Tag: clinical

Chiropractic Care

I have a confession. Last year I went to a chiropractor for the first time. I had been having some neck and sacroiliac pain. I went to a massage therapist a few times. Although it felt good, especially for the neck, it didn’t seem to last more than a few weeks at most. Anti-inflammatory medications only gave temporary relief. Thus I was interested in trying something else, particularly when I started having some acute left sacroiliac pain that made it difficult to move around at times. I also had intermittent low back pain, left trochanteric bursitis, knee pain and plantar fasciitis. In Timothy Ferriss’s interesting book, The 4-Hour Body, he recommended active release techniques and a Functional Movement Screen (FMS), which I was curious about and thought might help. When I looked into it more, I found that these were pretty much only offered by chiropractors.

Physicians are trained to be scientific, and tend to dismiss what is called alternative, complementary, or allopathic medicine, including homeopathy, naturopathy, chiropractic, and traditional Chinese medicine. I wanted some relief from my symptoms, and I was also curious about what chiropractors do, so I decided to go there, rather that to physical therapy. Patients often ask me what I think about going to a chiropractor, but I had no personal experience. I justified to myself that it would be like a journalistic endeavor, which it sort of is, now that I’m blogging about it.

I purposely chose a clinic about 12 miles from my office. As I pulled into the parking lot I had second thoughts. I felt like I was breaking a taboo. Even though I figured it was unlikely I would be seen by a patient or anyone else I knew, I looked around before getting out of the car. That evening I told my wife not to tell anyone that I had gone to see a chiropractor.

Fifteen minutes after my scheduled appointment time the chiropractor came out to the waiting room, addressed me by my first name, and said she would be out shortly after reviewing my chart. She was young and attractive and had graduated about two years earlier. She came back and said, “I guess I should be calling you Dr. Ginsberg”. We went back to an exam room and she took a thorough history of the various pains I had. She asked about duration, severity, onset, exacerbating factors and prior injuries. She asked if I’d ever been to a chiropractor before and I said no. She said I was her first also (physician patient)! She asked me about my practice. When I complained about the paperwork, she pointed to her desk and said she has the same problem. Like a lot of doctors fresh out of school, she also had a lot of debt.

Next she did a very thorough musculoskeletal and neurological exam, other than checking cranial nerves and cerebellar function. Her range of motion and testing of strength and sensation reminded me of what I used to do as a medical student and intern, but now often shortcut. She discussed active release techniques then did some, including the Graston Technique. She asked if I was willing to have adjustments and I expressed some hesitation, particularly having it done to the neck. She said had no I had no red flags and that she did did this maybe 20 times a day. I initially agreed to let her adjust my back. After twisting me like a pretzel and throwing on her weight, causing a not unpleasant popping sensation in my back, she told me, “You just had your first adjustment.”

She then did more active release technique on my back, using a special table that moved,  making my back flex and extend. Then she did an adjustment on my mid and perhaps upper back.  She asked if I wanted to have my neck done, and reminded me of the decreased range of motion I had on one side. I thought about my patients who refused medications for their cholesterol or diabetes for fear of side effects, despite my recommendations, so I reluctantly agreed to trust her expertise. I was a bit nervous and she had to tell me me to relax. It was not especially uncomfortable when she twisted my head suddenly, but I had visions of a farmer breaking a chicken’s neck and I hoped I would not becoming a quadriplegic. Thankfully that did not come to pass.

We talked a little about the traditional distrust physicians have of chiropractors. She said some people just need a quick adjustment, but admitted that 75% of people come in with problems that are due to underlying muscle weakness or imbalance, and that they won’t fix the problem without addressing the issue. She said unfortunately some chiropractors don’t deal with this and only do adjustments. She knew one who had the same patient penciled in for every Friday at the same time for a year.

She said to return, preferably within 3 to 5 days, though I made it a little later due to my schedule, to have another treatment and a Functional Movements Systems evaluation.

I couldn’t really tell a difference after the first session. She warned me I might be sore at first, but I was not. Although massage may help various body aches and pains, I suspect many people like it for the therapeutic touch. I was surprised that chiropractic was similar, and I suspect that’s part of the reason for its popularity.

I later returned for another appointment. I underwent their own functional performance exam with one of the trainers. They said it was more thorough then the Functional Movement Screen. I later found out that FMS is a widely marketed system, for which chiropractors and others pay a lot to get certified, but that’s a different story.  In any case, the trainer said that I did pretty well, but was particularly weak in my medial glutes, which surprised me.  He recommended at least setting up an appointment to set me up with a home exercise program as I said coming in for regular treatments would be difficult.

Next I had another session with the chiropractor. She again did Active Release Techniques and adjustments. She was unable to adjust my neck as I involuntarily tensed up. I asked her why insurance companies require referrals for physical therapy but not chiropractic. She said it’s because chiropractors can make diagnoses.

I returned one more time to work on various exercises. Although I’ve exercised at the gym for decades, I started incorporating some of the exercises the trainer taught me, and I’ve had very little sacroiliac pain since then.

Scientific data showing the benefit of chiropractic care for back pain is sparse. Recently an article showed benefit in chiropractic care for neck pain, but another showed potential risk.

So what do I tell patients now about chiropractors? For neck and back pain I still preferentially refer patients for physical therapy. If patients ask about getting chiropractic treatment, I  am now less likely to object, assuming they don’t have a medical condition that would make it riskier, but I caution them about getting neck adjustments.  Just like physicians, not all chiropractors are equally skilled. A good chiropractor probably does a better job evaluating back pain than most primary care physicians, but watch out for those who over treat. Most importantly don’t take the lazy approach of just getting, “adjustments,” but do the work to correcting muscle weaknesses that often cause the problem.

FDA and Generic OxyContin

As recently reported in the Wall Street Journal, the pain killer OxyContin is set to go generic next year, and Purdue Pharma is trying to postpone it.

A funny thing often happens before a drug goes generic. Close to that time the manufacturer comes up with a new indication, formulation or dose. They claim it’s an improvement in the product, but it often has the appearance of coincidentally coming out close to when they would lose exclusive rights to sell the product. And wonder of wonders, they often get the market to themselves for a longer period of time because of it.

As someone who treats a lot of patients with pain, from my perspective OxyContin is a fairly good drug. Because it’s timed release oxycodone, it often gives better pain control, has a lot of dosing flexibility, and probably has less potential of causing addiction than immediate release oxycodone. Less is not none, however, and it’s still a frequently abused drug, whether swallowing the pills, or more illicitly, snorting or injecting it.

OxyContin has a new formulation containing polyethylene oxide that makes it harder to crush or inject. Although it’s not yet clear how effective it will be, the street price has decreased, suggesting it is a less desirable drug for someone wanting to get high. So Purdue Pharma is arguing that no one should be allowed to sell timed release oxycodone that does not have the protection they have, which of course is itself patented until 2025. Purdue Pharma is being sued for allegedly previoulsy making false claims to doctors, minimizing the risk of addiction. That has bearing on their new claim that it’s the new and improved version that has the low risk.

Besides that the improved safety is still not certain, their logic is false. From the perspective of controlling drug abuse, supply will meet demand. People will find better ways to process the new OxyContin pills to make them easier to abuse, or they will use substitutes.

From the perspective of a clinician treating pain patients, the cost of the pills and insurance formularies often dictate what doctors can prescribe. I often don’t prescribe OxyContin now, even when I want to, because of this, and have to prescribe controlled release morphine (which used to be sold as the brand MS Contin), methadone, which is a tricky drug to prescribe with a higher risk of accidental overdose, or use other alternatives.

I hope the FDA does not accept Purdue Pharma’s argument. They should either allow generic OxyContin, with or without the polyethylene oxide contained in the new pills, or allow generic manufacturers to use other similar methods of deterrence.

Exam Room Miscommunication

In school were you ever challenged to explain to someone how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich using words only? It’s harder than it sounds. Similarly it’s sometimes difficult to explain to a patient what I want them to do, at times to humorous effect. If you see yourself in any of the examples below, don’t take offense. I’m laughing with you, not at you!

As I bring an exam light up to check patient’s eyes, they often open their mouth, thinking I want to check their throat.

When checking guys for hernias I tell them to turn their head and cough. Men often turn their head to the left when I check their right side, then turn to the right when I check the left. The only purpose of having them turn their head is to not cough on me! Before doing this part of the exam I tell them to drop their drawers so I can check them for a hernia. I like to then slide forward the 2-3 feet on my stool, that has rollers, but guys often take a step towards me first, then I have to make sure I don’t butt heads when they naturally bend to drop their underwear. I also like to go to their right side so I don’t have to bend my wrist back, but in an attempt to be helpful, they often turn to the right to face me, so I have to slide farther to the side, thus doing a hernia check dance.

When I have people sit up on the exam table, they often start to lay down. I just want them to sit first since I like to examine their neck and listen to their lungs first. If not doing a full physical, I usually just pull up the shirt to listen to their lungs from the back side. When I then have them lay down, patients usually reflexively pull their shirt back down, but then I have to lift it back up to listen to their heart.

When patients have pain, such as in their abdomen, I’ll ask them to tell me if it hurts as I press in various areas. In an attempt to be helpful, patients off start pushing on their stomach themselves to try to find the tender areas, and sometimes will spend a fair amount of time doing so. I usually joke that they can examine themselves on their own time, but now it’s my turn.

American College of Physicians Internal Medicine 2012

I recently attended the American College of Physicians (ACP) Internal Medicine 2012 annual meeting, held this year in New Orleans. It’s a very large meeting with thousands of physicians attending. At any one time there are dozens of courses one can attend. I try to balance learning about subjects I have a particular interest in, with those that I’m less interested, and consequently have more to learn.

Among the talks I attended was a talk on genetics issues in internal medicine by Matthew Taylor, MD, PhD.  He discussed an interesting case of a 19-year-old woman who had been in good health who had lifted weights, used a hot tub then went swimming in a lap pool and was found unresponsive in 4 feet of water in 1998. She was resuscitated but died in the hospital 12 days later. An EKG done during the hospitalization was mildly abnormal with a prolonged QT interval. This was dismissed by most cardiologists as probably or not significant when asked to review the EKG. A subsequent genetic analysis of autopsy material revealed a genetic condition associated with a prolonged QT interval, which itself increases the risk of sudden death due to an arrhythmia. Further testing showed her sister, mother and maternal grandfather were found to have the same genetic condition. Most physicians would not even consider a genetic condition as the cause of a drowning, yet making the diagnosis may prevent family members from dying due to an arrhythmia with appropriate treatment.

I attended a talk by Holly Holmes, MD on discontinuing medications. It’s much easier to start a medicine than to stop one, yet medications carry financial costs and may cause side effects. She went over some cases and discussed strategies to decrease medication use. Amusingly she pointed out that not only did she not have any financial disclosures that might cause a conflict of interest, but that no pharmaceutical company would want to pay her to recommend stopping medications!

Besides the vast number of courses, there were also hundreds of vendors from pharmaceutical companies discussing new medications, companies selling books, equipment, massage chairs and gluten free products, and many just providing free information. There were recruiters looking for doctors, and more.

There was also the opportunity to interact with colleagues from around the world. I spoke with some physicians in Canada, and one from Saudi Arabia. I usually attend the ACP national meetings every few years and always come away having learning things that will help my patients, and feeling more invigorated about my profession.

Acid Revelations – Acid Reducers and Asthma in Children

The Journal of the Medical Association recently published an article about the use of lansoprazole (Prevacid) for children with poorly controlled asthma. It had been thought that gastoesophageal reflux disease (GERD) contributed to asthma exacerbations because acid would come up from the stomach and get into the lungs.

By putting tubes down the nose and into the stomach and esophagus it was known that children often have reflux when they have breathing problems, even without having heartburn symptoms. Proton pump inhibitors (PPI’s) such as lansoprazole, omeprazole (Prilosec), pantoprazole (Protonix) and others, markedly decrease the amount of acid produced in the stomach. Even if the contents reflux into the esophagus (think of an old fashioned coffee percolator), there would be less irritation if it was less acidic.

In adults with asthma and reflux symptoms, studies have shown the PPI’s help their lung function. Despite lack of conclusive studies showing benefits in children, its use in them markedly increased between 2000 and 2005. It made intuitive sense and the medications seemed pretty safe.

In this study children with poorly controlled asthma without gastroesophageal reflux (GER) symptoms not only did not do better with lansoprazole, they had more adverse events with increased respiratory infections. There were also six times as many activity related fractures in those on the medication. Although it didn’t quite reach statistical significance because of the relatively small numbers, the PPI’s are known to be associated with osteoporosis in adults.

This illustrates the important difference in statistics between association and causation. Just because two things occur together, doesn’t meant that one causes the other, and even so, it doesn’t mean treating one will treat the other. There is an old joke of a man walking around carrying an umbrella on a sunny day. “Why are you carrying an umbrella when it’s not raining,” asked his friend. “To keep the tigers away,” he replied. “But there are no tigers around here,” his friend objected. “See, it works,” he answered.

The accompanying JAMA editorial called the use of proton pump inhibitors for asthma a case of, “therapeutic creep.” That’s using medications beyond what the scientific evidence shows. This is not necessarily wrong. For example I commonly recommend vitamin D for my patients even though we still don’t have definitive evidence. In such cases, though, it’s good to remember the limits of what we know and beware of potential risks. As Hippocrates reportedly first said, Primum non nocere – First do no harm.

Even my dog’s veterinarian suggested using using over-the-counter Zantac or Pepcid for reflux because my dog sometimes threw up on the rug. Now I don’t feel so bad that I ignored her advice.

Fine Tuning

A typical internal medicine patient has multiple medical problems, such as diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol. Each visit I try and see if there is something to tweak. Perhaps the blood pressure is a little high or the cholesterol is not at goal. Maybe I can switch a medication to a similar one that recently went generic, or use a combination pill to simplify their regimen. I might correct the vitamin D deficiency I usually find, have them change their aspirin to an enteric coated one to lessen the risk of an ulcer, or try and persuade them to get a vaccination to prevent shingles. Most of us have room to improve when it comes to diet and exercise.

With each visit the patient is a little older, and on average, a little sicker. I hope my fine tuning, and occasional overhaul, will keep them going longer and healthier. In the rare visit where the patient has no complaint and I can’t find something to do, I feel like I’m forgetting something. The visit takes longer than it should as I struggle to come up with something other than telling them keep up the good work. That’s usually appreciated by patients, though.