low low price of $39.

Racing to the bottom hurts you and everyone else. If you want to look like a street corner huckster, that’s how you make it happen. If you want to take x-rays on every single person, which isn’t in line with ACA’s Choosing Wisely guides by the way, that’s fine. I don’t fault people wanting to know exactly what they’re dealing with. However, why the hell would you give them away?

If you say that it’s because you want to show them their degeneration and their listings……we aren’t friends. We are different people. If you do it to show them these things and then spook them into 70 visits over the course of the year, you gotta check that stuff. Look in the mirror.

If you wouldn’t do it to your mom, don’t do it to your patients.

Anyway, you don’t want to give your services away. Please don’t do that. But I don’t really want to be the most expensive either. If I’m toward the more expensive but still responsible and appropriately priced, then I feel that’s the sweet spot. But you have to be financially healthy if you’re going to do a good job taking care of your patients.

When you’re all running through your day wondering focused on the number of visits because you can’t pay payroll that week, well, that’s a problem we gotta get fixed.

So, this month is a good month to look through our services and see if we’re doing what we can price wise to stay competitive and but maximize our ROI.

On a final note before we hop into our research this week, I love hate the Cowboys. They broke my heart yet again this year but it’s OK because I fully expected and anticipated it. I knew it was going to happen so it didn’t upset me. And honestly, why get upset over a bunch of spoiled brat millionaires playing a game anyway? I refuse to allow the pinche Cowboys do that to me so……I’m moving on.

Go Houston Texans. Go Texas Rangers. Go Houston Astros!

Cowboys….maybe next year.

Now this week we’re continuing our series. If you don’t know or are unaware, the WHO recently recommended spinal manipulative therapy for back pain but at very low confidence. Which is equal to ultrasound. I dove in and found their citations with regard to SMT specifically and we’re going through them one by one to find out, with all of the research we’ve seen and covered combined with American College of Physicians recommendations, Parker Gallup polls, and on and on and on…..how can SMT be at very low confidence.

So here we go.

Item #1

Our first one is called, “Controlled comparison of short-wave diathermy treatment with osteopathic treatment in non-specific low back pain” by Gibson, et al and published in The Lancet in June of 1985. Not sure why they’re pulling papers from that far back but whatever.

And I’m going to say that this paper is so old that even the abstract didn’t make a ton of sense.

Gibson T, Grahame R, Harkness J, Woo P, Blagrave P, Hills R. Controlled comparison of short-wave diathermy treatment with osteopathic treatment in non-specific low back pain. Lancet. 1985 Jun 1;1(8440):1258-61. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(85)92323-2. PMID: 2860453.

Why They Did It

The effectiveness of spinal manipulation carried out by a non-medical qualified osteopath was compared with that of short-wave diathermy (SWD) and a placebo

How They Did It

109 patients with low back pain.

That’s it. That’s all of the info on it. No idea if it was a randomized controlled trial or what.

What They Found

More than half the subjects in each of the 3 treatment groups benefited immediately from therapy.

Significant improvements were observed in the 3 groups at the end of 2 weeks’ treatment, and these were still apparent at 12 weeks.

The outcome of treatment was unrelated to the initial severity or duration of pain or to the trend of pain towards deterioration or improvement.

It is, therefore, unlikely that the results simply reflect the natural history of low back pain.

Wrap It Up

Benefits obtained with osteopathy and short-wave diathermy in this study may have been achieved through a placebo effect.

So…..that’s a crap paper and why the WHO would have that paper as having any influence on our profession in 2024 is beyond me.

Item #2

Our last one today is called, “Physiotherapy Based on a Biobehavioral Approach with or Without Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapy in the Treatment of Nonspecific Chronic Low Back Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial” by Grande-Alonso et. Al and published in Pain Medicine in December of 2019

Remember paper citations will be found in the show notes at chiropracticforward.com episode 313.

Grande-Alonso M, Suso-Martí L, Cuenca-Martínez F, Pardo-Montero J, Gil-Martínez A, La Touche R. Physiotherapy Based on a Biobehavioral Approach with or Without Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapy in the Treatment of Nonspecific Chronic Low Back Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Pain Med. 2019 Dec 1;20(12):2571-2587. doi: 10.1093/pm/pnz093. PMID: 31074484.

Why They Did It

To compare the effectiveness of a biobehavioral approach with and without orthopedic manual physical therapy on the intensity and frequency of pain in patients diagnosed with nonspecific chronic low back pain.

How They Did It

• A single-blind randomized controlled trial.
• Fifty patients were randomly allocated into two groups: one group received biobehavioral therapy with orthopedic manual physical therapy, and the other group received only biobehavioral therapy.
• Both groups completed a total of eight sessions, with a frequency of two sessions per week.
• The somatosensory, physical, and psychological variables were recorded at baseline and during the first and third month after initiation of treatment.

What They Found

• In both groups, the treatment was effective, presenting significant differences for all the variables in the time factor.
• There were no significant differences between groups in intensity or frequency of pain, with a large effect size (>0.80), but there were intragroup differences for both intervention groups at one- and three-month follow-up.
• There were also no significant differences between groups in the secondary variables during the same follow-up period.

Wrap It Up

The results of this study suggest that orthopedic manual physical therapy does not increase the effects of a treatment based on biobehavioral therapy in the short or medium term, but these results should be interpreted with caution.

I do not have the full paper, only the abstract. How was the orthopedic manual physical therapy defined? What was involved? Is that SMT? I don’t know. 50 patients isn’t much of a sample size either really.

I’m not sure why the WHO felt this one was suitable to make their determination off of but that’s why we’re doing this, right?

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The Message

I want you to know with absolute certainty that when Chiropractic is at its best, you can’t beat the risk vs reward ratio because spinal pain is primarily a movement-related pain and typically responds better to movement-related treatment rather than chemical treatments like pills and shots.

When compared to the traditional medical model, research and clinical experience show us patients can get good to excellent results for headaches, neck pain, back pain, and joint pain to name just a few.

It’s safe and cost-effective can decrease surgeries & disability and we do it through conservative, non-surgical means with minimal hassle to the patient.

And, if the patient treats preventatively after initial recovery, we can usually keep it that way while raising the overall level of health!

Key Point:

At the end of the day, patients should have the guarantee of having the best treatment that offers the least harm. When it comes to non-complicated musculoskeletal complaints….

That’s Chiropractic!

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We can’t wait to connect with you again next week. From the Chiropractic Forward Podcast flight deck, this is Dr. Jeff Williams saying upward, onward, and forward.

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About the Author & Host

Dr. Jeff Williams – Fellow of the International Academy of Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine (FIANM) and Board Certified Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Professionals (DABFP) – Chiropractor in Amarillo, TX, Chiropractic Advocate, Author, Entrepreneur, Educator, Businessman, Marketer, and Healthcare Blogger & Vlogger

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