Chiropractic Research Update | November 2019

This week we’re hitting you with the most pertinent research gathered from last month’s published literature. Over 1,000 articles were scoured and summarized into the following 11 summaries -- it doesn’t get easier to stay up-to-date than this.

✅ What’s in: Friction massage, dry cupping, swimming

❌ What’s out: Tylenol, measuring cervical curves, smoking

Check out what the research is saying.

1. Cervical HVLA Helps TMD

“Our study suggests that HVLA manipulation of the upper cervical spine with neck exercise can be effective for the treatment of pain and dysfunction in patients with chronic TMD.”

2. Do Cervical Curves Matter?

“Non-lordotic cervical alignment was related to the progression of disk degeneration at C7-T1 but not other levels. Cervical alignment did not affect the development of clinical symptoms in healthy subjects.”

Okada E, Daimon K, Fujiwara H, Nishiwaki Y, Nojiri K, Watanabe M, Katoh H, Shimizu K, Ishihama H, Fujita N, Tsuji T. Twenty-year Longitudinal Follow-up MRI Study of Asymptomatic Volunteers. Clinical spine surgery. 2018 Dec 1;31(10):446-51. Link

3. New Test for Ankle Instability

The Anterolateral Drawer Test is an evaluation for ankle instability. But this new variation may be even better: “The reverse anterolateral drawer test is more sensitive and accurate in diagnosing chronic ATFL injuries (than the original). Sensitivity and specificity were both greater than 85%.”

Li Q, Tu Y, Chen J, Shan J, Yung PS, Ling SK, Hua Y. Reverse anterolateral drawer test is more sensitive and accurate for diagnosing chronic anterior talofibular ligament injury. Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy. 2019 Sep 26:1-8. Link

4. Deep Friction Massage Helps Patellar Tendinopathy

“It was shown that deep friction massage induces an immediate reduction in pain intensity upon palpation, regardless of the pressure performed.”

Chaves P, Simões D, Paço M, Silva S, Pinho F, Duarte JA, Ribeiro F. Deep Friction Massage in the Management of Patellar Tendinopathy in Athletes: Short-Term Clinical Outcomes. Journal of Sport Rehabilitation. 2019 Sep 30;1(aop):1-6. Link

5. Prevalence of Generalized Hypermobility

Generalized joint hypermobility was diagnosed in 18.4% of 822 school children, aged 10 and 15 years.

Bozkurt S, Kayalar G, Tezel N, Güler T, Kesikburun B, Denizli M, Tan S, Yilmaz H. Hypermobility Frequency in School Children: Relationship With Idiopathic Scoliosis, Age, Sex and Musculoskeletal Problems. Archives of Rheumatology. 2019 Jun;34(3):268. Link

6. Rehabbing FAI with Pelvic Tilts

“Abduction and posterior pelvic tilt increased the impingement-free ROM in the hips with FAI. Thus, rehabilitation aimed at altering the tilt of the pelvis may reduce the frequency of impingement and limit further joint damage.”

Patel RV, Han S, Lenherr C, Harris JD, Noble PC. Pelvic Tilt and Range of Motion in Hips With Femoroacetabular Impingement Syndrome. JAAOS-Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. 2019 Oct 9. Link

7. Lumbar Degeneration Progression

“Our current study found that each individual joint degeneration influences the other two in the lumbar 3-joint complex. Facet tropism was significantly associated with lumbar disc degeneration. Narrowing of the intervertebral disc height probably aggravates the facet joint degeneration further at the same level.”

Song Q, Liu X, Chen DJ, Lai Q, Tang B, Zhang B, Dai M, Wan Z. Evaluation of MRI and CT parameters to analyze the correlation between disc and facet joint degeneration in the lumbar three-joint complex. Medicine. 2019 Oct 1;98(40):e17336. Link

8. Two More Reasons to Quit Smoking

“Lumbar disc degeneration increased significantly with tobacco usage.”

“Tobacco smoking is an important risk factor of the long head of the biceps tendon  disease, which essentially intensifies the degeneration of the tendinous tissue.”

Doğan A, Doğan K, Taşolar S. Magnetic resonance imaging evaluation of the effects of cigarette and maras powder (smokeless tobacco) on lumbar disc degeneration. Clinical neurology and neurosurgery. 2019 Nov 1;186:105500. Link

Zabrzyński J, Szukalski J, Szwedowski D, Grzanka D. Cigarette smoking intensifies tendinopathy of the LHBT. A microscopic study after arthroscopic treatment. Polish journal of pathology: official journal of the Polish Society of Pathologists. 2019;70(2):134-8. Link

9. Rx for Lumbar Disc Herniation: Swim

“Collectively, the present data suggest that swimming can significantly reduce nerve root pain and inhibit inflammatory reaction in lumbar disc herniation, which can have positive effects on the treatment.”

Huang Y, Zhong Z, Yang D, Huang L, Hu F, Luo D, Yan L, Wang R, Zhang L, Hu X, He J. Effects of swimming on pain and inflammatory factors in rats with lumbar disc herniation. Experimental and therapeutic medicine. 2019 Oct 1;18(4):2851-8. Link

10. Skip the Tylenol for LBP

“Paracetamol (Tylenol) is ineffective for acute LBP even for patients who comply with treatment. This reinforces the notion that management of acute LBP should focus on providing patients advice and reassurance without the addition of paracetamol.”

Schreijenberg M, Christine CL, Mclachlan AJ, Williams CM, Kamper SJ, Koes BW, Maher CG, Billot L. Paracetamol is ineffective for acute low back pain even for patients who comply with treatment: complier average causal effect analysis of a randomized controlled trial. Pain. 2019 Aug. Link

11. Dry Cupping + Exercise for Plantar Fasciitis

“Adding dry cupping on calf trigger points to self-stretching and ankle dorsiflexion exercises for patients with plantar heel pain was superior to only self-stretching and active ankle dorsiflexion exercises in pain, ankle dorsiflexion ROM, and plantar flexor strength.”

AlKhadhrawi N, Alshami A. Effects of myofascial trigger point dry cupping on pain and function in patients with plantar heel pain: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies. 2019 May 23. Link

Talk about an easy button for staying up-to-date this month. But that’s only a small piece of the battle… staying at the top of your Clinical “A – Game” means applying the new data into your assessments, treatments, exercises, and patient education…

If only that had an easy button…

Well guess what: there IS.

You know & love ChiroUp for the research updates, but we also offer a really cool online platform that allows you to easily incorporate everything mentioned above. 

Your easy button is just a click away -- see why ChiroUp is the #1 online platform for chiropractors worldwide.

Check out this video to learn more, then visit our website to start your free trial today.