Introduction: This case study shows an example of chiropractic being utilized in the integrative setting for treatment of a patient with cancer. This patient was being treated with Gleevec for chronic meyelogenous leukemia (CML) since 2005. Since beginning the drug and having the dosage changed several times, with other drugs administered in between, the patient has suffered from chronic vertigo and sinus pain due to mucosal membrane inflammation from chemotherapy. The patient reported the vertigo to be most significant when rising from a prone or supine position. Repositioning herself during sleep had become contributory.
Objective: Oncology care has a host of side effects that can often be treated with complementary therapies. Specifically, chiropractic may be used for conditions beyond common musculoskeletal complaints.
Case Report: Patient is a 54-year-old female diagnosed with CML in 2005. She began treatment that year and has since suffered with several side effects, one significant side effect being vertigo. The patient received a cervical orthopedic and chiropractic evaluation on June 7, 2011. Atlas was found to have restricted motion on left rotation with passive range of motion with left posteriority. Foraminal compression was positive on the left side at the C3-4 level. Hypertonicity was moderately severe in the suboccipital triangle on the left.
Treatment consisted of soft-tissue mobilization of the involved suboccipital region and cervical joint mobilization. The patient immediately reported reduced stress and was able to rise from a supine position more easily with less dizziness. When she returned two days later for follow-up treatment, she reported a 70-percent improvement of her vertigo symptoms.
Conclusion: This patient experienced significant and immediate, lasting relief of vertigo symptoms after one chiropractic treatment. More patients on chemotherapy should be assessed for vertigo and referred for chiropractic evaluations.
Many relevant diagnostic signs are not performed deliberately by the examiner or by the patient at the examiner’s direction. They are observed as the patient reacts to their condition. Fortin’s finger sign, Minor’s sign, and Vanzetti’s sign are three examples of this principle.
Spearheaded by burgeoning scientific and clinical research literature, psychedelics have reached a level of media coverage and popular interest that has not been seen for over half a century. By “psychedelics,” we are referring to the unique class of substances that includes psilocybin (the active compound found in so-called “magic mushrooms”), LSD, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), ayahuasca, 5-MeO-DMT, and mescaline – each of which occurs in the natural world (except for LSD, which is a semi-synthetic compound).
While working at the Lovelace Medical Center in Albuquerque, N.M., one of the primary care physicians stated that imaging every patient prior to receiving chiropractic was not medically necessary. It was at that point I reconsidered the need for the imaging of every patient to avoid malpractice.
