John Anderson's List: Physical Therapy

1. Chiropractic: An Introduction. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. June 18, 2012. Available at: http://nccam.nih.gov/health/chiropractic/introduction.htm. Accessed October 29, 2013.

This article is provided by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. They did research and cited nearly a dozen reliable sources for this article and desire for it to be reproduced. Having been reviewed by peers, it would be changed if found incorrect so this is a reliable source on chiropractic treatment. The article begins by giving some history as to the origin of chiropractic treatment and then what follows is modern day application.. It gives a basic history of how chiropractic treatment started with the Greeks as “spinal manipulation” 2 and then continues into treatment administered by doctors. The article talks about spinal manipulation as being the main treatment, but the chiropractors may also use heat and cold, exercise, counseling, etc. Finally it closes with the safety and science of the field of chiropractic treatment resulting in factual concise summary of what a chiropractor does. This will be very useful in understanding the different methods and history that chiropractors use in treatment and also provide some information on specific scientific studies done within chiropractic treatment.

2.  Chiropractic. NYU Langone Medical Center. 2013. Available at: http://www.med.nyu.edu/
content?ChunkIID=37431#. Accessed on October 30, 2013.

This article is written by the New York University Medical Center as a comprehensive view of chiropractic treatment. They go through the process starting with an extremely detailed description of the history behind chiropractic treatment. It then continues on and discusses the main form of chiropractic treatment, which is spinal manipulation. After detailing this, the writer discusses why chiropractic treatment is necessary for people who have injuries and pains in their body. To do this effectively each type of major pain or injury such as back and neck are described in detail. Finally, it closes out with the safety concerns of chiropractic treatment. This article will be extremely helpful as a comparison with other articles on the method of spinal manipulation. It also details specific issues such as back pain or neck problems being treated and that is helpful for determining if chiropractic treatment works to solve pain or injury problems in a person.

3. Harriet Hall. Adverse Effects of Chiropractic. Science Based Medicine. 2013. Available at: http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/adverse-effects-of-chiropractic/. Accessed October 30, 2013.

This article is written about the long-term effects of chiropractic treatment based off 46 different studies. These range from case studies to randomized trials, surveys, and more. Harriet Hall goes through these different studies and lists the different side effects of receiving chiropractic treatment. She qualifies the information as not conclusive, but factually based on her research and studies of people who have been through the treatment. At the end, the sources are cited allowing for follow up research and proving that the research done is unbiased and valid so while inconclusive I will be using her information as facts representing physical therapy. Hall goes through the article analyzing each study done with the quantity of people participating and their results. Most of the research revolves around how the patient feels after receiving treatment. These feelings include a patient’s headaches, vertigo, and other symptoms along with the possibility of strokes. After analyzing each study individually, Hall writes a detailed conclusion bringing all the facts together. While the facts are inconclusive, I believe there is validity in them for simply being facts and showing a certain trend in the research. This source will be valuable in comparing the long-term effects of chiropractic treatment. The surveys done with people receiving actual chiropractic treatment will give great insight into how people feel about the treatment and whether it is effective or not in the short and potentially long run.

4. The History of Physical Therapy. Network Synergy Group. 2013. Available at: http://www.network-synergy.com/news/the-history-of-physical-therapy.aspx. Accessed October 30, 2013.

A physical therapy management group writes this article. The people belonging to the group and also writing this article are well versed and experienced in physical therapy and are considered credible in the physical therapy world. The majority of the article focuses on the past or history of physical therapy. In concordance, with other sources, they discuss how the methods of physical therapy relate all the way back to Greece where it was first used in their medical practices. Ever since the beginning, physical therapy has been used to “treat muscle and bone disorders and disabilities”4 and eventually diseases. It continues into the 1900’s where it will discuss how physical therapy was used to help people with polio and also the injured of the World Wars. This is when it expanded greatly to treat “neuromuscular area”4 and also develop new technologies for improving physical therapy. This is the greatest detail that I could find on the history of physical therapy and it definitely follows closely to other sources found. When comparing the beginnings and development of physical therapy it will be extremely useful in giving a complete background.

5. Physical Therapy - Facts and Information. Disabled World. Available at: http://www.disabled-world.com/medical/rehabilitation/therapy/. Accessed October 30, 2013.

Disabled World published this article to discuss physical therapy as a form of treatment for anyone who has been disabled by age, actions, or unfortunate circumstances. They begin by defining physical therapy in their own terms as a basis for the rest of the article and to show why people decide to use physical therapy. Their definition follows closely to most other definitions of the purpose of physical therapy. The article then continues by giving a summary of what a physical therapist will be like and their purpose in being a therapist. Finally, it talks about the specific treatment that a patient will receive from a physical therapist. How they will work on regaining mobility, flexibility, and strength. This article is similar to others I have read about physical therapy, but does extrapolate on why a patient would be seeking a therapist. After the article valid sources are provided strengthening the validity of what is written about. This article is useful in determining why people visit a physical therapist. This may include different illnesses or physical limitations that a physical therapist could be able to improve.

6. Physical Therapy - Types of Physical Therapy. WebMD: Pain Management Health Center. March 18, 2011; Available at: http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/tc/physical-therapy-types-of-physical-therapy. Accessed October 29, 2013.

This article is from the WebMD website and is made credible by the authors having experience and knowledge of the medical field. It is peer reviewed by people within the medical profession and can be considered an accurate and reliable source on physical therapy. The article begins by listing a few different exercises that a physical therapist will instruct a patient to do when being rehabilitated. These include stretching the muscles, some type of walking or jogging if the legs are having trouble, lifting, and strengthening of the muscles being treated. Physical therapists try to work the muscle thoroughly to slowly, but surely regain lost movement. The article then goes on to give numerous manual treatments applied to the patient from the physical therapist. These are methods like massage, movement or pressure, and manipulation. As I read through the article it gives detailed descriptions of how heat, cold, electrical stimulation and hydrotherapy are also used in the physical therapy process. This article does a great job of listing and providing detailed and reliable information on the different methods involved in physical therapy. It will be helpful in a complete comparison of chiropractic treatments and physical therapy treatments by detailing the physical therapy side.

7. Top 4 Reasons People Seek Chiropractic Treatment. Premier Chiropractic and Sports Medicine. August 25, 2013. Available at: http://drpremiere.com/top-4-reasons-people-seek-chiropractic-treatment/. Accessed October 30, 2013.

This article is from a blog written by chiropractors on the subject of chiropractic treatment. They have a professional opinion on the subject and it is definitely good to learn the opinions of people currently in the practice. The full article details different reasons why a person might decide to visit a chiropractor and get treatment from one. They break the reasons into four different categories of back, shoulder, hip and knee, and ankle injuries or pains. Within each section the authors give a detailed description how the injury or pain might have come about and also why the patient will need chiropractic treatment for the problem. Their information is similar in subject, with a greater focus on reasons for treatment, to other pieces of writing by experts in the field and does not contradict anything I have found else ware. For these reasons I view this blog as credible and a valuable opinion of those in the profession. This will be benifical in comparing with physical therapy why people would visit a chiropractor and to see if the reasons are the same or different.

8. William T. Jarvis. Why Chiropractic Is Controversial (1990). Chiropractic: Controversial Health Care. February 9, 2000. Available at:http://www.chirobase.org/01General/controversy.html. Accessed October 29, 2013.

The Author, William T. Jarvis has obtained his Ph.D. and is a “retired professor from Loma Linda University School of Medicine” 3. He is also the President of “the National Council Against Health Care Fraud” 3 giving him great credibility on the subject of medicine and specifically chiropractic treatment. He has written numerous articles on chiropractic treatment and this one is focused on the history, science, and different theories of chiropractic treatment. Through numerous sources referenced in his article, Jarvis delves into a detailed description of chiropractic treatment. His facts such as those relating chiropractic treatment back to ancient Greece and those related to methods both could be found in other articles and books showing that this information is consistent and true. Jarvis tells that chiropractors mainly use spinal manipulation therapy (SMT) as the main form of treatment. After discussing the facts behind chiropractic treatment he gives a lengthy detail of the scientific shortcomings, which will be useful in a comparison with physical therapy. This article is a great resource on the different factions of chiropractors and showing in detail what is different about them. It will include faults in the practice and what parts of the science do not add up in chiropractic treatment.

9. Daniel C. Cherkin, Richard A. Deyo, Michele Battie, Janet Street, William Barlow. A Comparison of Physical Therapy, Chiropractic Manipulation, and Provision of an Educational Booklet for the Treatment of Patients with Low Back. The New England Journal of Medicine [serial online]. 1998;339:1021-2029. Available at: http://www.yogamedics.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Comp_PT_chiro_manip_edu_b ooklet_for_treatment_of_LBPain_New_Eng_J_Med.pdf. Accessed November 4, 2013.

This is an article written in a famous medial Journal in England. The authors all have either their M.D. or Ph.D. or another highly accredited academic status. These give both the writing in the article and the studies done credibility and reliability.  The authors write about back pains in people and the different approached to treatment a patient can receive.  The different options are chiropractic treatment, physical therapy, and a booklet, which tells the patients how to treat themself.  They go through the article explaining exactly what happened in the treatments and their individual results.  Along with written explanations they provide charts of the patients responses and a description as to what each chart means.  This article will give me a look into scientific studies of both chiropractic treatment and physical therapy and will be very useful in comparing the two and how patients feel their treatment went.