The chiropractic profession has never had stronger scientific backing – and yet patient awareness of that evidence remains stubbornly low. Many patients still go to their primary care physician first, walk away with a prescription, and only end up at a chiropractor after months of fruitless treatment.
Enter Christine Goertz, DC, PhD, former vice chancellor of research and health policy at Palmer College of Chiropractic, and now a professor at Duke University School of Medicine.
With nearly $45 million in lifetime federal funding and 150 peer-reviewed papers, Dr. Goertz’s research has been cited more than 5,000 times and viewed over 200,000 times. She has been ranked among the top 10% of NIH-funded investigators within U.S. medical school orthopedics departments for three consecutive years. Her landmark comparative effectiveness trial on chiropractic care for U.S. service members with low back pain, published in JAMA Network Open, is among the most widely viewed studies in the field.
At Duke Health, she created the Spine Health program, a model clinical pathway that guides patients toward evidence-based, non-drug treatments – including chiropractic care – as the starting point.
And what about the lingering issue of the millions of patients who still see chiropractors last, not first – particularly for low back pain? Dr. Goertz’s new book, Take Your Back Back: Whole Health Healing for Low Back Pain, tackles the challenge head-on by explaining to a mainstream audience – many of whom have never been to a chiropractor – why DCs are the right first call.
The book is structured in three sections: an explanation of how low back pain works, including a frank debunking of common myths around imaging and surgery; a comprehensive review of treatment options, from manual therapies and exercise to cognitive behavioral therapy, medications, and surgical interventions; and a practical action guide for finding the right clinician, advocating for better care and building a personalized recovery plan.
According to Dr. Goertz, the idea to write the book crystallized in December 2019 at a National Academies of Sciences meeting on nondrug pain treatments. Scientists from across the country had gathered to discuss what the research showed – and what it showed was that the most commonly used treatments for low back pain frequently don’t work and can cause harm, while nondrug options, like manual therapy, exercise, and cognitive behavioral therapy, are both safer and more effective.
“It was time to take it to the streets,” Dr. Goertz said of that moment. “To find ways to give clinicians and their patients the knowledge and tools they needed to access the right treatment at the right time.”
For DCs, the book represents something rare (which is why we’re reporting on it): a mainstream, patient-targeted resource written by a credentialed researcher that validates chiropractic care in plain, persuasive language. It can be recommended to patients who are skeptical of nondrug care, left in your waiting room for patients to read before their appointments, or used as a conversation-starter with new patients who have spent years cycling through ineffective treatments.
Dr. Goertz has previously received the American Chiropractic Association Chiropractor of the Year award and the World Federation of Chiropractic David Chapman-Smith Award. She has served on bodies including the Centers for Disease Control’s Opioid Working Group and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee. In addition to Take Your Back Back, she also co-authored Reinventing the Patient Experience: Strategies for Hospital Leaders (Health Administration Press, 2007).
Editor’s Note: Take Your Back Back is available for presale now at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and through independent bookstores nationwide (ask your local bookseller or visit Bookshop.org).
