Author Archive
Chiropractic “Only Proven Effective Treatment” for Chronic Whiplash
Posted by: | CommentsResearch published in the Journal of Orthopedic Medicine reviewed the various treatments used to treat people who have pain months or years after a whiplash injury. They concluded that “Conventional treatment of patients with whiplash symptoms is disappointing.”
Khan S, Cook J, Gargan M, Bannister G. A symptomatic classification of whiplash injury and the implications for treatment. Journal of Orthopaedic Medicine 1999;21 (1) 22-25
Dr. Patrick Lowe is a chiropractor on Louisville KY. He is the clinical director of Lowe Chiropractic & Wellness, located at 10306 Shelbyville Rd and Shively Spine, Chiropractic & Injury Rehab located at 3401 Dixie Highway in Shively. Dr. Lowe is also known as the, Louisville Chiropractor.
Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, Not uncommon in Veterans or Motor Vehicle Collisions
Posted by: | CommentsOne of the many things we screen for in our office after a car accident: Mild Traumatic Brain Injury. After being involved in an accident, many people start to realize difficulties with memory, concentration, or just seem “different” to friends and family. These are all signs of mild traumatic brain injury.
In fact: the military has recognized this brain injuries in veterans associated with non-impact injuries. Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries are often known as concussions and have been the focus in professional football. They are also common in Whiplash type injuries following motor vehicle collisions.
Check out this site: ttp://maketheconnection.net/conditions/traumatic-brain-injury?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=tbi-male-40-49&utm_content=katrina1&utm_campaign=male-40-49
Contact our office for a consultation following a motor vehicle collsion, automobile accident or whiplash injury.
Shively Spine, Chiropractic and Injury Rehab
3401 Dixie Highway
Louisville, KY 40216
(502) 365-3636
Antelope vs Mountain Biker, Wear your helmets kids
Posted by: | CommentsCheck out this short video and learn Why to wear your helmet when riding your bike. Unexpected things do happen… unexpectedly.
A lesson in Bicycle safety.
The 3 Ds of Getting a Proper Settlement on Your Personal Injury Case
Posted by: | CommentsThe best attorneys in the world only accept cases that provide the 3 D’s. Why? They know that the 3 D’s in a personal injury case make or break their settlement or their case. Claims adjusters know the same thing. They also know that there are three diagnosis that are overlooked in a lot of personal injury cases saving the insurance company Big money.
As a doctor, my job is the care of the patient. I tell all of my injury patients, “As a doctor, my job has 3 parts:
1) Document your injuries immediately following the accident which includes any special testing we need to perform.
2) Develop a treatment plan and/or referral plan to get you back to 100% as quickly as possible.
3) Document anything that didn’t heal. We want everything to heal, want you to be back to normal, but if it’s not, we will document it for your claims adjustor or attorney and work out a plan to keep you as pain free as possible.
Doctors- Treatment for any injury requires a team approach. It is important that the chiropractor or medical doctor triage the entire injury and not just the biggest pain. I have seen a lot of patients who had multiple injuries but were only treated for the most severe injury and released. They come to us because they still have problems. We refer to specialist and communicate with the primary care doctors on a regular basis.
Diagnosis- Diagnosis often requires special testing like x-rays, MRI, motion X-ray or CT scans. It also requires referral to the proper specialist, Orthopedic Surgeon, Neurosurgeon, Clinical Psychologist, Neurologist and primary care physician.
Documentation- Documenting an injury requires good diagnosis, review of the records of all other providers and working up a good treatment plan to suit the needs of the individual patient. At the end of your case, we document anything that is permanent.
With good information and good documentation the attorney’s job becomes much-MUCH easier.
Patrick Lowe, D.C.
Dr. Lowe is a chiropractor in Louisville, KY. He is a member of the American Association of Medical Legal Professionals. See his professional resume (Curriculum Vitae) online at
http://louisville-chiropractor.com/dr-lowes-curriculum-vitae/
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Not Another Headache Lecture
Posted by: | CommentsOur Neuropathy News event last month was a big hit. Doc Patrick Lowe spoke while the group enjoyed some great cajun food at Furlongs. Established patients learned how chiropractic care can help without dangerous drugs or therapy. Several new patients came and you should be seeing some of them around the office.
Well we’re ready to do it again in June. This time Doc Lowe will be lecturing on Headaches. The title of the lecture is “Not Another Headache” and the details are below.
- June 8, 2010
- 7 – 8:00PM at Furlongs Restaurant
- 9601 Shelbyville Rd 327-9299
If you’re having occasional headaches or battling recurring ones, you need the information we will share. Get a sneak peak of the things we’ll be covering by downloading our promotional flyer Not Another Headache (424).
You can register online or call Cathy Head at 693-3289 to reserve your seat today.
Doctors who read MRI’s
Posted by: | CommentsI was running with an attorney 2 weeks ago. About 5 miles in she said something profound. She said “People don’t understand that words have meanings.” I immediately started to think about an article I read in SPINE (a professional research journal). They did research on MRI reports of disc herniations. They concluded that “the specific morphology (shape) of the herniation was not reported by the radiologist in 42.2% of the cases.”
The problem is that most doctors only see the radiology report,they never see the actual pictures and many doctors aren’t trained to read the MRI itself. The report later says “the radiology dictation did not provide enough detail to classify the herniation as protrusion, extrusion or sequestered fragment.” The choice of words here is very important. Why is this important? Because one of these (the sequestered fragment) often requires emergency surgery! Extrusion should be referred for surgical consultation first instead of loading the spinal disc with more pressure with exercises routinely performed in physical therapy.
It is critically important to work with doctors who are have extensive knowledge in the interpretation of MRI with traumatic injuries.
If you have had an MRI study performed, please bring in the films or disc as well as the report. I like to read the MRI myself. I teach my doctors, “If a picture is worth a thousand words, why settle for a 200 word report?”
Click here to see Dr. Lowe’s Curriculum Vitae
- SPINE, Lurie,Dorman,Spratt, Tosteson & Weinstein (2009) pg 703-705
Louisville Chiropractor, Patrick Lowe works with low back pain, neck pain, whiplash and other injuries related to car accidents. He spends his spare time studying the best treatments and diagnostic tests for these conditions.
A Safe Bet, Increase your PIP limits
Posted by: | CommentsI have always considered buying insurance a gamble. You are betting that you will need it at some time in the future and get your money back. The insurance company is betting that you will pay enough premiums to not only cover you but also your neighbor if they have a wreck.
Kentucky, like most states requires you to have car insurance. They also set the limits of coverage. You have to have $10,000 per person in Personal Injury Protection. This pays medical bills, chiropractic bills and hospital bills for anyone who is injured in the collision.
Ten thousand dollars sounds like a lot until you consider the cost of an emergency room visit:
Ambulance $ 350
X-ray study $ 600
ER Room $ 800
MRI or CT scan $1400
Standard Prescriptions$ 200
The first day which is mostly diagnostics and minimal treatment is easily $3,350.
If you required a surgical consultation, therapy, chiropractic care or anything else it’s easy to see how fast $10,000 can go.
Here’s what some common surgical procedures cost according to Kentucky Hospital Discharge data from 2008. ^
Spinal Fusion (non-cervical) $71,491.20
Cervical Fusion $32,033.17
Spine Surgery $15,143.50
Fracture of Hip or Pelvis $ 9,260.00
That’s fast and believe me, that’s not the whole cost. You will have the bill from the anesthesiologist, the hospital, the surgeon, the physical therapist, the radiologist and several others. We see people all the time who are frustrated because their PIP is exhausted, they have additional problems and don’t have the money to have them addressed. I will be addressing some of these additional problems in future blog posts.
I called my insurance agent and got a quote to increase my PIP from the standard $10,000 to $40,000 limit. It would increase my premium by….. $40 a year. Yes, I said $40 a year.
With my health insurance I would have to pay my deductible ($1,000) and 20% of any procedure. I would have to pay at least $2,000 out of pocket for a hip fracture. I think I’ll take the $40 bet. You do the math.
It just makes sense.
Dr. Lowe
Patrick Lowe is a chiropractor in Louisville, KY. He has done extensive research and training in the diagnosis and treatment of whiplash and collision related injuries. Dr. Lowe works in the medico-legal arena helping people through a painful and often frustrating time of their lives. His office is located at 10306 Shelbyville Rd, Louisville. He can be reached at (502) 245-7334
^ http://info.kyha.com/
Docs Story
Posted by: | CommentsOver Christmas I ran into a friend from college. He was surprised to hear that I was a chiropractor and not a medical doctor or psychiatrist. That was my goal back then. We had attended Ohio University, a beautiful college located in foot hills of the Appalachian Mountains. We walked up and down hills covering miles each day getting to and from our classes. We always had our books in a backpack swung across one shoulder.
Walking to my car, I felt my right hip and low back lock up. One step was all it took. Every step felt worse until I made it to my car and made it home. I remember sitting on our linoleum floor in our small house, leaning against the wall, hoping that it would shift or pop back in place and feel better. I didn’t know anything about chiropractic then, but somehow, deep in my brain, I knew what needed to happen. It didn’t, I walked around crooked and in pain for three weeks.
I graduated from college with two bachelors, one in biology/pre-med and one in psychology. I had studied the brain, anatomy, physiology, psychology, the nervous system and how the brain controls and effects the body. I was planning on going to medical school and on to become a Psychiatrist. Someone mentioned a new idea (new to me anyway). An idea that linked both of the sciences I had studied. They told me about Chiropractic. Chiropractic opens the connections from the brain (Psychology) to the body (Pre-Med) so that the body could take care of itself.
One of the major truths that I learned from my studies in pre-medicine is that doctors do not heal the body, medicine does not heal the body, surgery does not heal the body. The only thing that heals the body is the life force already inside the body.
Surgery can cut our cancer and medicine can stop its spread. Surgery can put a broken bone back together and pain killers can stop the pain. Only time and the power within the body can actually do the healing. The power within the body travels from the brain, through the spinal cord, to the nerves and to all of the parts of the body. Chiropractic care just opens the channels for all of this to take place. It just made sense!
I knew, deep in my brain, that my low back and hip needed to shift into place to relieve the pain. Other people just know, deep inside, that their spines have to be in place for their bodies to work right. You know it to.
Patrick Lowe is a Doctor of Chiropractic in Louisville, Kentucky. He established Lowe Chiropractic and Wellness in 1998. His office serves the people of Louisville and Eastern Jefferson County.