The WHO’s Sources For Opinion On Spinal Manipulative Therapy (Part 6)

The Chiropractic Forward Podcast: Evidence-based Chiropractic Advocacy

CF 315: The WHO’s Sources For Opinion On Spinal Manipulative Therapy (Part 6)

Today we’re going to talk about The WHO’s Sources For Opinion On Spinal Manipulative Therapy (Part 6).

If you’ve been following along, and I hope you have…The WHO updated their recommendations recently for pain. Spinal maniuplative therapy was include so we’re on the menu. But, they rated SMT at very low confidence, which is the same as what they rated ultrasound. So, in the eyes of the WHO, smt may be about as effective as ultrasound. Yeah, we’re call BS so we are going through each paper they used to make this determination and they all, except for a few, are old, outdated, and pretty much stink. We’ll talk about it…. 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 giving evidence-based chiropractic a little personality and making it profitable. We’re not the stuffy, elitist, pretentious kind of research. We’re research talk over a couple of beers. So grab you a bushel.

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, smarts, personality, 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.

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You have found yourself smack dab in the middle of Episode #315 Now if you missed last week’s episode, we talked about Omnivorous vs Vegan and SMT For Chronic Neck Pain. Make sure you don’t miss that info. Keep up with the class.

On the personal end of things…..

Another day, another dollar by friends. Here we are at the end of January 2024 and if all works well and if you’re an insurance or hybrid clinic, then you know that you’ve been a little slower because the deductibles re-set in January for the most part and people don’t like to spend their own money. But, about a month or so is as long as many of them ever want to go without going to the chiropractor and that’s OK.

The point being that hybrid clinics like mine should start seeing increased numbers in February. It may be mid to late February but we should see us start getting busier for sure. In the meantime, I’ve started focusing more and more on marketing. I feel like I’m pretty dangerous when I have the time to be. Right now, I have the time to be. I used to sit around brainstorming ideas for marketing, memes, content, and all that entails. Then I’d create my own original stuff and post it. I haven’t done that in forever it seems but here lately, and unfortunately, I’ve had some extra time to give those things attention again. I like a challenge and so I’m on it. I’ve targeted the demographics I want targeted.

The ones I think that the economy and who happens to be the President will have no control over economically. We’ve re-newed our efforts in getting our message to these people. In addition, we’ve re-newed our efforts in our public outreach. Face to face, person to person outreach. Dan Kennedy says, YCDBSOYA, You can’t do business sitting on your ass. You’re moving forward or falling behind. You’re the window or the bug. You either make things happen in your life or you sit around wonder what the hell just happened. So that’s what’s up with Creek Stone on this Monday, January 29th.

I have 35 on the schedule when I typically have 45. You carry that out throughout the week, that’s 50 less per week which is 200 less appointments per month. That’s unacceptable. I’ve had less new patients lately as well. I think my Google SEO has dimished since going with a very reputable company a few years ago so we switched it up and went with a new website company that I know gets results. That’s brand new. I also got to looking at our new patients demographics and it looks like we’re seeing fewer VA patients recently. That’s worth investigating and diving into. If you’re not doing these thing regularly, might get on it. It’s whack-a-mole folks. You can never hit the auto-pilot button and sit back and just do the work if you’re the owner. It’s a constant battle. Enjoy the great times and ride that wave. When things start popping up out of nowhere, dig in, have some grit, and wait for that next wave. Alright, here we go with the research today.

Item #1

The first one today is called, “Spinal mobilization vs conventional physiotherapy in the management of chronic low back pain due to spinal disk degeneration: a randomized controlled trial” by Krekoukias, et al., published in 2017 in the Journal of Manual Manipulative Therapy. Remember, the citations can be found at chiropractscforward.com under this episode. Krekoukias G, Gelalis ID, Xenakis T, Gioftsos G, Dimitriadis Z, Sakellari V. Spinal mobilization vs conventional physiotherapy in the management of chronic low back pain due to spinal disk degeneration: a randomized controlled trial. J Man Manip Ther. 2017 May;25(2):66-73. doi: 10.1080/10669817.2016.1184435. Epub 2016 Jun 23. PMID: 28559665; PMCID: PMC5430451.

Why They Did It The authors wanted to examine the efficacy of spinal mobilization in subjects with low back pain (LBP) and associated spinal disk degeneration.

How They Did It Seventy-five subjects suffering from chronic LBP were randomly allocated into 3 groups of 25 subjects. Each group received five treatment sessions with the first group receiving manual therapy (MT) (spinal mobilization), the second a sham treatment, and the third conventional physiotherapy (CP) (stretching exercises, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, and massage). Subjects were assessed for their pain intensity using the numerical pain rating scale and for their self-reported disability using the Oswestry and Roland-Morris Questionnaire at baseline and after the completion of the five treatment sessions.

What They Found Paired t-tests showed a significant improvement for all outcome measures in the manual therapy and conventional physiotherapy group. Analysis of covariance revealed that the manual therapy group had significant improvement in all outcome measures in comparison with the sham and conventional physiotherapy group, whereas no significant difference was observed between the sham and conventional physiotherapy group

Wrap It Up Manual Therapy is preferable to conventional physiotherapy in order to reduce the pain intensity and disability in subjects with chronic LBP and associated disk degeneration. The findings of this study may lead to the establishment of spinal mobilization as one of the most preferable approaches for the management of LBP due to disk degeneration.

Item #2 The last one is, “The effectiveness of manual therapy, physiotherapy, and treatment by the general practitioner for nonspecific back and neck complaints. A randomized clinical trial” by Koes published in Spine journal in 1992 and they’re using 1992 to make this determination in 2024 because there’s no better and more current Koes BW, Bouter LM, van Mameren H, Essers AH, Verstegen GM, Hofhuizen DM, Houben JP, Knipschild PG. The effectiveness of manual therapy, physiotherapy, and treatment by the general practitioner for nonspecific back and neck complaints. A randomized clinical trial. Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 1992 Jan;17(1):28-35. doi: 10.1097/00007632-199201000-00005. PMID: 1531552.

Why They Did It As you see in the title of the paper, the plan was to test the effectgiveness of manual therapy, physiotherapy, and treatment by a general practitioner on back and neck pain

How They Did It It was a randomized controlled trial The effectiveness of manual therapy, physiotherapy, continued treatment by the general practitioner, and placebo therapy (detuned ultrasound and detuned short-wave diathermy) were compared for 256 patients with nonspecific back and neck complaints lasting for at least 6 weeks. The principle outcome measures were severity of the main complaint, global perceived effect, pain, and functional status. These are presented for 3, 6, and 12 weeks follow-up.

What They Found Both physiotherapy and manual therapy decreased the severity of complaints more and had a higher global perceived effect compared to continued treatment by the general practitioner. Differences in effectiveness between physiotherapy and manual therapy could not be shown.

Wrap It Up A substantial part of the effect of manual therapy and physiotherapy appeared to be due to nonspecific (placebo) effects. From 1992 – Placebo seems to be why smt appears to be effective. We know that placebo can and should play a part in a patient’s recovery. And we can leverage placebo in our favor too. Placebo has a bad name for some reason. In the biopsychosocial construct we should be using to our advantage all of the time. Encouraging and positive words, little pain free wins….these things play a part in neuroplasticity and moving it in our direction and moving the patient away from chronic pain.

That doesn’t mean that smt is placebo only and there have been plenty of papers shwoing the effectiveness of SMT beyond placebo in teh last 10 years or more. This paper is liteerally 32 years old. What in the holy hell are they using this paper for in 2024? I can’t explain it. To be fair, I suppose the Gate Theory from the 1960s is still relevant so why can’t this paper still be relevant, right?/

But I’d argue that the Gate Theory is gamechanging big stuff. This paper, in my opinion, isn’t in the same ball park with regard to impact and effectiveness. As knowledge base expands, more recent and more relevant knowledge replaces outdated knowledge. This paper should be replaced and not be relevant when recommending SMT for treatment. My two cents. 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.

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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!

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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

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