Spinal Stabilization For Chronic Pain & Dry Needling

The Chiropractic Forward Podcast: Evidence-based Chiropractic Advocacy

CF 274: Spinal Stabilization For Chronic Pain & Dry Needling

Today we’re going to talk about a dry needling and we talk about spinal stabilization for chronic back pain.

But first, here’s that sweet sweet bumper music

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OK, we are back and you have found the Chiropractic Forward Podcast where we are making evidence-based chiropractic fun, profitable, and accessible while we make you and your patients better all the way around. We’re the fun kind of research. Not the stuffy, high-brow, look down your nose at people kind of research. We’re research talk over a couple of beers. I’m Dr. Jeff Williams and I’m your host for the Chiropractic Forward podcast. I’m so glad you’re spending your time with us learning together. Chiropractors – I’m hiring at my personal clinic. I need talent, ambition, drive, smart, and easy to get along with associates. If this is you and Amarillo, TX is your speed, send me an email at [e-mail] If you haven’t yet I have a few things you should do.

• Go to Amazon and check our my book called The Remarkable Truth About Chiropractic: A Unique Journey Into The Research. It’s excellent educational resource for you AND your patients. It saves you time putting talks together or just staying current on research. It’s categorized into sections so the information is easy to find and written in a way that is easy to understand for everyone. It’s on Amazon. That’s the Remarkable Truth About Chiropractic by Jeff Williams.
• Then go Like our Chiropractic Forward Facebook page,
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• Last thing real quick, we also have an evidence-based brochure and poster store at com

You have found yourself smack dab in the middle of Episode #274 Now if you missed last week’s episode, we talked about SMT and Fibromyalgia as well as SMT and adverse events. Make sure you don’t miss that info. Keep up with the class.

On the personal end of things….. Today has been a little bit of a whirlwind. In fact the last month or so has been a bit of a whirlwind. I started with a new company called BlueIQ that some of you will be familiar with. What an incredibly powerful tool! Full of functions I’ll never use but full of functions that I will use as well. I have no affiliation with them. Just sharing my experience. My colleague uses them and loves them so I thought I’d give it a try. I’m a bit of a stats nerd after all. Anyway, this thing is like $150/month.

I don’t like my overhead getting any higher than it already is so I went and found things I could cut to make the room. That, honestly, wasn’t very hard to do. I should do more of that, by the way. I’ve had two onboarding calls with them so far and I’m just blown away at all of the cool things it can do as far as tracking my business through implementing with my EHR so it’s up to date. Every hour it updates actually so it’s current to the hour. I always know my stats. Right where I’m at. It sets goals for me and even has a page for team meetings where we can go over our KPIs easily and quickly. I’m kind of blown away by them honestly.

So, super excited about BlueIQ right now. Other than that, just trying to maintain some momentum with clinic numbers. We blew back up and have now kind of slowed again. We were back up to my comfortable 180 or so visits per week. Now, back down to about 150 or so last week.

Just keeping an eye on that and keeping an eye on the newer front desk staff to make sure we’re booking correctly and all that good stuff. Just watching. That’s something that’s on my radar basically. Just got back from the voice over conference in Atlanta last week and headed off to Florida at the end of this month for my quarterly Mastermind meeting with Dr. Kevin Christie and crew. Lots of stuff happening all at once. Such is life and, since it’s a little crazy at the moment, I’mma jump right into the research so let’s do it!

Item #1 The first on today is called, “Immediate Effects of Dry Needing or Manual Pressure Release of Upper Trapezius Trigger Points on Muscle Activity During the Craniocervical Flexion Test in People with Chronic Neck Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial” by Jorge Rodríguez-Jiménez, PT, MSc and published in Pain Medicine on 18 February 2022. Dayum. That’s hot.

Why They Did It To compare the effects of dry needling or manual pressure release on an active trigger point in the upper trapezius on craniocervical flexion test performance, pressure pain thresholds, and cervical range of motion in chronic neck pain.

How They Did It

• Subjects were randomized to receive dry needling (n = 25) or manual trigger point pressure release (n = 25) on upper trapezius active trigger points.
• Surface electromyography from the upper trapezius, splenius capitis, sternocleidomastoid, and scalene muscles during performance of the craniocervical flexion test was assessed before and immediately after the intervention as the primary outcome. Neck pain intensity, range of motion, and pressure pain thresholds were the secondary outcomes.

What They Found

• A decrease in sternocleidomastoid activity at all stages of the craniocervical flexion test (time effect, P < 0.001) was found in both groups after the interventions, with no significant between-group difference.
• Pressure pain thresholds measured over the cervical spine and second metacarpal increased after dry needling when compared with manual trigger point pressure release (P < 0.05). Pain intensity decreased immediately after both treatments with moderate to large effect sizes, whereas cervical range of motion increased for both groups but with small effect sizes.

Wrap It Up

A single session of dry needling or manual pressure release over upper trapezius active trigger points promotes limited effects on muscle performance during the craniocervical flexion test, pressure pain thresholds, and cervical range of motion in patients with chronic neck pain. Before getting to the next one,

Next thing, go to https://www.tecnobody.com/en/products That’s Tecnobody as in T-E-C-nobody. They literally have the most impressive clinical equipment I’ve ever seen. I own the ISO Free and am looking to add more to my office this year or next. The equipment you’re going to find over there can be marketed in your community like crazy because you’ll be the only one with something that damn cool in your office. When you decide you can’t live without those products, send me an email and I’ll give you the hookup. They will 100% differentiate your clinic from your competitors. I have to tell you, Dr. Chris Howson, the inventor of the Drop Release tool re-activated the code! Use the code HOTSTUFF upon purchase at droprelease.com & get $50 off your purchase. Would you like to spend 5-10 minutes doing pin and stretch and all of that? Or would you rather use a drop release to get the same or similar results in just a handful of seconds. I love it, my patients love it, and I know yours will too. droprelease.com and the discount code is HOTSTUFF. Go do it.

Item #2 Our last one this week is called, “Effectiveness of Spinal Stabilization Exercises on Movement Performance in Adults with Chronic Low Back Pain” by Khalid Alkhathami and published in PubMed on 1st Feburary 2023. Hot potato!

Why They Did It The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of spinal stabilization exercises (SSEs) on movement performance, pain intensity, and disability level in adults with chronic low back pain (CLBP).

How They Did It

• Forty participants, 20 in each group, with CLBP were recruited and randomly allocated into one of two interventions: spinal stabilization exercises and general exercises (GEs).
• All participants received their assigned intervention under supervision one to two times per week for the first four weeks and then were asked to continue their program at home for another four weeks.
• Outcome measures were collected at baseline, two weeks, four weeks, and eight weeks, including the Functional Movement Screen (FMSTM), Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS), and Modified Oswestry Low Back Pain Disability Questionnaire (OSW) scores.

What They Found

• There was a significant interaction for the Functional Movement Screen scores (p = 0.016), but not for the Numeric Pain Rating Scale and Modified Oswestry Low Back Pain Disability Questionnaire scores.
• Post hoc analysis showed significant between-group differences between baseline and four weeks (p = 0.005) and between baseline and eight weeks (p = 0.026) favor spinal stabilization exercises over general exercises.
• Further, the results demonstrated that all participants, regardless of group, had significant improvements in movement performance, pain intensity, and disability level over time.

Wrap It Up

The results of the study favor spinal stabilization exercises over general exercises in improving movement performance for individuals with CLBP, specifically after four weeks of the supervised spinal stabilization exercises program. Alright, that’s it. Keep on keepin’ on. Keep changing our profession from your corner of the world. The world needs evidence-based, patient-centered practitioners driving the bus. The profession needs us in the ACA and involved in leadership of state associations. So quit griping about the profession if you’re doing nothing to make it better. Get active, get involved, and make it happen. Let’s get to the message. Same as it is every week.

Store Remember the evidence-informed brochures and posters at chiropracticforward.com.

Purchase Dr. Williams’s book, a perfect educational tool and chiropractic research reference for the daily practitioner, from the Amazon store TODAY!

The Message I want you to know with absolute certainty that when Chiropractic is at its best, you can’t beat the risk vs reward ratio because spinal pain is primarily a movement-related pain and typically responds better to movement-related treatment rather than chemical treatments like pills and shots. When compared to the traditional medical model, research and clinical experience show us patients can get good to excellent results for headaches, neck pain, back pain, and joint pain to name just a few. It’s safe and cost-effective can decrease surgeries & disability and we do it through conservative, non-surgical means with minimal hassle to the patient. And, if the patient treats preventatively after initial recovery, we can usually keep it that way while raising the overall level of health!

Key Point: At the end of the day, patients should have the guarantee of having the best treatment that offers the least harm. When it comes to non-complicated musculoskeletal complaints…. That’s Chiropractic!

Contact Send us an email at dr dot williams at chiropracticforward.com and let us know what you think of our show and tell us your suggestions for future episodes. Feedback and constructive criticism is a blessing and so are subscribes and excellent reviews on podcast platforms. We know how this works by now. If you value something, you have to share it, interact with it, review it, talk about it from time to time, and actively hit a few buttons to support it here and there when asked. It really does make a big difference.

Connect We can’t wait to connect with you again next week. From the Chiropractic Forward Podcast flight deck, this is Dr. Jeff Williams saying upward, onward, and forward.

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About the Author & Host Dr. Jeff Williams – Fellow of the International Academy of Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine (FIANM) and Board Certified Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Professionals (DABFP) – Chiropractor in Amarillo, TX, Chiropractic Advocate, Author, Entrepreneur, Educator, Businessman, Marketer, and Healthcare Blogger & Vlogger

Bibliography

• Rodríguez-Jiménez J. Immediate Effects of Dry Needing or Manual Pressure Release of Upper Trapezius Trigger Points on Muscle Activity During the Craniocervical Flexion Test in People with Chronic Neck Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Pain Medicine. 2022 Feb 18:pabc018. doi: 10.1093/pm/pabc018. PMID: 34902236

• Alkhathami K, Alshehre Y, Brizzolara K, Weber M, Wang-Price S. Effectiveness of Spinal Stabilization Exercises on Movement Performance in Adults with Chronic Low Back Pain. Int J Sports Phys Ther. 2023 Feb 1;18(1):169-172. doi: 10.26603/001c.68024. PMID: 36793568; PMCID: PMC9897033.

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