In our Memphis practice, we see a large number of people who are suffering from back pain, and some of these folks have been advised they might need surgery to recover. Thankfully, Dr. Amodeo has helped many people get pain relief without the need for any type of surgery. The science agrees with the results we see in our office. One research study published in the academic journal Spine found that seeing a chiropractor as your first step in overcoming with your back problems may actually keep you off of the operating table.

In this scientific study, medical professionals from Dartmouth analyzed statistics from about 1,900 workers from Washington state who first saw either an orthopedic surgeon or a chiropractor for their back-related issues. They then looked at three years' worth of follow-up medical information to determine whether the patients wound up having back surgery in an attempt to treat the issue.

What the authors observed was that 42.7% of the patients who first consulted with a surgeon for their back pain ended up having a surgical procedure in that 3-year time frame, whereas only 1.5 percent of those who first saw a chiropractor had the same fate. The authors wrote:

"Even after controlling for injury severity and other measures, workers with an initial visit for the injury to a surgeon had almost nine times the odds of receiving lumbar spine surgery compared to those seeing primary care providers, whereas workers whose first visit was to a chiropractor had significantly lower odds of surgery."

These are impressive outcomes. Visiting a chiropractor significantly reduces your odds of having back surgery, plus the chiropractic patients in this report "had lower odds of chronic work disability" and they also had fewer expensive MRI tests.

Let's also consider this important detail: this study was performed by orthopedic surgeons from Dartmouth College, and printed in the world's most distinguished medical journal on spinal injuries.

Why You Should Avoid Surgery

Any surgical procedure has risks, but a serious downside related to spine surgery is that there's a very high failure rate. In an important analysis in the European Spine Journal, researchers wrote:

"Failed back surgery is a problem that has become sufficiently widespread to even warrant its own special conferences, with recent reviews reporting failure rates ranging from 5 to 50%."

The authors of this same study concluded:

"It is extremely difficult to identify unequivocal predictor factors that can be used to accurately predict the outcome of surgery."

As a chiropractor, Dr. Amodeo is convinced that surgery should be the absolute last resort for treating back pain. Chiropractic works to restore your spine to its normal function--without high-risk surgery or drugs--and many research studies have established the usefulness of chiropractic for back pain.

If you live in Memphis and you need care for your back pain, give our practice a call today at (901) 757-8311 for a consultation or an appointment. We'll help get you back on the road to a pain-free life!

Studies

• Keeney BJ, Fulton-Kehoe D, Turner JA, Wickizer TM, Chan KC, Franklin GM. Early predictors of lumbar spine surgery after occupational back injury: results from a prospective study of workers in Washington State. Spine 2013;38(11):953-964.
• Mannion AF, Elfering A. Predictors of surgical outcome and their assessment. European Spine Journal 2006;15(Suppl 1):S93-S108.
  

Headache and neck pain are common problems that affect millions of people around the world. If you suffer from this type of problem, you're not alone. The good news is that chiropractic is the best way to not only treat these common problems, but also help prevent future episodes.

Research Shows Chiropractic Helps With Neck Pain and Headaches

For many years, patients with neck and headache pain in Memphis have been helped by the chiropractic adjustments of Dr. Amodeo. Our success is supported by a recent review done in Canada that found that non-invasive, non-drug treatments are the best choice for neck and headache pain.

The report looked at 15 studies from 1990 to 2015 and found that conservative treatment comprised of chiropractic adjustments, exercises, and stretches was advisable before turning to drugs or more invasive procedures.

Earlier scientific studies have shown that chiropractic is effective and safe for neck pain and many other health conditions.

We Can Help People Find Comfort From Neck Pain and Headaches

If you're suffering from neck pain or headaches, Dr. Amodeo and our staff are here to help you feel better. Give our Memphis office a call today at (901) 757-8311 for an appointment today.

Reference

Varatharajan S, Ferguson B, Chrobak K, et al. Are non-invasive interventions effective for the management of headaches associated with neck pain? An update of the Bone and Joint Decade Task Force on Neck Pain and Its Associated Disorders by the Ontario Protocol for Traffic Injury Management (OPTIMa) Collaboration. European Spine Journal 2016; February 6:1-29.

If you suffer from shoulder pain after an auto collision, you're not alone. Dr. Amodeo sees this type of problem frequently in our Memphis office. What causes shoulder pain after a car crash? How can chiropractic care help?

There are at least two different ways that you can get shoulder pain after a crash: by direct trauma to the shoulder or by referred pain from the neck.

Direct trauma can be caused by striking your shoulder on a hard object in the car during the impact, or can occur if you have a tight grip on the steering wheel during a rear end collision. With this type of injury, you'll often be aware of the pain shortly after the crash.

More commonly, Dr. Amodeo finds that shoulder or arm pain doesn't immediately appear after a collision, but begins a few days or weeks after the accident. This type of shoulder discomfort actually starts in the cervical spine. Injured soft tissue in your neck can squeeze nerves in your neck, causing tingling, numbness, or soreness in your shoulder, elbow, or wrist.

We've worked with many types of shoulder problems in our Memphis office. This care involves chiropractic adjustments to restore your spine's natural mobility and exercises that strengthen your neck and shoulder.

Dr. Amodeo is here in Memphis to help you recover from shoulder pain. We've been helping patients since 2011 and we can probably help you, too. The first step is to get an accurate diagnosis to determine what's causing your pain and then we will determine an appropriate treatment approach. Give our office a call today at (901) 757-8311 to make an appointment.

Asthma is a significant worry for many people in Memphis and for a society as a whole, since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that this condition currently affects almost 19 million adults and 7 million kids in the US. A full-blown asthma attack likely means a emergency room visit. Thankfully, Dr. Amodeo has helped many folks in Memphis get relief from asthma symptoms.

Research Supports Chiropractic Helps With Asthma

The scientific research confirms what we see in our practice. For example, a paper published in Clinical and Experimental Allergy assessed 31 adult asthma patients after getting four weeks of chiropractic adjustments. The authors found that the participants who received chiropractic adjustments had a 34% decrease in asthma symptoms.

The Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics printed another asthma-based study, except this one involved kids. In this report, the 36 participants ranged from 6 to 17 years in age and their asthma was regarded as either mild or moderate in severity.

After 12 weeks of chiropractic adjustments, as a whole, the children reported a higher quality of life and a reduced level of severity. As a bonus, they also reported that they relied less on their bronchodilator and these positive effects were still being demonstrated one year after chiropractic care was complete.

We Can Help Clients Find Relief From Asthma

So, whether you're 9 or 90, if you have asthma, be sure to contact Dr. Amodeo in Memphis and schedule an appointment today. We'll do what we can to help you breathe easier!

References

• Asthma. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Bronfort G et al. (2001, July-August). Chronic pediatric asthma and spinal manipulation: a prospective clinical series and randomized clinical pilot study. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics;24(6):369-77
• Nielsen N et al. (1995, January). Chronic asthma and chiropractic spinal manipulation: a randomized clinical trial. Clinical and Experimental Allergy;25(1):80-8

We care for a large number of patients in our Memphis clinic, and Dr. Amodeo has helped many people overcome a variety of health problems. However, a common issue that seems to stop many men and women from pursuing treatment is whether or not chiropractic care is safe. Well, according to three different studies (out of quite a few on the subject), the answer to this concern is a resounding: "Yes! Chiropractic is safe!"

Chiropractic is Safe, According to Australian Study

The first article(1) was published in Spine and involved 183 women and men between the ages of 20 and 85. Each person reported suffering from some kind of back pain, and half of the people received actual chiropractic care visits while the other half were given two fake chiropractic adjustments. Information was gathered after each real or fake adjustment to see whether or not any unpleasant negative effects occurred as a result of the genuine chiropractic treatments.

Researchers reported that no participants documented any serious adverse adverse reactions in any way after getting one or two sessions of chiropractic care. Some people did report that they had a headache (just 9% of people) or muscle stiffness (37 percent) after treatment, but the effects were not of a serious nature.

Nationwide Survey Finds that Chiropractic is Safe

A second research study(2), also released in the distinguished journal, Spine, was performed in an effort to establish the safety of chiropractic. The study group was much larger -- 20,000 individuals. Each participant received chiropractic adjustments of the cervical spine, with over 50,000 total adjustments for all study participants.

Once again, the experts found no serious adverse side effects. The authors determined the risk of total adverse reactions to be about 6 out of every 10,000 consultations or every 100,000 treatment sessions. And, just as with the previous study, some participants did report non-serious, milder, unwanted effects such as dizziness (16 out of every 1,000 treatment consultations and 15 out of every 1,000 treatment sessions) or a headache (4 out of every 100), and this prompted the researchers to conclude that "the risk of a serious adverse event, immediately or up to 7 days after treatment, was low to very low."

Chiropractic Care Is Safe for Kids

The third research paper(3) is unique from the first two pieces of research, as it focuses on the safety of chiropractic care for children. In this article, the researchers investigated data reported by both chiropractors and parents involving 816 children who participated in 7,173 chiropractic treatment sessions.

Out of 5,438 chiropractic visits made for the young ones, chiropractors answering the survey reported only three cases where there were adverse reactions. When parents were surveyed, they indicated only two adverse side effects out of 1,735 visits. Furthermore, both chiropractors and parents reported "a high rate of improvement with respect to the children's presenting complaints."

Based on these three studies (and many more!), chiropractic care has been judged safe and effective for everyone. To find out what chiropractic care can do for you, call our Memphis clinic and schedule an appointment today at (901) 757-8311.

References

1. Walker BF, Hebert JJ, Stomski NJ, Clarke BR, Bowden RS, Losco B, French SD. Outcomes of usual chiropractic. The OUCH randomized controlled trial of adverse events. Spine 2013;38(20):1723-9.
2. Thiel HW1, Bolton JE, Docherty S, Portlock JC. Safety of chiropractic manipulation of the cervical spine: a prospective national survey. Spine 2007;32(21):2375-8.
3. Alcantara J, Ohm J, Kunz D. The safety and effectiveness of pediatric chiropractic: a survey of chiropractors and parents in a practice-based research network. Explore NY 2009;5(5): 290-5.

When you're trying to support your family, take care of your home, and pay all of your bills on time, every day at work counts. Work injuries can be a big problem for many folks, and we see many of these types of injuries in our Memphis office. Dr. Amodeo appreciates your situation and is here to help.

The advantages of chiropractic care for work injuries are well-established. A 2013 research paper involving over 600 adults who were troubled with either back or neck pain found that the individuals who didn't see a chiropractor missed work at twice the rate of those who were seeing a chiropractor.

So, why don't more people use Chiropractic Care?

According to the participants in this report, two of the primary factors were that they thought they needed a referral for chiropractic care (which is typically no longer true) and they overestimated the costs associated with chiropractic treatment sessions by almost 70 percent.

The reality is, chiropractic patients actually spend less on care than medical patients, plus they are less likely to use drugs for their symptoms.

Dr. Amodeo Can Help Clients Find Relief From Chronic Pain

If you live in Memphis and you've been injured at work, we can help. Give our office a call today at (901) 757-8311 for an appointment.

References

"Thousands of Minnesotans with Back and Neck Pain Don't Seek Treatment." (2013, June 12). ChiroCare.

As trauma to the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) is often rather painful, we do our best to help our Memphis patients find relief as quickly and effectively as possible. In fact, Dr. Amodeo will tell you that the medical literature shows just how much your chiropractor can help ease pain in the jaw.

Research Proves Chiropractic Helps With TMJ Pain and Discomfort

For example, a study published in Physiotherapy Theory and Practice included 15 people with TMJ pain who were managed with neck adjustments, middle-back adjustments, and trigger point therapy via dry needling. Subjects were evaluated prior to these methods and at 15 days and two months post-treatment. The authors reported positive results such as reduced discomfort, greater jaw movement, and lower impairment at both follow-ups.

Another group of researchers carried out a review of almost 800 studies involving manual and manipulative therapy for disorders such as TMJ and revealed similar findings. The authors concluded that there is a "fair...level of evidence" that chiropractic care can help ease symptoms associated with jaw pain and other upper extremity disorders.

This is great news since the origins of TMJ are largely unknown. While trauma to the jaw or neck can cause pain symptoms, there are other causes to consider as well, such as grinding teeth, arthritis, and clenching of the jaw due to stress.

Dr. Amodeo Can Help People Find Relief From TMJ Pain

No matter what is making your jaw hurt, call Dr. Amodeo now and schedule an appointment to come into our Memphis practice. We'll do our best to help you smile pain-free!

References

• Gonzalez-Iglesias J et al. (2013, November). Mobilization with movement, thoracic spine manipulation, and dry needling for the management of temporomandibular disorder: a prospective case series. Physiotherapy Theory and Practice;29(8):586-95
• Brantingham J et al. (2013, March-April). Manipulative and multimodal therapy for upper extremity and temporomandibular disorders: a systematic review. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics;36(3):143-201
• Oral Care. WebMD. Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/oral-health/guide/temporomandibular-disorders-tmd on November 2, 2015

We see a lot of sports injuries in our Memphis clinic, and Dr. Amodeo is usually able to help these athletes. Stanford Children’s Hospital states that over 3.5 million children of the ages 14 and younger are hurt each year while playing sports. Add that to the close to 2 million adults hurt each year while taking part in sports-related activities, according to statistics collected by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and you can begin to see the necessity of preventing these sorts of widespread injuries. One approach to potentially realize that goal, as reported by a study published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, is to engage in routine chiropractic care.

In Australian Rules football, hamstring and other leg traumas are commonplace, frequently sidelining the players and impacting their team's likelihood of securing a win. One particular study was conducted using 59 semi-elite Australian Rules footballers to see whether chiropractic could cut down on these injuries and help keep them playing.

Research Proves Chiropractic Helps in Treating Sports Injuries

For this study in particular, every one of the players received medical treatment. In addition, half of them also received chiropractic sessions at the rate of one session each week for the first six weeks, biweekly sessions for the following three months, and one session a month for the last 3 months of the study. The remaining group had no chiropractic intervention at all and acted as the control group to assess the benefits of chiropractic.

After twenty-four matches, researchers noticed a lessened amount of lower limb muscle strains in the group that had received chiropractic care. Furthermore, that very group also missed fewer matches connected to non-contact knee injuries. This lead the researchers to conclude that chiropractic should be made an addition to sports training programs to effectively reduce the number of leg injuries.

Dr. Amodeo Can Help Patients Find Relief From Sports Injuries & Help You Recover Faster

If you or your child plays sports and you want to ensure more time is spent on the field versus on the sidelines, call our Memphis office at (901) 757-8311 and schedule an appointment today. We will do our best to keep you in the game!

References

• Hoskins, W, & Pollard, H. (2010, April 8). The effect of a sports chiropractic manual therapy intervention on the prevention of back pain, hamstring and lower limb injuries in semi-elite Australian Rules footballers: a randomized controlled trial. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, 11(64), doi:10.1186/1471-2474-11-64
• Misra, A. (2014, March 17). Common sports injuries: Incidence and average charges. Department of Health & Human Services.
• Stanford Children’s Hospital. (n.d.). Sports injury statistics.

According to research, approximately 2-5 percent of the population will experience painful conditions like frozen shoulder syndrome at some point in their lives. That makes shoulder-related pain a common occurrence and one that Dr. Amodeo sees in our Memphis practice on a regular basis.

Research Shows Chiropractic Helps With Shoulder Pain

In general, this condition is more common for people in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, and it tends to affect women more frequently than men. While ice, heat, and gentle stretches can often times help alleviate the pain, so too can chiropractic adjustments.

For instance, a study released in the Journal of Chiropractic Medicine looked at 50 people with frozen shoulder who received chiropractic care. The duration of care varied from 11 days to 51 days, with 28 days being the average.

The researchers found that almost all of the study participants fared very well with chiropractic care. Here are the results:

8 of the subjects reported 50-75 percent improvement
25 indicated improvement ranging from 75- 90 percent
1 participant had complete resolution of their frozen shoulder pain

Only one of the original 50 reported an improvement of 50 percent or less, so studies like this demonstrate just how beneficial chiropractic care can be when it comes to decreasing shoulder pain and improving quality of life.

We Can Help People Find Comfort From Shoulder Pain

Let Dr. Amodeo help you ease your suffering by contacting our Memphis office and scheduling your appointment today.

Resources

Murphy F et al. (2012, December). Chiropractic management of frozen shoulder syndrome using a novel technique: a retrospective case series of 50 patients. Journal of Chiropractic Medicine;11(4):267-272

Dr. Amodeo works with many sciatica patients here in our Memphis office, and quite a few of these individuals were concerned that they might require surgery to treat their pain. The most recent research shows that many people don't need surgery for this widespread issue, and that chiropractic is more successful at clearing up sciatic nerve pain.

A typical surgery for sciatica is microdiscectomy, and in a 2010 study, specialists examined 80 women and men with sciatica who were referred for this procedure.

Forty patients were then randomly sorted into one of two groups. The first group was to receive surgical microdiscectomy and the second group was given chiropractic care.

Both groups got better; however, no noticeable difference in outcome was recorded one year post-treatment between either group. In addition, about sixty percent of the participating patients who could not find pain relief from any other treatment approach "benefited from spinal manipulation to the same degree as if they underwent surgical intervention."

Put another way, chiropractic delivered the same positive benefits as surgery without having to undergo the increased amounts of surgery-based pain or suffer through extended recovery times often associated with that specific treatment option. Additionally, you also don't run the risks affiliated with surgical microdiscectomy, which includes nerve root damage, bowel or bladder incontinence, bleeding, or infection.

Surgery ought to be the last option for sciatica pain. If you live in Memphis and you're being affected by back pain or sciatica, give Dr. Amodeo a call today at (901) 757-8311. We'll help pinpoint the source of your pain and work hard to get you relief.

References

• McMorland, G et al. Manipulation or microdiskectomy for sciatica? A prospective randomized clinical study. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics 2010;33(8):576-584.
• Solberg TK, Nygaard OP, Sjaavik K, Hofoss D, Ingebrigtsen T. The risk of "getting worse" after lumbar microdiscectomy. European Spine Journal 2005;14(1):49-54.