Chiropractor, Dr. Alexander Jimenez�Finds Prescription Painkillers Most Common Treatment for Patients Seeking Care for Back Pain More than half of Americans suffer from back pain, as well as for those that seek treatment, doctors turn most often to prescription drugs
Ann Arbor, MI, May 19, 2017 � Many Americans (51 percent) have experienced back pain in the last 12 months, and of the 58% of those who sought treatment from a medical professional, 40 percent said they were recommended prescription painkillers, according to the Truven Health Analytics-NPR Health Poll.
Truven Health Analytics�, element of the IBM Watson Health business, and NPR run a national poll that is bimonthly to gauge opinions and attitudes on a broad variety of health�issues.
Following Are The Poll�s Findings:
Back Pain Plagues�Americans: Fifty one percent of Americans said they’ve endured from back pain in the last 12 months, and 46 percent of people who experienced pain said they are still in distress. Over half (58 percent) of back pain sufferers sought attention, with 70 percent visiting a medical doctor and 14 percent seeing a chiropractor.
Prescription Pain Killers are the Most Common Treatment: Of the 70 percent of back pain sufferers who sought care from a medical doctor, 40 percent were prescribed prescription pain killers, a rate that tended to decrease with increasing age of the patient. Other treatments prescribed were exercise/physical therapy (31 percent), shots (20 percent), massage (17 percent), steroids (17 percent), over-the-counter painkillers (13 percent), operation (12 percent), or another form of treatment (37 percent).
Almost a Third Stay in Pain with Treatment: Among all respondents, 25 percent said their back pain remained the same and five percent said their pain got worse. Forty-five percent said their pain improved, and 25 percent said it went away entirely.
�Experiencing back pain is extremely common among Americans, and there are a number of factors that may contribute to it, some of which are treatable without prescription pain killers, � said Anil Jain, MD, Vice-President and Chief Health Informatics Officer, Value-Based Care, IBM Watson Health. �These data reveal that when care is sought by the patients, they are generally prescribed painkillers. Compounding this challenge, back pain sufferers that are prescribed opioids for pain may be particularly at risk for dependency and addiction. Checking inappropriate opioid prescriptions for long-term pain is a focus of efforts by suppliers to fight the current opioid epidemic.�
To date, the Truven Health Analytics-NPR Health Survey has investigated numerous health topics, including vaccines generic drugs, data privacy, narcotic painkillers, and sports-related concussions. NPR archives reports on the surveys online in the Photos health blog here. Truven Health keeps a library of survey results here.
The Truven Health Analytics-NPR Health Poll is powered by the Truven Health PULSE� survey, an independently funded, nationally representative, multimodal poll that collects information about health-related behaviours and approaches and healthcare use from 80, 000 U.S. homes annually.
The results represent responses from 3, 002 survey participants interviewed from March 1 � 16 , 2017. The margin of error is /- 1.8 percentage points.
About NPR
NPR is an award winning, multimedia news organization and an influential force in American life. In collaboration with more than 900 independent public radio stations nationwide, NPR strives to generate a more educated public�one challenged and invigorated by way of a deeper understanding and grasp of ideas, events and cultures.
About Truven Health Analytics, section of the IBM Watson Health Company
Truven Health Analytics�, a part of the IBM Watson Health� company, supplies market-leading performance development solutions built on advanced analytics, data integrity and domain expertise. For over 40 years, our insights and alternatives have already been providing hospitals and clinicians, employers and health plans, state and government services, life sciences companies and policymakers, the facts they must make confident choices that directly alter the health and well-being of people and organizations in america and around the world. The firm was acquired by IBM in 2016 to help form a new business, Watson Health. Watson Health aspires to improve lives and give expectation by presenting innovation to deal with the world�s most pressing health challenges through cognitive insights and data.
When you get whiplash, you’ll understand what caused it. But you may not sense the indications of it until later. Symptoms can appear as soon following your auto accident or other injury as two hours, but you may experience symptoms that begin slightly and gradually become worse. Symptoms can sometimes grow days, weeks, or even months after the first injury.
The primary symptom of whiplash is neck or upper back pain. It’s also possible to experience other symptoms, like:
Shoulder and arm pain
Tenderness or stiffness
Numbness and/or tingling
Headaches
Dizziness
Nausea
Blurry vision
Most just described, whiplash is caused by a movement or force that makes your neck move beyond its normal range of motion. Cervical spine, or your neck, has an incredible range of movement. It is the moveable part of your spine, but still, the neck to go beyond its normal range can be caused by whiplash.
What Causes Whiplash Associated Diseases?
There is one major cause of whiplash that most everyone thinks of instantly: car accidents. Even rates as low as 15 miles per hour can create enough energy to cause whiplash�whether or not you’re wearing a seatbelt. (Nevertheless, if you’re not properly held along with your seatbelt, your head may strike the steering wheel or windshield, causing a concussion in addition to whiplash. You should definitely always wear your seatbelt.)
A 8 miles per hour car crash generates two times the force of gravity (or a 2-G) deceleration of the car, and a 5-G deceleration of the head. This unnatural and forceful movement impacts the muscles and ligaments in the neck, stretching and possibly ripping them. The discs involving the vertebrae can bulge, tear, or rupture, and vertebrae can be forced from their normal location, lowering your range of movement. The spinal cord and nerve roots could get extended, irritated, and “choked.”
Athletic actions, falls, roller coasters can also causes whiplash, or from shaken or being punched.
Aging also makes us more susceptible to whiplash. People who have neck issues like arthritis, and mature individuals, may experience whiplash that is more serious than the usual younger man. As people get older, their movement is more limited, their muscles lose flexibility and strength, and their disks and ligaments aren’t elastic (stretchy). Thus, when their neck whips back and forth, it’s more potential for damage.
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .
By Dr. Alex Jimenez
Additional Topics: Neck Pain and Auto Injury
After being involved in an automobile accident, the sheer force of the impact can often cause whiplash, a common type of neck injury resulting from the sudden, back-and-forth motion of the head against the body due to a car wreck, or other incident. Because of this, many of the complex structures found within the neck, including the spine, ligaments and muscles, can be stretched beyond their normal range, causing injury and painful symptoms.
When was the last time you jump roped? If it was as a kid during class recess, now�s a good time to get back into the rhythm of things. The jump rope is not only a fun workout to turn up the sweat, it�s also a key conditioning tool for athletes and boxers, like�Laila Ali, to build endurance, coordination and agility.
And now, it�s the basis for the new interval-based total-body workout, The Rope, from celeb trainer�Amanda Kloots. �The jump rope is one of the most underrated pieces of�fitness equipment. When you�re jump roping, you�re engaging all the muscles in your body, including your heart,� Kloots says. �Each jump involves tightening your�core, toning your arms and powering your legs.�
Whether you�re crunched for time or traveling (it packs light, too), just a few minutes of jump roping can leave you breathless. Kloots�s signature jump rope workout is divided into four sections: warm-up, coordination, stamina and sprints. But before you jump in, it�s important to have the right length rope. Check by standing on top of the jump rope hip-distance apart with both hands holding each end. Bring the jump rope handles toward your shoulders. If the rope goes beyond your shoulders, it�s too long, Kloots says. Now grab your rope and hop to it!
The 30-Minute HIIT Jump Rope Workout to Build Endurance
THE WARM-UP
First, it�s time to re-familiarize yourself with the basic jump. According to Kloots, proper jump rope technique starts with the feet together, shoulders pulled back and arms down by your sides with your hands the same distance away from your body. You�ll want to jump and land on the balls or midsoles of your feet (heels not touching the ground), catching at least one inch of hang time on each jump. Be sure to use your wrists to power the rope and not your elbows or shoulders. If you get tired, �Keep your shoulders over your hips, hips over your knees, and knees over your toes,� Kloots says.
Next, we layer on some footwork. The goal: improving agility and drawing a stronger connection between your body and brain. To keep you from getting tripped up, �I like to remind people of different ways to think of jumps to take the pressure off the fancy footwork. For instance, when you take your legs in and out of the jump rope, I�ll say outer�thighs�and inner thighs. It helps people focus on the muscle groups,� Kloots says. Cue up a three-minute song and you�ll hit approximately 360 jumps ��with a whole bunch of strength and core work mixed in (sequence below). Do eight reps on each side and repeat for three rounds.
How to:�Stand with your feet shoulder-distance apart. Fold the jump rope in half twice so it�s shoulder-distance apart when you hold each end and lift it up overhead. Pull each end of the rope to create resistance in your arms�(a). Engaging your core, crunch to your left side, while dynamically pressing the rope up overhead�(b).
2.�Single-Leg Forward Hinge
How to:�Stand with your feet together. Lift your left leg up so your left knee is bent. Fold your jump rope in half and hold each end of the rope with your hands, pulling it tightly�(a). Balancing your weight on your right leg, hinge your torso forward and bring the jump rope over your left knee to touch your shin�(b). Bring the jump rope back overhead�(c).
�How to:�Stand over the jump rope with your feet a little wider than hip-distance apart�(a). When you take your next jump, land with your feet together�(b). Take another jump and bring your feet back out so they�re a little wider than hip distance�(c). This is one rep. Repeat for seven more reps�(d).
Whiplash is a common injury, affecting about 2 million individuals in the United States annually. Ordinarily a consequence of an automobile accident, whiplash may also result from falling, participating in sports, or from other causes, including being shaken or hit.
Whiplash is the common term for a neck sprain or strain resulting from hyperextension (see picture below) and hyperflexion (see image below). It often doesn’t cause symptoms that are immediate: in fact, it could grow over time. Since whiplash may cause long lasting effects on the spinal column, it is essential to determine your doctor for those who have been injured, even in the event you don�t have pain immediately later.
The cervical spine (neck) is a complex structure composed of vertebrae (spinal bones), intervertebral discs (act as shock absorbers), muscles, ligaments, and nerves. The neck is is flexible and may transfer it different ways (nod, rotate) while supporting the entire weight of the head. However, that flexibility can make the neck exposed to injury. Within a whiplash event, your neck goes quickly and powerfully forward and backward. Pain can continue even following the injury itself has recovered.
Whiplash can lead to possibly high medical expenses, reduced productivity, and temporary impairment.
Symptoms of Whiplash
The primary complaint of a person who has whiplash is neck and upper back pain. Other symptoms may include:
Tenderness
Stiffness
Pain in the arm and shoulder that may radiate down into the hand(s).
Paresthesias (like numbness or tingling) and weakness that will extend into the hand(s).
Headache
You might even experience dizziness, nausea, ringing in the ears, fatigue, jaw pain, or blurred vision.
Causes of Whiplash
The most common reason for whiplash is an automobile accident when the man�s vehicle (typically stopped) is rear-ended by another car or truck. As a consequence of the impact, the cervical back�s lower vertebrae of the neck are forced into a position that is hyperextended, while the upper vertebrae are bend, resulting in an unusual S shaped curve. This chain of events often damages the soft tissues (ligaments, tendons, muscles) of the neck.
Understanding Whiplash
Your doctor carefully reviews your medical history and performs a physical and neurological examination. Since xrays don�t reveal injuries to soft tissues, a CT (computerized tomography) scan or MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) may be performed.
What are the Treatments for Whiplash?
Treatment depends upon degree and the severity of the whiplash, and thought is provided to general health and your age. Initial treatment may include:
Short-term rest (a day or two)
Ice, for two* or the very first day; then alternative heat and ice
Gentle range-of-motion exercises
Anti inflammatory medications (over the counter or prescription)
Muscle relaxants
*When using ice, make sure that the cold source is wrapped in a towel to protect the skin place. Don’t apply ice.
If your pain does not go away within a fair period of time, or when it is serious, your physician may recommend trigger point injections, physical therapy, chiropractic, massage, acupuncture, and/or use of a transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) device.
Soft collars, although once widely used for whiplash, are not used so frequently since the muscles can be weakened by immobilizing the neck to get a long time and delay healing.
Operation is seldom warranted by whiplash. If your pain persists even once you have gotten nonsurgical treatment, surgery may be recommended by your healthcare provider, depending on how severe the harm is and what constructions have been injured. It’s important to understand that risks are consistently carried by surgery. Therefore, you need to truly have a comprehensive talk with your doctor.
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .
By Dr. Alex Jimenez
Additional Topics: Neck Pain and Auto Injury
After being involved in an automobile accident, the sheer force of the impact can often cause whiplash, a common type of neck injury resulting from the sudden, back-and-forth motion of the head against the body due to a car wreck, or other incident. Because of this, many of the complex structures found within the neck, including the spine, ligaments and muscles, can be stretched beyond their normal range, causing injury and painful symptoms.
Ever had a less-than-poised moment on a�weight machine, or in a boot camp�class? Hey, you’re certainly not the only one. In a recent Reddit thread titled�”Stupidest thing you’ve ever done in the gym?” in�the XXFitness subreddit, users revealed�their most cringeworthy (and often painful) workout moments�from tripping on�the treadmill to gym flirting gone wrong. Here are some of the comments that had us giggling. (We recommend you stop reading now if you’re currently on a cardio machine!)
Uneven bar
User Sambeano�made the mistake of unloading�a heavy barbell on one side, but not the other:�”It was resting on the safety bars at the time, at about knee height, with about 30 kgs loaded on the other side. The bar flipped in the air and crashed into a glass door frame … The crash was so loud everyone turned around to look.” Whoops.
Bike dominos
“I thought this bench near some cardio equipment was fixed to the ground for some reason and grabbed onto it to stretch my shoulders out. I flew backwards into a row of eight stationary bikes, knocking them all over like dominoes,” wrote Mpaellen.
Bottom out
Themortalvalkyrie got off a rowing machine with a bruised bum: “My butt fell off the rower. I was [trying to] do sprints and got a little too excited, and at one point I think my butt must have come up a little and the seat flew back and i came down on the bar. But it was funny.” (Another Redditer jumped in, “I wish that thing had a seatbelt!”)
From jazzehcakes: “Once I was running on the treadmill and closed my eyes to sneeze, which caused me to trip, land face first, and fly off the treadmill.”
When exercise balls attack
“I threw an exercise ball on the mini trampoline and it flung back hit my fingers, which then hit my face,” shared another Redditer. “I managed to grab the ball before it caused further chaos. Everyone around me either didn’t notice or pretended not to. I probably looked like an idiot laughing to myself.”
Is this thing on?
Reddutchess15 was new to the exercise scene when she tried�out her university’s fancy gym. Feeling a bit intimidated, she decided to “start off easy on the elliptical,”�she wrote. “Well, I get to the elliptical, try to push the start button, and nothing. I keep pushing the start button and nothing happens. So, I thought it was broken. Worse, I worried that I would be blamed. So I just left without doing any workout at all. It wasn’t until my friend starting making fun of this other girl for the same reason days later that I realized i was supposed to get on it first.” (Trust us, we’ve been there!)
“Tried to kill a spider while running on the treadmill,” user little—dolly posted. “I lost my balance, fell down, got my shirt caught up and ended up with two scraped knees and treadmill road rash down one side of my face. Oh, and I didn’t get the spider.”
Pee problem
“I peed myself while squatting in a busy gym,” wrote Souponastick. “That wasn’t the worst part. For whatever reason my brain decided I needed to announce it, so as I was coming up from the bottom of the squat I screamed, ‘I’M F****** PISSING MYSELF!’ Everyone looked and watched me clean up my puddle.”
“Saw a cute guy in the gym,” posted Tokyo1964. “I went to take a swig of water just as our eyes met, but accidentally squeezed the bottle slightly and sprayed it into my eye instead.”
Ripped pants
From Blaserea: “Ripped the crotch out of my shorts squatting, even heard it through the headphones.”
Fast and furious
Ever cranked up your speed on a cardio machine to clock a specific number of miles before your time runs out? Phoenixinda attempted this strategy, without success: “Last year I decided to go extra fast on the cross trainer for the last two minutes so that I could get a full 3-mile distance at the end of the 30 minutes. Foot slipped, fell between the pedals, and my foot fractured in three places. I was out for three months�… I have been back at the gym, but I just can’t bring myself to even touch the cross trainer.”
Vkm5028 learned the hard way to make sure you actually know the person you’re waving at before you say hi. “Thought I saw a friend of a friend out of the corner of my eye. I was in a goofy mood, and decided to make a goofy face and wave at him. Turns out, it wasn’t the guy who I thought it was, he was on the phone whenever I made the face at him, and I found out he’s a player for the local minor league baseball team and probably thought I was fan-girling at the sight of him.”
Sweat stain
“Worn pale blue leggings,” one user commented. “It looked like I’d [peed] myself half way through my gym session.”
Stuck on you
Wearing athleisure fresh out of the laundry? Make sure there’s no other laundry stuck to it before you leave the house. “I once had a thong static-cling itself to my leggings,”�MyShoulderHatesMe posted.�”I was at least 20 minutes into my workout before I noticed.”
UTEP�s sophomore Tobi Amusan was named Conference USA Female Track Performer of the Meet for her stellar showing at the conference championships, announced the league Friday afternoon.
The All-American led the Miners by scoring 24.5 points, helping the women�s team capture its first outdoor title in program history. The sprinter took gold in the 100m hurdles and 4x100m relay, silver in the 200m (22.92) and fifth place in the long jump (5.81m).
The Nigerian native, will return to the track next week at the NCAA West Regional Preliminaries in Austin, Texas. Amusan will compete in the 100m hurdles where she ranks second in the west region. She qualified by clocking a personal best of 12.63 at the UTEP Springtime earlier this year.
For live updates and breaking news be sure to follow @UTEPTrack on Twitter and uteptrack on Instagram.
Check Also
The deadline to register for one of several 2017 UTEP Volleyball Summer Camps is just �
Seeing a doctor of chiropractic, otherwise referred to as DC, chiropractic physician or a chiropractor, can be a beneficial step towards effectively treating low back pain. Below is a quick description of how they help patients resolve their low back pain and what chiropractors do.
What to Expect from a Chiropractor
Chiropractors use a number of treatments made to manipulate joints, the back, and tissues of the body to relieve pain and improve functional ability. Normally, this could be referred to as spinal manipulative therapy (SMT), but you will find several other chiropractic treatment approaches.
A chiropractor tailors her or his treatment strategy depending on the individual needs of a patient, using a traditional philosophy of starting off together with the more natural, less-invasive treatments before moving on to even more aggressive techniques.
At every stage through the procedure, chiropractors preserve a rigorous emphasis on proactively communicating together with the patient exactly what’s going to happen. The chiropractor makes certain the patient comprehends everything that occurs during evaluation, an investigation, and also the proposed procedures, so that you can instruct the patient and receive direct acceptance to start the treatment process.
This emphasis on informed consent is essential because some chiropractic techniques may carry material hazard, which means there could a danger, however, trivial, that an injury could be maybe caused by a particular process.
Nevertheless, a chiropractor also informs a patient of the potential risks attached to abstaining in the process, entirely. Nevertheless, none of this is meant to scare a patient. Make sure that the patient, who has full control over his / her body can make an informed choice and constantly it’s simply thought to remove mistakes.
Chiropractic Procedures
A chiropractor will examine a patient thoroughly prior to making any type of identification or treatment plan. The evaluation can include various aspects, including:
Health history
Look in the characteristics of the pain, keeping an eye out for “red flags,” which suggest that additional diagnostic testing ought to be ran in order to exclude any potentially serious medical problems that may be connected with neck or low back pain-like neurological disorders, fractures, diseases, and tumors.
You will find lots of reasons why low back pain happens. A chiropractor will find out those motives to configure the most appropriate treatment.
Physical examination, including orthopedic and neurological evaluations
Analyze sensory nerves, the reflexes, joints, muscles, as well as other areas of the body.
Advanced Diagnostic Testing
Lab and imaging evaluations aren’t recommended for nonspecific LBP, however they might be required if there are signs of a serious underlying condition.
Severity and Duration of Afflictions
A chiropractor looks at the symptoms and afflictions of sickness or an injury and rationally classifies them based by how serious they are, and the way long they continue.
Symptoms are subdivided into levels of severity: mild, moderate, or serious. In terms of duration, pain (and other symptoms) might be referred to as:
Acute – lasts for less than 6 weeks
Subacute – persists between 6 and 12 weeks
Long-Term – persists for at least 12 weeks
Perennial/flare up – the same symptom(s) reoccurs sporadically or because of exacerbating the original harm
In case a patient is suffering from acute or subacute low back pain, a normal chiropractic therapeutic trial is 2 to 3 weekly sessions over the course of 2 to 4 weeks, going up to 12 complete sessions per trial. Often, this can be sufficient to entirely solve the pain. Other times, additional treatments may be necessary, especially if a patient is struggling with other issues.
Result measurements certainly are a useful tool to get a chiropractor since they could help determine in the event the treatments are showing significant progress.
Some ways a chiropractor can quantify the outcomes of the treatments include:
Having a patient speed the pain
So a patient can characterize the positioning and nature of the pain, using a pain diagram
Searching for increases (or declines) in day-to-day living practices, as in the capacity to work (employment), exercise and sleep.
Testing practical capacity, such as weightlifting ability, strength, flexibility, and endurance
Some patients’ low back pain may have lasted into and beyond the 12-week mark, which makes it long-term pain. During assessment, chiropractors will look for signs to determine if a patient is at an increased risk of developing long-term pain- the “yellow flags” of chronicity so to speak.
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .
By Dr. Alex Jimenez
Additional Topics: What is Chiropractic?
Chiropractic care is an well-known, alternative treatment option utilized to prevent, diagnose and treat a variety of injuries and conditions associated with the spine, primarily subluxations or spinal misalignments. Chiropractic focuses on restoring and maintaining the overall health and wellness of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems. Through the use of spinal adjustments and manual manipulations, a chiropractor, or doctor of chiropractic, can carefully re-align the spine, improving a patient�s strength, mobility and flexibility.
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