How to Avoid Back Surgery: Chiropractic

A BOOK REVIEW by Richard H. Tyler, DC former associate editor, Dynamic ChiropracticHOW TO AVOID BACK SURGERY CHIROPRACTIC...THE PROVEN METHOD FOR BACK PAIN by J.C. Smith, DC 1800-336-2013Most patients come to our respective offices with the express purpose of relieving either neck or low back pain. Everything else is incidental. While spinal adjustments and other conservative methods often have a salubrious effect upon the welfare of the entire physiology of the patient--it's the pain that drives them into most chiropractic offices. There are always those who really don't plan to get well. Not too long ago a patient came to me with a low back problem. Nothing unusual. He would come in only when he felt he needed to. No maintenance for him--just adjust as needed. No amount of reasoning could change his mind. I was thinking of releasing him from further care but he beat me to it. He informed me that he had decided on surgery for his low back. It seemed that some greedy surgeon decided he could make some extra money by letting a little blood fly. In the meantime the patient went along with the idea because it offered him a way to get on permanent disability. Mind you--there was nothing seriously wrong with his back. To see him you would never guess he was feeling any pain. And he was sure that a little carving would assure him a ticket to a seat in the rocking chair with a beer in one hand and the TV remote in the other. Unfortunately, he didn't know--or want to know--the dismal record of failed back surgery. How sad it is that a profession with our historic record of success with low back pain has little more than some pamphlets to do the majority of education of our patients. When it becomes a question of educating the public about surgical options something more comprehensive is needed. Perhaps I should say at this point "was" needed. Dr. J.C. Smith is probably one of the chiropractic profession's most articulate communicators. He has the wonderful gift to write in such a way that it becomes almost conversational so that the reader doesn't feel that he or she is getting a lecture while being informed. The only fault I find is that he should have written How to Avoid Back Surgery a long time ago. The book is in soft cover and is only 130 pages. In other words, there isn't any wasted verbiage --it's just hard hitting facts that both the patient and the doctor can learn from. In its five chapters Dr. Smith covers how to avoid surgery, decision making, risks, research and answers. Each chapter is fully referenced and a bibliography is supplied. At one point the author alludes to the fact that the U.S. has three times as many operations for disc problems as in Canada and nine times as many as in Europe. Are we that much more susceptible to spinal problems--or are our surgeons that much greedier? This book gives the reader the information to answer that question and much more. With some--for whatever