What is Chiropractic BioPhysics (CBP), and why should you care?
- By Farzad Aziz
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- 09 Mar, 2018
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What is Chiropractic BioPhysics (CBP), and why should you care? This uncommon, but advanced technique may very well be the future of the profession. Don't miss out on the opportunity to experience it now.
Chiropractic BioPhysics is a technique that is only practiced by chiropractors who invest in a large amount of extra education and equipment. It takes time, money, and extra effort to become a certified CBP practitioner. Once certified, a chiropractor can become advanced certified by doubling the amount of education and publishing a research study. Dr. Ryan Winslow is one of the few advanced CBP practitioners in the midwest.
CBP practitioners don't have magical adjusting powers, they are simply trained to use science to diagnose a problem, and use a unique treatment (traction) to correct the problem. It is the only technique to demonstrate consistent, published evidence of it's effectiveness in correcting the shape of the spine towards an established normal value.
The established normal value for the shape of the spine was missing until a CBP study proposed a geometric, measurable shape. CBP practitioners examine spines, measure how far they've deviated from normal, decide if that might be involved with pain or dysfunction, and correct the spine towards normal if necessary.
The most basic example of this is reducing forward head carriage in people with neck pain. It is just common sense that having your head stick straight forward is going to put stress on the neck and mid-back. But CBP studies are some of the first to actually consistently document the physical correction of these conditions. The same idea can be applied to the whole spine. Each area of the spine has well-defined deviations. Some are very common, some are rare. CBP training focuses on identifying all of these different types of deviations, and each deviation is paired with a technical protocol for correcting the issue. Each protocol is unique.
CBP is more than posture, it is about curvature.CBP is more than posture, it is about curvature.
Posture gets a bad rap from therapists. Everyone seems to be a posture expert, and makes these outrageous claims of how correcting posture fixes this or that. Obviously some of this must be true, but the therapists disagree about so much. CBP practitioners look one layer deeper than just posture. We also look at spinal x-rays, and determine the curvature of the spine. This is critical, because posture alone does not give information about the curvature of the spine.
Lets take the example of head posture and neck curvature: A person could have absolutely perfect head and shoulder posture where their head is perfectly seated on their neck, and even with the shoulders (imagine we are looking from the side). Everyone would agree that this person has great posture. But what if this person was suffering from severe neck pain? How could a therapist who only focused on posture help? By taking an x-ray of this person's neck we would be able to see if he had a normal curve where the peak of the curve points towards the throat, or a reversed curve where the peak of the curve points towards the back of the neck. Thus, we could tell if this person with perfect posture had a neck that had a normal curve or an abnormal curve. This gives us options for treatment where traditional posture-focused treatments would run out of options.
Some people have always had good posture. What would a posture therapist do with the guy on the right?
CBP practitioners are essentially experts in using traction to correct the spine.
This part is boring, but important. Traction is a unique therapy that is distinct from other therapies like exercise, stretching, adjustments, heat, ice, etc... Traction is a sustained stretch applied to joints that are relaxed. It is intended to change the structure of ligaments, which hold the spine locked into a unique shape for each individual. Traction is sometimes used in surgery for a completely different purpose, and it is also sometimes used by Physical Therapists and other therapists to "decompress" injured discs. The type of traction used by CBP practitioners is very different from either of these types of traction.
CBP traction involves bending, and it sometimes utilizes combinations of different pulls to change the shape of the spine. General chiropractors, physical therapists, and medical doctors are unfamiliar with these techniques and do not offer them as treatments. This is why CBP practitioners get substantially different (and better) results.
Unfortunately, adjustments alone do NOT change the shape of the spine. This is a tough pill for any chiropractor to swallow, and many refuse to acknowledge this. After all, the founders of the profession thought that they were doing just that!
CBP traction involves bending, and it sometimes utilizes combinations of different pulls to change the shape of the spine. General chiropractors, physical therapists, and medical doctors are unfamiliar with these techniques and do not offer them as treatments. This is why CBP practitioners get substantially different (and better) results.
Unfortunately, adjustments alone do NOT change the shape of the spine. This is a tough pill for any chiropractor to swallow, and many refuse to acknowledge this. After all, the founders of the profession thought that they were doing just that!
Why use CBP?
CBP is all about creating long term relief. Chiropractic can do so much more than short term pain relief. The technique combines traction with the chiropractic adjustment, specific exercises and focused stretching. These therapies are made just for you, based off of the unique shape of your spine.
The combination of traction, exercise, and adjustments produces measurable changes to the shape of your spine. These changes last, and allow the spine to fully heal. CBP is the only technique proven to do this consistently in peer-reviewed research.
Dr. Alex Peters holds an advanced certification in the Chiropractic BioPhysics technique. CBP inspired him as a student to pursue research, and he graduated with Research Honors. His office is fully equipped to to deliver the best the technique has to offer.
Call or email our office to learn if you may be a candidate for this technique. This technique has successfully treated complicated cases like low back pain with radiculopathy, and neck pain with migraine headaches
The combination of traction, exercise, and adjustments produces measurable changes to the shape of your spine. These changes last, and allow the spine to fully heal. CBP is the only technique proven to do this consistently in peer-reviewed research.
Dr. Alex Peters holds an advanced certification in the Chiropractic BioPhysics technique. CBP inspired him as a student to pursue research, and he graduated with Research Honors. His office is fully equipped to to deliver the best the technique has to offer.
Call or email our office to learn if you may be a candidate for this technique. This technique has successfully treated complicated cases like low back pain with radiculopathy, and neck pain with migraine headaches
If you’ve been watching the Rio Olympics, you might have noticed that some of the athletes, including Olympic gold medalist swimmer Michael Phelps, have a number of odd purple bruises on their bodies.
While some people were concerned Phelps and others had gotten involved in some sort of strange self-abuse, the round bruises are actually the result of a healing technique known as cupping. The gymnastics team captain, Chris Brooks, and American gymnast Alex Naddourr have also been seen with cupping marks.
Referring to the practice, Naddour told USA Today , “That’s been the secret that I have had through this year that keeps me healthy. It’s been better than any money I’ve spent on anything else.”
Cupping involves heating up small glass cups and then putting them onto the skin, and pulling them away from the body to help loosen and relax muscles by promoting blood flow.
It seems to be working. The U.S. men’s gymnastics team finished second during the qualifying round at the 2016 Olympics, and swim team members Michael Phelps and Nathan Adrian, who also uses cupping, managed to secure gold medals in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay.
Many massage therapists and other alternative health practitioners are including it as part of their practice. It makes sense as cupping is kind of the inverse of massage. Instead of apply pressure to muscles, the suction uses pressure to pull the skin, tissue and muscles upward. It’s a practice that was developed thousands of years ago, and while techniques have been modernized, the original philosophy is still the same.
Olympic athletes certainly aren’t the only ones to experience the many benefits of cupping, famous celebrities like actress Gwyneth Paltrow walked the red carpet with noticeable cupping marks on her back, and former “Friends” star Jennifer Aniston wore a strapless black dress to a movie premiere recently that showed cupping marks too.
Neck pain is the second most common complaint that we work with. This is because many adults experience chronic neck pain from sustained poor posture and traumatic injuries. The majority of the cases that we see are due to poor posture, and not due to serious traumas like car accidents or falls (although we work with those patients too, just differently).
There are three main pain generators in the neck: The muscles, the joints, and the discs. Posture tends to affect the muscles and joints. Disc injuries need to be treated prior to correcting posture, see our previous post on disc decompression therapy . But why does posture lead to tight muscles and tender joints? The answer is biomechanics. When the head is centered about the body, the muscles do not have to do much to keep it upright, and the joints have a nice full range of motion. When we have poor posture, the muscles will be constantly active to stabilize the neck and this will lead to chronic tight and tender muscles.
Try this: Stick your head forward as far as you can. Now try to look left and right. Next, pull your head back over your body and look left and right. You'll see that you lose the ability to look left and right as your head goes forward. Let's take a look at how we evaluate posture here in our office.
There are three main pain generators in the neck: The muscles, the joints, and the discs. Posture tends to affect the muscles and joints. Disc injuries need to be treated prior to correcting posture, see our previous post on disc decompression therapy . But why does posture lead to tight muscles and tender joints? The answer is biomechanics. When the head is centered about the body, the muscles do not have to do much to keep it upright, and the joints have a nice full range of motion. When we have poor posture, the muscles will be constantly active to stabilize the neck and this will lead to chronic tight and tender muscles.
Try this: Stick your head forward as far as you can. Now try to look left and right. Next, pull your head back over your body and look left and right. You'll see that you lose the ability to look left and right as your head goes forward. Let's take a look at how we evaluate posture here in our office.
No profession owns decompression. Medical doctors use it, physical therapists use it, chiropractors use it. Why? Because it works! We all know that drugs may mask symptoms, but let the problem get worse. Surgery might work, but it has serious long term side effects. Even surgeons agree that conservative options should be exhausted before considering surgery.
So patients try stretching and exercise with a physical therapist or they get adjusted by a chiropractor . Both provide some degree of relief, but not enough. They give up, start taking medications and consider surgery. What most people don't do is TRY DECOMPRESSION! Since no profession owns decompression, it isn't well known to patients who need it. Previous decompression machines before computers were crude and hard to tolerate.
So patients try stretching and exercise with a physical therapist or they get adjusted by a chiropractor . Both provide some degree of relief, but not enough. They give up, start taking medications and consider surgery. What most people don't do is TRY DECOMPRESSION! Since no profession owns decompression, it isn't well known to patients who need it. Previous decompression machines before computers were crude and hard to tolerate.
