Aligning the spine
Aligning the spine
September 25, 2007
By Shari Rudavsky
IndyStar.com
Despite the cracks, pops, and snaps from the chiropractor's table, Sarah Kaiser -- stretched beneath Dr. Todd McDougle's skilled hands -- is in no pain.
"It feels re-e-e-eally good," groans Kaiser, as McDougle finishes an adjustment in his busy Pendleton office.
Then she nimbly hops off the table, with no evidence of the sciatic nerve pain that can sideline her and led her to the chiropractor in the first place.
"When that goes out," says the Carthage resident, "the only relief I have is with an adjustment."
Increasingly people are seeking chiropractic care for their aches, pains and spinal health. More than 30 million people visited chiropractors in the past year, according to the American Chiropractic Association.
Chiropractors, who hold four-year post-graduate degrees but no prescribing powers, specialize in the health of the spine. Chiropractic philosophy centers on the notion that our spines play an integral role in our health. If something goes awry with our backbones that can throw off our musculoskeletal and nervous systems.
"What we do is recoordinate the structural alignment of the spine, the shoulder, the wrist or the ankle and that alters the function of the nervous system," McDougle says. "A lot of people think when we make adjustment on spine that all we're doing is shoving a bone back into the socket. A lot of people think it's painful, and that's the No. 1 reason why people don't come, and it couldn't be further from the truth."
About 80 percent of people suffer back pain at some point in their lives, statistics show. Many find the solace they need in a chiropractor's office.
Chiropractic care may also help address other conditions, such as musculo skeletal pain, chronic headaches and pain from automobile or sports injuries. One study of people on workers' compensation found that 90 percent of people who saw a chiropractor reported that symptoms they thought were unrelated resolved as well after treatment.
"Mainly people will go there for aches and backs, but it's a great way to feel better and have better health because you don't have nervous system interference," says Dr. Robert Killingbeck of Linwood Chiropractic in Indianapolis.
In fact, many chiropractors argue people should not wait for pain to seek their services but visit the chiropractor as regularly as they do the dentist.
Such preventive visits, which could start as young as infancy, will help detect the slightest spinal misalignment that could cause a problem.
"You may not have a cavity or any kind of a toothache, but everyone goes to the dentist," says Dr. Justin Gilmore of Gilmore Chiropractic in Noblesville. "I would recommend going to the chiropractor . . . just to get regular checkups in your spine to make sure that everything's in place."
Young athletes could benefit from checkups before they start a sports season, McDougle says. Most student athletes seek medical help only after they're hurt. A pre-play visit to the chiropractor could ward off those injuries and keep them out of the orthopedist's office, he says.
And lest you think that you're not among people who might need the services of a chiropractor one day, think again, chiropractors agree.
"If you're walking around with two legs under gravity, you have (the need)," Killingbeck says. "If you keep the dysfunction in your spine to a minimum, it will work better and you will have less aches and pains."
Mainstream medical professionals aren't as sure that chiropractors have such a broad role to play in healthcare.
While mainstream medicine has grown more accepting of the field -- and most health insurance plans cover chiropractic care -- some believe there are limits to its scope.
Dr. Gabriel Jackson, an orthopedic spine surgeon with OrthoIndy, has no problem when a patient says that he or she is under the care of a chiropractor. But he's never referred a patient to one.
Why? He's never seen any data to support manipulations for patients suffering from disc herniations, advanced degenerative disc disease, or scoliosis.
Dr. Palmer MacKie, medical director of the Integrative Pain Program at the Indiana University School of Medicine and Wishard Health Services, says although he's seen data supporting the use of chiropractic for nonsurgical back pain, he's never seen a study that's shown any preventive benefit.
When it comes to back pain, chiropractors may offer better care than traditional doctors, MacKie says.
"If individuals go to see a chiropractor for acute back pain, he's not going to be distracted by the patient's blood pressure or blood sugar level," he says. "So his full attention is to the health of that structure."
Backs are in the forefront in McDougle's Pendleton and Fishers practices.
McDougle offers not just standard hand manipulations but newer techniques, including a $50,000 device called the ProAdjuster.
Originally developed to evaluate the strength of the adhesive on the space shuttle tiles, the ProAdjuster now helps chiropractors target the exact spot on the bone that needs help without irritating the surrounding structures.
Here on Earth, the ProAdjuster has its fans.
"I didn't see how it worked, but it has because I really had pain when I first came in here," said Marion "Gene" Courtney, 71, after a recent treatment in McDougle's Pendleton office.
The Pendleton man has suffered back pain for the past 20 years, residual from his farming days. Now he and his 95-year-old mother, who has arthritic pain, both see McDougle.
For Kaiser, her thrice-weekly visits help care for her 8-month-old great-grandson.
After her Thursday visit, she can spend Saturdays on the floor with him. Monday she's back at the chiropractor's.
And Tuesday she can get back down on the floor again.
Call Star reporter Shari Rudavsky at (317) 444-6354.
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