Matthew Amman Chiropractic

Cervical Neck

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:44:47 CDT

Advertisement 2008

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 08:03:13 CDT

Office Ad 2008

Every year the office aims to reconnect with the community by doing some advertising in various outlets. If you subscribe to the MKE Journal Sentinel you might see this as an insert in the daily paper.

While 99% of our practice is from direct referral, we still like to let the world know we exist.

Till our paths cross.

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Dr. Matt

Vitamin C Protocol & Common Cold

Mon, 19 May 2008 08:05:31 CDT

Getting the common cold stinks, but you can do something to minimize it's symptoms. By following the Vitamin C Common Cold Protocol, your body can get a natural boost to feel better faster. Most people report having symptoms for half as long by taking megadoses of Vitamin C.

Don't get hung up on what type of Vitamin C you take. The manufactured name of ascorbic acid found in 90% of Vitamin C bottles is just fine. But, if you have a sensitive stomach, I would recommend Ester C instead. Oh yea, if you are chewing the tablets, make sure you brush your teeth afterwards because ascorbic acid is destructive to teeth enamel.

Vitamin C and Common Cold Protocol:

@ onset 4 x 500mg

1 hr later 1000mg

500 mg every 2 hours four times thereafter

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Dr. Matt

MTB'ing Fall // Ouch!

Tue, 06 May 2008 11:00:20 CDT

If you think you're a hard-core weekend warrior, think again. This is a great picture taken of a pro mountain biker at Rock Cut State Park in Illinois (April 2008).

http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/4753997_Y9JTY#286029643_LhDU7-A-LB

Sunday: Mountain Bike Race

Monday: Chiropractic Appointment 7:00 AM

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Dr. Matt

Disclosure // Knowledge

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:12:48 CDT

Information provided on this site is not to be considered clinical advice and is not meant to replace a visit to your healthcare provider. Visitors to this site are encouraged to confirm information found here with other sources and to seek qualified advice from qualified professionals.

Dr. Matt

A Model of Chiropractic Care

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:19:52 CDT

Chiropractic has two goals that I try to bring together, much like the picture above.

The first step is addressing acute pain. Typically, a patient begins chiropractic care following an accident, something like a slip or fall resulting in back pain. To that end, the role of the chiropractor is to reposition the bone that misaligned from the slip or fall. Usually after a period of adjustments the patient feels better.

The second aim is optimizing the bone's bio-mechanics. To tell if your bones are properly aligned you can perform a simple test. When seated, have somebody push with mild pressure on the boney spinous processes of your backbone from bottom to top. If you feel tenderness or pain, it is an indication that you spine is misaligned.

Very Minor pain/tenderness = Slight misalignment Moderate/Severe pain = Major misalignment

I often tell patients that when I can push on their spine and they don't feel any pain, mostly likely my job is done. The bone that was tender (and out of place) has been re-seated to its normal position.

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Dr. Matt

Nerves

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:32:43 CDT

Your nervous system is important.

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Dr. Matt

Better Outcomes for Pain

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 09:24:57 CST

The New York Times wrote an interesting piece about current strategies to treat spinal pain.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/health/research/13spine.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

The central issue of accountability was examined and when utilizing conventional methods (Medical care or Physical therapy care), therapeutic effectiveness is questionable.

What strikes me, but not to my surprise, is that chiropractic was not taken into consideration. Even though chiropractic is a large "alternative" profession, it has garnered little attention by social health and public health officials, especially at the Agency for Health Care Policy Research. This group is the recognized authority by the government (and apparently newspapers) regarding health care policy. (Personally, I think the agency does a great job.)

I suspect that as the "knowledge base" of chiropractic science grows because of grants from the National Institute of Health (NIH), the stance by Agency for Health Care Policy Research will change toward chiropractic--probably, in the next few decades.

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Chiropractic, as evident by its survival despite 75 years of American Medical Association's (AMA) resistance, offers relief to spinal pain. In my five plus years of private practice, I have noticed the following benefits in my patients:

1. Decreasing, and in many cases the elimination of pain from:

Headaches, Migraines,

Neck pain, Middle Back Pain, Lower Back Pain,

Numbness, Tingling, Radiculopathies, Sciatica

2. Increasing Health as noted by:

Overall feeling of relaxation

Better spinal range of motion

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Dr. Matt

The Role of Science in Health

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 12:06:27 CST

This is a wonderful book by Thomas S. Kuhn titled The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Kuhn). Although discussing the emerging chiropractic paradigm is beyond the scope of this blog, it warrants being causally mentioned here.

Chiropractic (I argue rightfully so in the context of current human comprehension models) is validating itself according to the rules of the experimental science (which allopathic medicine started doing in twentienth century). Namely, chiropractors are drawing positive conclusions on the effectiveness of spinal adjustments for specific conditions like pain associated with a lumbar disc herniation. This scholarly endeavor is a wonderful task to meet the world at its current position.

However, chiropractic in its formative years started with the paradigm of one-cause one-cure. Meaning that a misaligned spinal bone depressed the function of the nervous system making the body susceptible to disease (a naturopathic concept). Value was placed upon the status of the nervous system (not the genetic code) to optimize/regain health. It was a wonderful and naive idea that later proved wrong for various reasons. Yet I believe that the profession's orginal intent, athough wrong, was admirable. Ironically, seeking out the ultimate cause of disease was similar to our quest of alchemy in the middle ages. Out of both quests came great understanding.

Despite the flop of our original paradigm, chiropractic has transformed itself to exist quite successfully in today's healthcare system. By being holistic & naturopathic instead of mechanistic & allopathic, the profession is recognized as being natural in a growing synthetic world. [For clarification of these words please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiropractor .]

As Kuhn argued later in his life, the construct we call "science" is likely to be replaced by another construct. If so, maybe this new construct will solve the riddle of human disease. For the sake of everybody, I hope it does.

Dr. Matt

Living to 100 - The Havard Health Letter

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 11:39:02 CST

100+ qualifies you for the centenarian club. 110+ qualifies you for the supercentenarian club. Here's a link to the Havard Health Letter on the topic of Living to 100:

http://www.health.harvard.edu/downloads/Living_to_100.pdf

The obvious traits are don't smoke, keep trim, get exercise, manage stress (a tough one for most people), and avoid social isolation.

I speak on this topic a great deal in corporate america trying to instill the value of making good choices. Health is a choice and that choice is yours. Although I break down the topic into ten steps, its a simple message of moderation.

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Dr. Matt

2008 Current Status of Chiropractic Research

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 13:05:32 CST

Today I did an exciting presentation at Milwaukee's VA hospital on the topic of lumbar disc herniation. It was a summary on the current evidence supporting the case for chiropractic care. Wow, the research is much better today than it was fifteen or even ten years ago.

It seems that scholarly research is feathering out the details regarding the effectiveness of side-posture adjustments/manipulation for patients suffering from pain associated with a lumbar disc herniation. For decades, chiropractic research was aiming to establish the very basis that chiropractic did in fact help people with low back pain, neck pain, etc., but today the answers are revealing that certain techniques/approaches are better than others, especially in regards to certain conditions (scoliosis, migraines, disc herniations).

For example, those techniques defined as Palmer Package, Diversified, or generalized osteopathic manipulation yield good results for low back pain determined of mechanical origin and arguably slightly less than good results for low back pain resulting from a lumbar disc herniation. However, when utilizing techniques such as Gonstead or Cox Flexion-Distraction better patient outcomes appear.

Comparing X technique to Y technique for Z condition is still a few years away in chiropractic research, but in looking at the details of some of the most recent research studies, the Gonstead technique may be rising to the top regarding the care for lumbar disc herniation--something I love working on.

For the audience's pleasure, I have a link to a wonderful review on the current state of chiropractic research that tackles everything from headaches to low back pain. Again, caution has to be used when reading such documents because ongoing research can often be at odds with previous results. The evidence for chiropractic for specific ailments is growing and helping to clarify the role of chiropractic according to the rules of the allopathic healthcare system.

http://healthlibrary.epnet.com/print.aspx?token=af362d97-4f80-4453-a175-02cc6220a387&chunkiid=37431

Dr. Matt

Ideal Posture

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 08:33:59 CST

Posture is an exhaustive topic that I cover in great deal in my tips page:

http://www.matthewamman.com/tips/item/10

A picture is worth a thousand words and in regards to posture, nothing could be closer to the truth:

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Dr. Matt

Year Review

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 17:12:02 CST

2007 was a busy year for the team here at the office. We put forth a lot of work promoting ourselves in corporate america and the returns were favorable. We look forward to working with our corporate clients, helping them educate their employees about healthy habits and non-invasive healthcare.

Right now, my web designer and I are working on bringing my corporate speaking information online. In years past, we used "snail" mail to forward information regarding our various presentations which included: How to Live to 100, Vitamins and Supplementation, The Seven Behaviors of Successful Weight Management. If you would like to learn more, send me a note. I am more than happy to get the information out there.

In my holiday letter to my patients and corporate clients at the end of this year, I reported that we had a 94% success rate. That means that 94% of the time we were able to help patients feel 90% or better as indicated by pain level measures and /or questionnaires (Neck Pain Disability Index Questionnaire, RAND 36 Item Health Survey, etc.). Documentation of improvement allows me to make sure I'm doing my job: getting you to feel better.

I still feel that the Gonstead approach with its specificity allows for better results, especially in the thoracic and thoraco-lumbar region using the Knee-Chest table. The art of adjusting is a personal pursuit of mine and I love using this table to properly release spinal fixations (subluxations).

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Dr. Matt

2008 Safest Cars

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:46:13 CST

Every year, I get a number of new patients from car accidents. In variably, I ask what kind of car they were driving and the models vary from Fords to Volvo. Some people walk away from horrific accidents with nothing more than a few scatches while others in fender benders can hardly move their necks for weeks. There seems to be little rhyme or reason for the differences.

When choosing a vehicle, I advocate that we must consider safety first, cost second, and amenities/options third. Too often, we get fooled by marketing efforts to buy a gas guzzling, expensive, and unsafe vehicle. Some of you maybe greener than others and choose a hybrid or diesel, but as a chiropractor who deals with car accidents victims, its a tradegy to have chronic neck pain as a result of an improperly constructed head restraint. The same amount of due diligence is required for buying a car that protects your body (especially your spine) as when you buy a car seat for your newborn child.

Here are safest cars for 2008 www.iihs.org

Please note, not all manufactured cars were tested by the Institute. Another list is found at http://www.forbes.com/2007/05/11/car-safe-vehicle-forbeslife-cx_dl_0514safecars.html

Post Adjustment Responses

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 09:21:25 CST

Having your body adjusted is weird. I recognize that and to comfort my patients I tell them that the physiological response to a spinal adjustment varies. Some feel a little sore from it while others feel immediate relief. Regardless, after the first few adjustments patients tend to feel better.

Even though this is the status quo, I have witnessed a few radical responses. A few patients, especially those with a high level of nervous energy, start laughing hysterically for a few seconds immediately after a cervical or upper thoracic adjustment. This non-typical response usually only presents after the first adjustment after which the patient can calm down and feel much more comfortable with the idea of getting their spine adjusted.

The other radical response I have witnessed is deep sighing. Ironically, I ran across this specific response in my favorite book Power Vs. Force by David Hawkins, PhD, MD www.veritaspub.com He writes:

The human central nervous system clearly has an exquisitely sensitive capacity to differentiate between life supporting and life-destructive patterns. High power attractors patterns, which make the body go strong, release endorphins and have a tonic effect on all the organs...this clinical phenomenon forms the basis for such treatments as chiropractic.

So the next time you get adjusted and feel the need to take a deep breath. Relax and let your body (and bones) respond naturally to their new position of ease.

Preface

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 08:55:30 CST

The world contains a spectrum of information that we seek to discern to make choices that support our life. Making choices that nurture our bodies is the result of aligning our behavior with positive attractor patterns. Behaviors aligned with positive attractor patterns yields vibrant health and well-being. As healers, we doctors bear the responsibility of being “health” guides for our patients because we know the path. This blog and website is my attempt to identify positive attractor patterns for your use to become and stay healthy.

Dr. Matt