Four Steps to Better Health Through Quality Chiropractic Care
 If you decide to become a patient of a CBP doctor, there are four important steps we ask you to go through: - History of Injury and Examination,
- Postural Analysis (some doctors utilize computerized methods such as the PosturePrint system)
- Spinal X-rays (analyzed either by hand or with use of computer aided systems such as PostureRay),
- Report of Findings - Where the doctor will explain your problems and if he/she can help through application of chiropractic services and the unique recommended plan for your case.
History of Injury and Examination Our History of Injury is designed to determine whether your condition is within the realm of our care. Based upon the results, one of the doctors will make appropriate recommendations regarding an examination or referral to another doctor if your presenting problem is not a chiropractic condition. Most often, your condition will be treatable by our care. A thorough spinal and musculo-skeletal examination will be performed in order to identify which structures of your body are injured and most likely causing your problem. Computerized Postural Analysis  It has been known for years that body posture is like a“Window into the Shape of the Spinal Column”. Figure 1 shows that Abnormal Posture is always associated with an abnormal spine. Body Postural problems aid the doctor of chiropractic in identifying a variety of dysfunctions in the spinal column. Abnormal Postures can cause or relate to a number of health problems. Abnormal Posture causes increased force and pressure on the muscles, ligaments, and bones of your spinal column. These abnormal forces (caused by abnormal posture) lead to a break down of body tissues causing pain and damage.  Figure 2: Postural Decay as we age. Posture Digitization: Postural photographs of you the patient can be obtained, in which a sophisticated computer program known as PosturePrint will objectively measure your postural distortions. These photographs enable the doctor to detect and measure abnormal positions of the human skull, shoulders, ribcage, pelvis, knees, and feet. In other words, he or she can show you how far out of alignment your posture is. This helps explain why you may be hurting as well as aid the doctor in prescribing corrective postural-based exercises unique to CBP rehabilitative methods.   (Click Here to download sample PosturePrint Report of Findings - This PosturePrint Examination is part of your initial patient workup) Spinal X-rays Many patients often ask if a chiropractor should take x-rays of their spines. The answer is simple. Properly taken spinal x-rays are like a blue print of your spine. With x-rays, the chiropractor can see how an individual spine deviates from normal alignment and we can clearly decide on appropriate treatment. Without an x-ray they would only be guessing. Would you want a mechanic to work on your car engine without looking under the hood? For example, the figure below is a sample of common abnormal neck alignment subluxations (viewed from the side) with an estimate on average time needed to rehab such problems. It is clearly evident the further your neck is from the normal, then the longer you will need to perform rehabilitative measures. Please note that these are only generic estimates, as many factors dictate how fast a patient responds such as age, the length of time the problem has been there, amount spinal degeneration, etc.  Another important finding that properly taken x-rays will identify is spinal arthritis. Many people are not even aware that spinal disc disease and bone arthritis are developing in their spines. For many people this is a “time bomb” waiting to explode. Figure 6 below shows an abnormal neck (viewed from the side) with arthritis in the mid neck.  Figure 6: Side view showing arthritis in the Neck Report of Findings The report of findings is a very important part of communication in a CBP chiropractor's office. Before they decide if Chiropractic care is right for you, they will sit down with you (the patient) and explain the findings of the examination, posture analysis, and spinal x-rays. Many times patients tell the CBP chiropractor that other doctors never have shown them their spinal x-rays. This never happens at at a CBP practioner's office. We are confident that you will find that CBP trained chiropractors are very thorough in the search, identification and explanation of your spinal problem. Once they have identified your particular spinal problem, the doctor will recommend an appropriate treatment plan specific to your condition. |
CBP Goals of Care
CBP Technique emphasizes optimal posture and spinal alignment as the primary goals of chiropractic care while simultaneously documenting improvements in pain and functional based outcomes (SeeFigure 1). The uniqueness of CBP treatment is in structural rehabilitation of the spine and posture.In general the goals of CBP Care are:
- Normal Front & Side View Posture
- Center of mass of head, rib cage & pelvis vertically aligned in Front and Side views.
- Normal Spinal Alignment
- Front view: vertical alignment
- Side View: Harrison Ideal or Average Spinal Model
- Normal function
a. Improved Range of Motion and quality of movement,
b. Improved muscle strength,
- Improved Health & Symptom Improvements
- Neck disability index,
- Oswestry low back index,
- SF 36 or Health Status Questionaire
Ideal Postural Alignment
Figure 1. Ideal postural alignment is depicted in both the frontal and side views. In each view, the center of mass of the skull, thorax, and pelvis are in a vertical line with respect to gravity. In the frontal view, the spinal column is vertically aligned-a straight column- with respect to gravity. In the side view, the spine has three primary curvatures which will be described below:
- Neck Curve---Cervical Lordosis,
- Ribcage Curve---Thoracic Kyphosis,
- Low back Curve---Lumbar Lordosis
©CBP Seminars & Deed E. Harrison, LLC.
Ideal Spinal Alignment: Harrison Full Spine Model
As in all fields of study dealing with the human body, i.e. physiology, hematology, anatomy, etc., there exist normal values for alignment of the spine. The Harrison Spinal Model is an evidenced based model for side view spinal alignment. It is the geometric path of the posterior longitudinal ligament or the backs of the vertebra from the 1st neck vertebra to the bottom of the lower back or top of the sacrum. See Figures 2-6 below detailing the Harrison Spinal Model
CBP researchers have extensively published ideal and average models for the human spinal curvatures as viewed from the side. This research has lead to the finding of the ‘Harrison Spinal Model’. This model details both Ideal and Average geometric shapes for the curves of the spine from the side. Additionally, ideal and average ranges for the spinal segmental angles for each of the spinal regions have been identified. The neck or cervical spine should have a geometric shape that approximates a ‘piece of a circle’. The ribcage or thoracic spine should have a geometric shape that approximates an oval-elliptical shape. And the low back or lumbar spine should have a geometric shape that approximates an oval-elliptical shape.26-31
These are “evidence based” models. In fact, the CBP neck-cervical circular model27 and the low back- lumbar elliptical model29 have both been found to have discriminative validity between pain and non pain subjects. In other words, the Harrison Spinal Model has been found to be able identify pain subjects versus non-pain subjects by what their spinal x-ray shapes are.
Figure 3. The three figures above demonstrate the concept that each spinal region has a normal ‘geometry’ or shape of the spinal curves. On the readers left is the Neck or Cervical spine-Here the shape in the neck curve should approximate a piece of a circle. In the Center is the Ribcage or Thoracic spine—Here the shape in the ribcage should approximate a piece of an oval or ellipse. On the Right is the Low back or Lumbar spine—Here the shape in the low back should approximate a piece of an oval or ellipse. ©CBP Seminars & Deed E. Harrison, LLC.
Figure 4. The Harrison Full Spine Model. On the readers left is the exact geometric model of the side view of the spinal curves as identified by Harrison and colleagues. This model can be used to determine what is wrong-abnormal with a given patient’s side view of the spine. For example, a full spine x-ray on the right is shown. The red-curved line represents the Harrison spinal model and this shows where the patient’s spinal vertebra should be lined up. It is apparent that this patient has altered spinal alignment as they do not fit even close to the Harrison Idealized Spinal Model.
©CBP Seminars & Deed E. Harrison, LLC.
