Therapeutic Laser Therapy

Therapeutic Laser Therapy, is also known as Cold Laser Therapy or Low Level Laser Therapy.  Laser therapy works by injecting photons of visible and invisible light deep into tissues.  Cells contain chromophores and cytochromes in the mitochondria, which has the ability to absorb the light energy and convert it to chemical energy.  This chemical energy is utilized by the tissue on a cellular level to accelerate healing and reduce pain.  There is over 2,000 clinical studies that have proven the success of therapeutic lasers in the healing of neural muscular-skeletal conditions. 

The biostimulating effects of laser include:

• Reduction of pain by increased endorphin release
• Decrease inflammation by increasing lymphatic circulation
• Increased vasodilation to allow oxygen rich blood to injured tissue
• Accelerate tissue regeneration by increased production of enzymes and ATP, used for cell energy
• Speed up the healing process by increased collagen synthesis, which is the basis of all muscles, ligaments and joints

The benefits of laser therapy include:

• non invasive, not painful
• no side effects as the cell cannot be overstimulated
• safe as cold laser does not produce heat and therefore  cannot cause tissue damage
• few contraindications
• effective as able to penetrate up to 4 inches below the skin

The Health Canada approved and Canadian made laser that I just purchased is a Theralase TLC-1000 http://www.theralase.com/. While with all therapies, the individual results may vary, low level laser offers another type of treatment at our multi-disciplinary clinic.

Myth #4: Chiropractic is Addictive

One criticism of chiropractic is that once you start going, you will go for the rest of your life.  The fact of the matter is that there is no cure for back pain, and there is a reoccurence rate of 80% of back pain within one year of the acute episode.  Our bodies are under constant stress, physically from our work, home and play; chemically from the food we eat to the environment we are in; and also mentally from the fast paced lifestyle of today.  Hence chiropractors often recommend two types of maintenance care following an acute episode. 

Supportive care is defined as treatment for patients who have reached maximum improvement, but who fail to sustain this improvement or progressively deteriorate when treatment is withdrawn.  Preventative care is treatment for a patient who has no present symptoms, but seek to prevent pain and disability, promote health and enhance quality of life.  More people are taking charge of their bodies and imbracing wellness and optimal health as opposed to the reactionary medical model who seek care after disease has taken place. 

A well designed medical trial on manipulation in essence adopted the chiropractic model of an initial course of intensive manipulation followed by maintenance treatment at a reduced frequency, and reported this to be effective.  This trial covered three contentious issues in maintenance care:  whether the benefits of spinal manipulation derive from specific treatment or placebo effect; whether there are objective biomechanical benefits of manipulation and whether continued care has a legitimate role.  To view an abstract of this article, click  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21245790

Myth#3: Chiropractic is dangerous

Much publicity has been given to neck manipulation and risk of stroke.  This serious complication is extremely rare, with statistics of vertebral artery damage following neck manipulation at 1 in 1 million adjustments or 0.0001%. The 2000-2010 Task Force on Neck Pain and its Associated Disorders reviewed 32,000 research papers and provided the first definitive evidence on actual risk rate and causation of neck manipulation and vertebrobasiliar artery (VBA) stroke.

The Task Force  analyzed the database covering 109 million person years that recorded all primary medical care practitioner (PCP) and chiropractic (DC) visits and all the VBA stroke admissions in the province of Ontario for eight years.  They concluded that there was no evidence of excess risk of VBA stroke associated with chiropractic compared to primary care.  The slight increase of risk associated with patients consulting either a PCP or DC is "likely due to patients with headache and neck pain from VBA dissection seeking care before their stroke".  They explain that any motion can lead to a stroke where there has already been damage to a vertebral artery, such as turning to back up the car, extending the neck at the hair dresser, or simple range of motion testing which can lead to release of the embolus and cause a stroke. 

For a summary of this report go to http://www.chiropracticcanada.ca/ecms.ashx/Doc/EntireStrokeStudy.pdf