Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of The Ankylosing Spondylitis Podcast. This week I wanted to talk about chiropractic care. You know, that's probably one of the few topics that when brought up online will really can develop into some heated conversations about should you or should you not? And so I thought I'd take a little bit of a look at this discusson further, you know, issues around chiropractic care.
With ankylosing spondylitis, we're all just trying to alleviate as much of the pain that is associated with ankylosing spondylitis as we can. And at its basic core, you'd think that chiropractic care would make a lot of sense since it revolves around the spine, the musculoskeletal system. And you'd think, wow, that really could be a good addition to my overall care. But you have to kind of look at it in the context of how much you're fused with Ankylosing Spondylitis. Back in 2015, the American College of Rheumatology recommended against the use of any type of spinal manipulation, which is one of their tenants of how they deal with you and how they treat you. But a study done in 2016 of patients that had seen chiropractors and then were later diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis is that it was found that that chiropractic care actually pushed them to go see, to look further into their back pain. 3300 plus people with ankylosing spondylitis were looked at, and it was found that about 7% of those people were ultimately diagnosed by a rheumatologist and they had first been seen by a chiropractor. That was me, by the time I was diagnosed in 1984. I had been seeing a chiropractor for several years before that, and it was him that finally pushed me to go see a rhuematologist, and that was where the ultimate diagnosis of Ankylosing Spondylitis came in. So, is that a bad thing that they started off there? Maybe not. It's really going to boil down to how early in the diagnosis they were.
The Spondylitis Association of America specifically advises against back and neck manipulation by a chiropractor. They think that it could lead to additional injury of the spine when you have spinal fusion, and that's a very solid concern. “Chiropractic therapy is often useful for low back pain, but I would not suggest it for a person with ankylosing spondylitis” says Dr. Allen Fox, a rheumatologist and Professor of Internal Medicine and Chief of the Division of Rheumatology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. And as a side note, I did a whole interview with Dr. Fox, Episode Number 42. Back in March of this year, and I'll have a link to that episode in the show notes The Spondylitis Association of America also goes on to say the traditional hands on manipulations used in chiropractic care involve moving the joints around in order to achieve therapeutic goals, such as easing pain, and correcting alignment problems. However, people with ankylosing spondylitis may have joint damage that can become worse or result in a fracture with such forceful pressure for a person with ankylosing spondylitis. “The spine may have become fused in this makes it more susceptible to injury”, Dr. Fox says that's why people with ankylosing spondylitis who are interested in chiropractic care should find a chiropractor who has experienced specifically with ankylosing spondylitis, and using the gentler techniques.
So what is chiropractic care? Well, chiropractic care typically involves as we've said manual therapy. It is including anything from stretching and sustained pressure to spinal manipulation. Chiropractors are trained to treat a variety of conditions but their focus is on improving joint motion and function of the musculoskeletal system. They often focus on back pain, neck pain, and pain in your arms or legs. The manual adjustments that chiropractors are most known for are usually paired with other treatments. This includes soft tissue therapies, lifestyle recommendations, fitness, coaching, and...
