ChiroSecure has always been consistent in keeping its clients in the loop, which is why whenever there is a new development in the community that concerns chiropractors and their practice, one can rest assured that they will be guided accordingly with updates.
A particular study that appeared on the American Journal of Ophthalmology entitled “Pre-retinal hemorrhages following a chiropractic neck manipulation” recently getting rounds on the Internet. It featured a case of a 59-year-old woman from Michigan who complained about seeing three spots in her vision following a cervical adjustment. This story was picked up by several news outlets, different websites and various bloggers, indicating that some chiropractic treatments can cause harm to your eyesight. The ChiroSecure community, a leading chiropractic insurance provider, just sees it as a ‘slight’ attack to the chiropractic profession, rather than a development that can be considered consequential or one that creates a significant impact to the chiropractic community.
Here are some of the reasons why:
- The study has already been available online since last April but for whatever reason, it started to blow up early this month (October) on all sorts of different outlets with all sorts of different headlines (i.e. you have a good reason to be skeptic)
- Pre-retinal hemorrhages isn’t that big of a deal as it happens quite often and it’s invariably a self-limiting, self-resolving problem, as it was in this case.
- The study did acknowledge that the Michigan woman case could have been a Valsalva maneuver reaction (the most common cause of pre-retinal hemorrhages).
- Another important thing to note is that the woman was also taking Topamax, Stelara, and Flexeril (Stelara is associated with a particular type of blindness); ChiroSecure believes that she had far more risk from the drug that she had been taking than anything to worry about relative to chiropractic care
Other past studies that refute the case above
Dr. Stephanie Sullivan, the Director of Research at Life University who just recently completed a PhD in neuroscience at the University of Georgia, in a significant portion of her thesis tackled about improvements on visual disturbances under chiropractic care. She was able to provide a list of the seven or eight different studies that had been published demonstrating very positive changes in vision-related problems and ophthalmological problems associated with chiropractic care. Indeed, this one is a point worth-sharing with chiropractic patients.
How chiropractors should address the issue
Dr. Stu Hoffman, the President of ChiroSecure, offers some tips on how chiropractors should address the issue with their patients (in case they ask about it). Here are some points he wants chiropractors to note:
- Be professional and be educational, and not defensive.
- Patients should know that chiropractic treatments have instead helped tons of people with vision problems.
- The Michigan case is weak (it does not prove anything) because the woman was taking medications (which could be the reason of eyesight issue)
- The chiropractic community has never ever once heard of such case in 123 years in this business.
Talk to us if you have more questions about some strategies in addressing some issues with your patients. Call us today at (866) 802-4476.