Barriers to Care: Opioids Are Cheap and Easy New research on coverage policies confirm what my patients and I have known for years By Sherry McAllister, DC A recent study published in JAMA Open Network seems to confirm what I and my patients have known for years: health insurers are steering their members toward pharmacological, often opioid-based, management for chronic pain. The study, “Coverage of Nonpharmacologic Treatments for Low Back Pain Among U.S. Public and Private Insurers,” shows tha...

In a society where we’ve so long approached our health from the medical perspective of diagnosing a problem and treating it, drug- and surgery-free chiropractic care’s approach of enabling the body to operate at its maximum is a unique concept. But when you look at chiropractic care from that angle, not waiting until low back pain or tech neck sends you to the doctor of chiropractic for relief but proactively strengthening your body’s neuro-musculoskeletal system before issues arise, you climb t...

You might wonder why, with 115 Americans dying every day from opioid overdoses, F4CP even needs to raise awareness about available drug-free pain management. Then, among all the statistics pouring out, comes one pointing out that less than 20 percent of the public consider chronic pain a major health problem. Chronic pain affects more people than diabetes, cancer and heart disease combined, according to the PAINS Project. While it might be easy to dismiss the overdoses as an urban problem confin...

One minute, you’re thinking about how good that Italian sausage you just picked up is going to make your spaghetti dinner taste. The next, a blur of white racing in from the next lane drives any thought of dinner from your mind. You’re in a crash; police car lights are flashing and first-responders want to know if you’re all right. It’s a dizzying experience as your mind inventories everything that happened and absorbs all that’s changed. And as surely as you’ll send your vehicle to the shop to ...