Transcript:
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The last question is from Nicki J. It’s a very important question that we all get asked a lot, and I’m glad she asked it. So her question was, “Do I need imaging for my disc issue?”
So, we have my anecdotal experience, we have the American Academy of Neurology, and we have the American College of Physicians, and we are all in agreement that no, not every disc issue benefits from medical imaging. Most of the time, it’s not even recommended for neck pain because the image findings, there’s going to be findings on there almost guaranteed that weren’t there before. In your mind, you did not know about these abnormalities that you may have had your whole life. Some of them may be significant, or absolutely nothing. So, what I’m getting at is these are not correlated with pain or dysfunction. So, these findings kind of just make the water more murky, if you will.
Secondarily, if you have a normal insurance, because this is America and the insurance companies get away with a whole bunch of nonsense, you will likely need to get an x-ray first before you get an MRI. And an MRI is a lot more beneficial of a scan than an x-ray for a variety of reasons. But you’re being exposed to unnecessary radiation because the MRI wasn’t necessary in the first place. And then that also adds into the healthcare cost in terms of money in your pocket because chances are you would have to co-pay for all of those things. So why not keep money in your pocket, find a therapist you like working with, that you trust, that you think is knowledgeable, and let them diagnose you based on the findings that are going to be valuable to you?
I mean, if you can’t do certain things with your neck, or you have radiating pain down your arm, it’ll be indicative of what’s going on with you, and you likely won’t need any imaging to help treat that at all.
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