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In early April, the world watched as 21-year-old Jordan Spieth became the second-youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament, one of golf’s elite tournaments.

Spieth credited his team for his stellar performance, including chiropractor Dr. Troy Van Biezen. Four out of five golfers experience back pain due to the repetitive motion of swinging a golf club, and Spieth said that he has received chiropractic care since he was 14 and continues to receive care daily to maintain optimum health and overall athletic performance. 

Instrument-assisted soft-tissue mobilization (IASTM) is on the rise among health care practitioners, especially doctors of chiropractic (DCs). In fact, more than 16,000 clinicians are now using the technique worldwide, using tools like PHS Chiropractic’s Fluid Motion Soft Tissue Tools. The benefits are huge—not only for patients but for DCs too. Caitlin Lukacs of ACA News explains.

This is the first of many blogs, infographics, and eBooks in the "Take the Lead: Tech Neck to Perfect Posture" series focusing on engaging and challenging doctors around the world to Take the Lead in their communities to begin changing people’s lives by integrating cervical curve remodeling and posture correction into their existing treatment protocols. 

It’s obvious that Posture has become the new buzzword surrounding physical health and wellbeing over the past few years. We don’t have to look very far to understand why. Though there are many potential causes for poor posture, there’s no doubt the most widespread cause of our current posture dilemma is a direct result of our obsession with and our dependence on mobile devices. Tablets, smartphones and other technologies are not only a luxury but a necessity in our day-to-day lives.  

Lateral Epicondylopathy, or Tennis Elbow as it is commonly known, is the term used to describe a painful condition of the outside elbow. This pain usually occurs as a result of overuse of the tendons in your elbow, from repetitive motions of the arm and wrist.

Chiropractic adjustment may be the meat of your practice, but soft tissue manipulation is the side dish that shouldn't be ignored. 

Often, patients present with soft tissue issues related to the ligaments, tendons and muscles, or they may require soft tissue manipulation as an adjunct to chiropractic care. 

While there are many forms of soft tissue manipulation, often offered in conjunction with a massage therapist or physical therapist, DCs themselves most often use instrument-assisted soft tissue manipulation (or mobilization). By using a variety of specially shaped tools, you can successfully and gently relieve soreness and pain in the soft tissues. As a result, instrument assisted soft tissue manipulation (IASTM) has a firm place in today's chiropractic practice. 

There’s no question that low-level laser therapy can help boost your chiropractic practice by providing an added dimension that no other modality can do. And there’s also no question that you can bill for laser therapy—but there are two issues that can make the billing process difficult.

Many experts are now advising that practitioners hold off on icing injuries.

When used too long, ice can actually impede healing. Many instead are suggesting that the body's natural inclination to create inflammation at an injury site is in fact helpful and necessary to promote healing. Rest also is no longer recommended. It's been found that inflammatory chemistry, along with exercise, can bring more blood into the injured area and ensure healthier healing. Exercise can include everything from massage and analgesic (methol) rubs to kinesiologic tape and low-level laser therapy. 

However, a brief application of ice or cryotherapy to dull pain after an acute injury continues to be recommended. 

The American Public Health Association has announced a public health policy statement for musculoskeletal pain, a statement that's long overdue for this 140-year-old organization that has historically focused on infectious disease. However, musculoskeletal pain affects millions across the U.S. every day, and low back pain alone is the single largest cause of years lived in disability, causing 83 million such years in 2010.

Chiropractors have a huge opportunity now to step forward and take a role in public health and the prevention and management of musculoskeletal pain. It's looking at an old problem in a new way: Rather than focusing on managing pain at the practice level, it's about asking if you can make a difference in how health systems can prevent or minimize chronic pain for a population. 

As a chiropractor, there are two specific ways you can help: 1) Participate in research on risk factors for pain in populations and how those risk factors can be reduced or modified; and 2) Look beyond your individual patients and consider care at the population level—which will help individuals from those populations avoid pain in the first place. 

That pain in your head? You really can do something about it.

Cranial release technique has come a long way to be accepted, but practitioners have found that the skull does indeed move and that CRT can help manage stress and stress-related conditions.

The technique works to "unlock" locked cranial bones to restore balance and reduce stress and pain on the body. Among other effects, CRT can help relax a stressed heart rate and increase Alpha/Theta waves in the brain (necessary for relaxation). CRT can also be very effectively combined with other types of bodywork.

Many patients, in fact, report an immediate sense of well-being and relaxation following CRT. However, it's important for practitioners to pre- and post-assess in order to calculate the actual change that is occurring.