Why Evidence-Based Chiropractic? Mark Studin, D.C.

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Hi, I’m Dr. Mark Studin, and today with ChiroSecure we’re going to bring you some what’s really not groundbreaking information, but what is essential to the future of chiropractic and it’s evidence-based chiropractic. So let’s look at just one simple slide today and let’s put it up and we’re gonna share with you why this is chiropractic solution for everything.

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And I say everything. Now, growing up in chiropractic and I’m in the game 44 years, I’ve been around since the seventies. A really long time, and we didn’t have evidence then. Growing up when someone said, oh, you are an evidence-based chiropractor. You wanna be a medical doctor, they call me a medi.

That was like absurd. Okay. They were trying to insult me. Because based upon their belief or oh, what evidence do you have something a manufacturer put out? And that’s nonsense. Which is truth, by the way. So the reality is it was always my bucket list in our profession. To prove chiropractic in the scientific arena, in the laboratory, in the literature, and today, thankfully there’s so much.

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But when I was in school, here’s what we had. Dr. Chung ha Su from the University of Colorado found in research that the weight of a dime on a nerve reduced the nerve’s ability to transmit upwards of 60%. And for over a decade, I quoted that one little factoid. As a matter of fact, I was invited to speak to all of the medical students and residents and fellows at the State University of New York at Stony Brook School of Medicine and the pediatric orthopedic surgeon, his name just flew outta my head or I would share it with you.

Introduced me. First, here’s Dr. John Smith, neurosurgeon fellow, American College of Fellows. Here’s Dr. Sally Surgeon, a fellow for the American College of Orthopedic Surgeons, and here’s Mark. He seems like a nice fellow, but he is a chiropractor and one of those quack charlatans, and we want to see what he has to say and if there’s any truth or evidence behind what he has to offer.

That’s how he introduced me. And I’m saying to my, and I was not prepared for that. I did not expect to be a attacked, even if I was prepared, there was no preparation. And you know who stood up for me? A few medical students stood up and screamed at him and said, you know what, aspirins don’t have definitive research, but you prescribe it every day.

Why are you going after the chiropractor if it’s something you already do? And I really didn’t get to say much that day, but I vowed at that point in time. That it’s really about the evidence and I want to see it. And I’m a voracious reader in research. So where does evidence come in? How is a chiropractic solution for everything?

Does it help you get your patients no, but I have to share something with you. If that patient’s not in your office, you’re not helping ’em. So it means nothing. So here’s the issue, and I’ve heard this from a few neurosurgeons in my community. Remember, I’m back practicing since 81, so I’ve heard this a lot through my community.

Oh, don’t go to a chiropractor. This was a neurologist, by the way. They’re gonna hurt you. You can’t use them. Are you kidding? You’re gonna be a cripple. Here’s what the evidence said, and if we look at the evidence that I’m reading off a different screen, in 2015, the evidence revealed that a cohort, which is the number of people tested.

Of 6,669,603 PA Chiropractic patients with 24 million visits reported zero adverse outcomes in healthy spines, zero in healthy spine, zero, that’s 24 million visits. And then in 2023 I like this one better. Out of a cohort of 960,000. And by the way, when you look at medical research, the number of people they test is a hundred, 200.

This one in 2023 out of 960,124, chiropractic spinal adjustments revealed a 0.00021%, add two more zeros to that adverse outcomes due to undiagnosed osteoporosis, and the side effects were not severe. So basically the evidence just disproved all of those things. All of those things. When you look at medicine.

And you go to the evidence, 99.1% of spinal diagnoses with pain mechanical spine pain are diagnosed as non-specific back pain, non-specific. And that’s not my opinion. That’s the evidence in the literature. In 20 22 99, I was in the New England Journal of Medicine, by the way, in 2022. 99.1% of medicine cannot identify spinal conditions, which is nonspecific back pain.

No fracture, no tumor, no infection, no herniation. They can’t diagnose it. What do they do? That led to the opioid crisis. We’ll get there in a moment, but in 2020, the deton with a cohort of 8,000,020 3000 people found. 96%, 96% revealed a positive outcome of chiropractic care. So a medicine can’t diagnose it.

99.1% of the time, 96% of the time chiropractic is helping them. I’ve quoted that to a myriad of medical providers, more so primary cares, and specifically one primary care. We had a conversation, didn’t believe me. Yeah. It’s another one of the chiro mumbo jumbo things. And then when I showed him the evidence in the literature from the New England Journal of Medicine, my God, that’s like the holy grail to them.

You know what he started doing? On average, 25 patients a week referred to chiropractors, and it went one step further. His son was 21 years old in college. He made him go to chiropractic school. Now he’s referring to his son. The kid went to heaven, but you know what? All you need is one or two good people.

Evidence-based chiropractic in 2025. In 2025, it was found that there was a 300% increase in drug related hospitalization overdoses compared to a similar population or a similar diagnosis of chiropractic patients. 300%. It was also found with osteopathic manipulation that chiropractic outperformed them by 46%.

I could go on and on, but evidence is important. But here’s the problem. Medicine controls physical therapy. They control drugs. So even in 2025, what is the Mayo Clinic? One of the most out of Rochester, Minnesota, one of the most respected institutions of the planet Earth in healthcare, say for back pain, here’s the care path.

One, physical therapy. It’s the bedrock back pain, two non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, three muscle relaxers, then topical pain relievers, then opioids, then antidepressants. Cortisone. I like antidepressants. You wanna feel better about yourself while you’re in pain. Cortisone shots. Radiofrequency ablation, implanted neurostimulators.

Then surgery. I couldn’t find chiropractic listed anywhere, so there was a link after surgery. It said other things you might want to try after the surgery didn’t work and it linked myofascial therapy. Acupuncture, and then four more down, let’s say chiropractic, but it might be contraindicated with numbness or loss of strength, and that was three pages later.

No one’s gonna get to it. But after surgery, after opiate, you wanna know where the problems are coming from. It just goes on and on. But when you look at physical therapy. In 1923. In 1923, great. In 2023, with a cohort of 4,837 patients, physical therapy increased opioids, opioid use by 80%, and 90% of the patients have two or more modalities used, meaning exercise, heat, stem.

Manipulation, mobilization, we don’t manipulate, we adjust. There is a huge difference, and I’m not gonna get into that right now, but when I said this to that actually, I said this to a neurosurgeon and I shared with him this research. Guess what? Every one of his patients starts. Chiropractic care and he mandates every patient get a inverter report, which is a a spinal biomechanical engineering study because he wants to see where it’s aberly where biomechanics are abate.

He understands it and he wants chiropractic to see them first. I have a pain management doctor in Southern California. He has 14 offices, and he went through all of this research with me. He’s just wonderful. He is got 14 offices all over Southern California. He averages 187 referrals a month.

Per office that he refers out to chiropractic. If you have spine, he won’t do pain management unless you have 10 weeks of conservative chiropractic care, period. Non-negotiable. That’s evidence-based chiropractic folks. That is the solution. And I could go on And by the way, who did that physical therapy research?

It was through the va, through it was. 10 researchers, nine outta 10 were physical therapists or doctors or PhDs in physical therapy. And by the way, a PhD in physical therapy doesn’t mean they’re learning more technique or things. They’re just learning more of what they already do. They don’t diagnose, they don’t know how to read images.

It’s not inherent within their training. And I love physical therapists stay with extremities. They also show a physical therapy is the first provider. It increases spinal injections by 53%. 90% of the patients, and they also show that 10% the 10% other than the spinal injections, no reduction in pain, zero, none.

I don’t understand it. The evidence is overwhelming. But when you start sharing all of this information with medical providers, let’s face it, they see 99% of the population. We see 7%. I know the e evidence is starting to come out, which is saying 11, 12, 13, 14%. I don’t see that. And I work nationally. I don’t see it at all.

But whatever our number is, they see 99% of the people, one medical primary, can send you 20 new cases a week. Because mechanical back pain or musculoskeletal pain is their fifth most prevalent diagnosis. Emergency rooms don’t know what, they don’t want this because it’s a revolving door and they don’t even get paid for the second visit.

Anything appreciably, it’s a follow up. If it’s within three years, they don’t want that clogging up. The their emergency rooms. Urgent cares don’t know what to do with this medical specialist. They do not want it because PA patients gonna come in trolling for drugs and O opioids. So if you go to the US chiropractic directory, us chiro directory.com and click on the research tab.

Everything I just shared with you is there and there’s so much more. We’ve gotten over 24 million visits to that site. It is the most frequently chiropractic website in our industry, and it’s putting out pro chiropractic literature. There’s books, there’s so much. So listen, evidence is everything you need to learn the evidence, learn it, understand it, talk about it, quote it.

I have a lot of people who are very devout that I in my life that can quote scriptures, chapter and verse, and I respect that. Guess what? This is your scriptures within our industry. I’m not saying we need to become religious or the religion of chiropractic, but you need to be able to quote the statistics, the evidence.

The scientific proof because what we have is the solution for everything we need to do. It’ll teach you about technique. It’ll teach you when to when, not to adjust patients specifically where the primary lesion is, how to communicate. You want to deal with attorneys. The evidence is all there about chiropractic, it’s all there.

I urge you at the highest level to take the time you don’t. You’re not sure where to start. You give me a call. It’ll be my pleasure. Look, folks, it’s been my pleasure sharing this information with you, and I look to bring you so much more. Again, thank you so much ChiroSecure for giving me this platform. I love working with you folks.

Thank you, and we’ll catch you next time.