Recently, I have been fielding a lot of questions about surgical interventions, stem cell therapies, lasers and different types of muscle testing. It always kind of puts me into an awkward situation, as I don’t do any of these therapies. If you come into the office, I’m going to give you a straight forward answer when it comes to these therapies but for the most part I don’t know enough about the options to give you a valid answer.

Stem cells are currently not FDA approved for most any treatments. While there are numerous outlets, including chiropractors that claim to cure just about anything under the sun with stem cells. Shop with caution, knowing that none of these claims have actually been approved for the “said” use. For the most part, if your insurance does not cover the procedure, odds are it has not been deemed useful enough for wide spread use.

Another therapies that I don’t really know much about is muscle testing. Patients will come into the offices and indicate that so-and-so made me hold a bottle of supplements and my arm was held out and I tested strong for this supplement, he now wants me to take a few supplements. I have never taken any courses on applied kinesiology or muscle testing when it comes to supplements. I’m not necessarily against this practice, but if you ask me, I’m going to tell you that I don’t know enough about the practice to make an informed comment.

I’m not opposed to laser, I’ve actually considered getting one for the offices, but I don’t find that I can justify the price and charge patients for its use when it is not a covered service with your insurance. I think it can actually be a very useful therapy but I personally think that a patient wants to “feel” what is happening when it comes to therapy. Most people will not feel anything with a laser. When the time is up, you don’t really feel anything happening and then I have to charge you cash for the therapy.

Lastly, I’m not anti-surgery either. Sometimes surgery may be the only option for pain relief. But just remember, all doctors have their specialty and knowledge. The old saying of surgeons do surgery is not necessarily true today as insurance companies will normally force some sort of conservative care for chronic musculoskeletal cases. If you present to the office with any number of red flags and a referral is necessary, then that may be the decision that is coming. I actually kick myself sometimes as I feel that I may fold my cards sooner rather than later.

With all of this being said, I am starting to get to a point in practice that if a case presents with signs and symptoms that I don’t feel comfortable with, I have no problem sending you on your way with hardly any treatment from our office. I like to treat headaches, low back pain and most musculoskeletal complaints. I don’t deal a lot with internal disorders as some chiropractors do and I don’t deal with babies that I am not familiar with. Rest assured, that if you are being treated at either office I am perfectly comfortable treating your condition.