Stop the Opidemic!

Every month in Utah 24 people die due to prescription opioid abuse. Many of us know someone effected by the new opidemic, it effects our family, our friends, and our community. At Cadence Chiropractic we are focused on helping you gain true health with out the use of drugs or surgery.

The Scale of the Problem in Utah

Those 24 deaths a month are only part of the picture. For every fatal overdose, there are many more people cycling through emergency rooms, losing jobs, losing relationships, and losing the ability to recognize themselves. Most people who become dependent on opioids did not set out to misuse anything. They started with a real injury. A herniated disc from lifting a toddler. A whiplash from a rear-end collision on I-15. A chronic ache after a fall at work. A prescription was written, the pills worked for a while, and then the prescription ran out while the pain did not. That pattern is one of the main reasons musculoskeletal care sits so close to the center of this crisis. If the back pain never becomes a long-term prescription in the first place, the rest of the cascade does not start.

Utah has spent the past several years changing how providers think about pain. Prescribing rates have dropped, prescription drug monitoring has expanded, and hospital systems are actively looking for conservative options to offer before or alongside medication. That shift is one reason a chiropractor in Utah County is now part of the state conversation on pain, rather than a voice from outside it.

My Early Work in St Louis

During the beginning of my career he had the great opportunity to work at Myrtle Hilliard Davis Health Centers in St Louis Missouri. Myrtle Hilliard was established as a way for underserved populations to get the health care they need. In St Louis city 29.3% of the population falls below the national poverty line and over 13% of the entire state of Missouri is uninsured.

I had the opportunity to provide chiropractic care for hundreds of people suffering from pain to help them find a safe natural way to avoid pain killer medications and the dangerous addictions they can cause.

Working inside a federally qualified health center meant treating patients whose pain had often been managed by a primary care physician for years before I ever touched their spine. I sat in case conferences with MDs, pharmacists, and behavioral health providers. Care plans were built together. If a patient needed medication, they got medication. If they needed imaging, they got imaging. My role was to see whether manual care, rehabilitation, and movement could take some of the load off the pharmacologic side of the plan. That is the same posture I carry into every visit at Cadence Chiropractic today.

Catherine’s Story

One of the most amazing people I had the chance to meet was Catherine. Catherine was involved in a terrible car accident that saw her and her husband pushed off the road by a person texting while driving. Catherine ended up in the bottom of a ditch and hit a tree when the car burst into flames. When Catherine was pulled from the flaming car it was found that she had suffered a terrible injury to her leg that almost required amputation. Catherine was left with long standing leg pain, back pain, neck pain and daily headaches and like 40% of the Myrtle Hilliard patient base she was put on pain medication.

Catherine was soon referred as a chiropractic patient to help her get off the medication and decrease the pain. With the help of the clinic leader Dr Ross Mattox we began chiropractic care to help Catherine function. Today Catherine is now able to move and function with less medication so that she can enjoy the life that was spared during her accident.

Catherine’s case looked extreme on paper, and it was, but the underlying pattern is common. Chronic pain rarely stays in one place. A leg injury changes how a person walks, which changes how the pelvis sits, which strains the low back, which loads the neck, which shows up later as a headache that never quite goes away. Medication can quiet the alarm, but the mechanical problem keeps sending the signal. Care plans that address the mechanics alongside the medication tend to give patients and their physicians something to actually taper toward. Catherine’s progress did not come from one adjustment or one breakthrough. It came from showing up consistently, adjusting the plan when something was not working, and letting her medical team lead on the parts that belonged to them.

What Non-Opioid Pain Care Looks Like in Practice

A first visit looks longer than people expect. We take a full history, not just a pain chart. We ask about prior injuries, prior surgeries, sleep, work posture, current medications, and what has already been tried. We do an orthopedic and neurological exam. If something in that exam suggests a condition outside of what chiropractic care should handle on its own, we say so directly and help arrange the right referral. Utah law is clear about the boundaries of a chiropractic license, and honest referrals are part of how a conservative practice stays useful to the rest of the medical system.

From there, care is usually a mix of specific spinal adjustments, soft tissue work, and rehabilitation exercises the patient can do at home. The point of the home work is simple. An adjustment restores motion. The exercises teach the body to hold the new pattern so the problem does not keep circling back. Progress is tracked with objective measures when we can use them, such as range of motion, functional movement screens, pain scales, and return to specific daily activities, so we can tell whether the plan is working instead of guessing.

Pain guidelines from groups like the American College of Physicians now place non-pharmacologic care, including spinal manipulation, among the first options to consider for many cases of low back pain. That is a meaningful shift from where guidelines sat twenty years ago. It does not mean chiropractic is right for every case. It means that when the presentation fits, trying conservative care first is supported by current research rather than treated as alternative.

Working With Your Medical Team, Not Around It

One of the most common questions we hear from new patients is whether they should stop their medication before they come in. The short answer is no, and not without talking to the prescribing physician. Our job is not to tell anyone to stop a prescription. Our job is to give the musculoskeletal system a real chance to improve so that any conversation about tapering happens with the physician who wrote the script, based on how the patient is actually feeling and functioning. When a patient gives us permission, we are happy to share exam findings and progress notes with their primary care provider, their pain management doctor, or the surgeon who operated on them. That kind of coordination tends to produce better outcomes than any single provider working in isolation.

Common Questions About Chiropractic Care as an Alternative to Opioids

How long before I know if this is helping?

Most patients can tell within the first few weeks whether care is moving in the right direction. Not every symptom resolves on the same timeline. Acute strains often respond faster than chronic conditions that have been present for years. Results vary from person to person, and anyone who guarantees a fixed number of visits to resolve a specific problem is not being straight with you.

Is chiropractic care safe for someone currently taking opioids?

For most patients yes, but the intake exam matters. Certain medications, some recent surgeries, active fractures, and some underlying conditions change what techniques are appropriate or rule out adjustments altogether. Those are exactly the kinds of things we screen for before starting care.

Will my insurance cover this?

Many Utah plans include some level of chiropractic benefit, but coverage varies by plan, by diagnosis, and by visit count. We will verify benefits before care begins and explain what your specific plan looks like so there are no surprises.

Do I need a referral?

In Utah you do not need a physician referral to see a chiropractor. If you are already working with a pain specialist or primary care provider, looping them in usually makes the whole plan stronger.

A Local Commitment to a Statewide Problem

At Cadence Chiropractic we promise to listen to your individual concerns and want to help you reach your health goals. We are dedicated to fighting the opioid epidemic here in Utah by providing a safe effective alternative to opioid medication.

I just recently had the great opportunity this past week to speak at the Pain Symposium for Intermountain Health Care as one of the leading authorities in chiropractic care for pain patients in Utah. I am now leading the charge to get chiropractic care integrated into the Intermountain Health Care system to help decrease the opioid epidemic in Utah.

That work continues between visits. Speaking at hospital symposiums, building referral relationships with primary care offices in Utah County, and sitting down with patients who want a second option before they refill a prescription is part of the same project. No single clinic solves an epidemic. A growing network of providers who agree that conservative care deserves a real try, and who communicate with each other honestly, can change what the default looks like for the next person who walks into an urgent care with a hurt back.

If you or a loved one are suffering from pain, please call us today or schedule an appointment above to see how we can help you and your family naturally. Whether you live in American Fork, Spanish Fork, or anywhere else in Utah County, our door is open, and we are glad to talk through whether what we do is a reasonable fit for your situation before you commit to anything. To learn more about our approach or to book a visit, you can reach out through Cadence Chiropractic anytime.