Dorsal Health Review – Does it Work for Chronic Pain & Arthritis?

In this article, we’ll review Dorsal Health to help you decide if they are the right treatment option to help you manage your back or arthritic pain compared to other alternatives.

The sad truth is: chronic pain will affect most of us at some point in our life. It seems the more fun we have – things like running, sports, outdoor adventures, yard work or even taking care of kids – the more it hurts as we age. Whether you’re stuck behind a computer or on your feet all day everyday, both can cause degeneration and long-term pain. And that sprained ankle from trail running or untreated football injury back in high school? Yeah, those can cause arthritis later on, too. And let’s not forget the important role genetics play.

And if you are someone who suffers from it, you know that chronic pain can be a confusing puzzle to solve. What works for many may not work for you – and tracking what treatments help can be a nightmare given that your disparate team of clinicians and specialist and therapists likely aren’t properly communicating well nor, addressing the underlying root of your pain.

Thankfully, modern healthcare platforms have emerged that make it easier to manage complex issues like chronic pain from one central dashboard. Services like Dorsal Health and Clearing offer chronic pain suffers hope with their holistic treatment plans that combine Physical Therapy with pharmaceuticals and even medical devices… so basically everything a doctor’s office can offer, without the associated hassle.

Today we review Dorsal Health, a comprehensive online pain clinic that’s gaining popularity due to its convenient service and expert-designed virtual programs for chronic pain management. Let’s dive in

What is Dorsal Health?

Dorsal is a telemedicine company focused on diagnosing and delivering treatments for chronic muscle and joint pain. That said, Dorsal’s holistic treatments also work for those with arthritis and other forms of chronic pain such as the following:

• Acute back pain: strains, accidents, or “throwing your back out” 
• Chronic back pain: long-standing back aches 
• Muscle Spasms: Can be a part of acute or chronic back pain 
• Sciatica: Shooting pain down the leg with a stinging or burning quality 
• Disc issues: The connecting tissue between vertebrae are torn or have slipped out of place
• Arthritis: Chronic inflammation in the joints causing stiffness and pain

What does Dorsal offer for chronic pain?

Dorsal is not simply the result of moving a typical doctor’s office visit online. One of the things that makes it unique is an acknowledgement that chronic pain is a thorny, multi-pronged issue that isn’t often solved with a quick fix. Thus Dorsal Health offers several treatments at the same time for each patient to try and reduce pain from multiple angles.

Each patient’s treatment plan includes elements of the following: 

• Targeted prescriptions
• Ten weeks of physical therapy 
• Education sessions
• Research-based behavioral coaching
  

Source: dorsalhealth.com

Are Dorsal Health’s treatments safe?

Both the technology and doctors behind Dorsal are set up to make the entire experience as safe as an in person doctor visit, if not more so.  All treatments and care management from Dorsal Health are supervised by experienced medical Doctors. According to Dorsal, each has about ten years of experience and in-depth expertise in musculoskeletal care, orthopedics, rehabilitation, and pain management. Here are a few members of Dorsal’s impressive Medical team members:

• Dr. Joseph Tu, MD – Board Certified in Pain Management and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. Trained at Northwestern University Medical Center. Over 15 years of experience.
• Dr. Charles Kaplan, MD – Board Certified in Pain Management and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. Graduate of University of Pennsylvania and SUNY Downstate Medical Center. Over 32 years of experience.
• Dr. Alan Gonzalez-Cota, MD – Board Certified in Pain Medicine and Anesthesiology. Trained at University of Michigan Hospital. Over 15 years of experience.

And then behind the physician team is the Dorsal Medical Advisory board: a group of leaders in musculoskeletal fields and some of the world’s leading hospitals. Thus, Dorsal’s recommended treatment plans have been designed and vetted by a group of some of the most qualified medical professionals in the space.

While it’s natural to feel trepidation about sharing medical information over the internet, especially when it’s for the first time, the Dorsal process feels and is completely safe and easy.

Source: Dorsal

The intake forms, just like at any medical office visit, make sure to capture any serious condition you may have such as kidney disease, thyroid condition, or high blood pressure, so that any treatment protocol takes these safely into consideration. They are quite comprehensive — perhaps even more so than those used at an in person office visit.

As far as data security is concerned, Dorsal users can rest assured that the tech platform used is HIPAA compliant– meaning that all processes follow the American Health Information Portability and Privacy Act, as well as all other health data integrity laws and regulations. This is important for protecting the privacy of your health information.

And for medications, all those used by Dorsal have been thoroughly tested, FDA approved, and used safely by the greater medical community for years. The physical therapy exercises are part of the most cutting edge and accepted standard of care for each chronic pain condition.

What medications does Dorsal Health prescribe for pain?

As far as medications go, Dorsal uses an approach called “combination therapy.” This is where the different aspects of pain are targeted with different drugs, sometimes using simultaneous courses of prescriptions. For example, a topical NSAID might be paired with a muscle relaxer or a nerve pain reducer for a patient with spasms and sciatica.

But Dorsal doesn’t just offer up the typical full suite of pain medications. Their 15 different prescriptions are handpicked based on the latest research on what is most effective for back pain, and of course, for safety. Here are the six categories that they fall into:

According to Dorsal, all medications have been reviewed and approved by the FDA, have proven effectiveness in treating chronic pain by peer reviewed studies, and are delivered to patients as part of their monthly service.

How does Dorsal Health’s physical therapy work?

Dorsal’s suite of Physical Therapy regimens include components of mobility, strength and stability, soft tissue release, adjunct mobility, and adjunct strength. They are all offered by computer or even smartphone, and — this might be the best part– you choose when and where you hold your sessions. No more appointments cutting into your work, home or family time- these modules can just be incorporated into your routine in whatever way is natural.

Each regimen is 10 weeks, and focuses on both stretching and strengthening for stability and alignment.

The pillars include use of the very popular and well proven McKenzie Method, which uses flexibility movements to remove pain.

Additionally, soft tissue mobilization is used to relax areas of tension or adhesion, and bring blood flow in to restore function.

And of course, the classic core strength exercises are also a major part of the program to protect the spine and provide stability during daily life.

What causes back pain?

Back pain and joint problems are two of the most common reasons we visit the doctor’s office, only behind skin problems. When we overdo it working out, or slip and fall, or worse, get into a car accident, many of us get better with rest and over time. However, over half of all people with back pain still have lingering problems after three months to a year.

What is behind this? Well, like many things having to do with the human body, the answer to that is pretty complicated. Generally, back pain falls into one of these categories: nerve pain, inflammation, and strained and spasming muscles, or strained ligaments. When we have an injury, or even the kind of back pain that seems to come out of nowhere, one type of pain can set off a secondary pain pathway. So even if you’ve healed the original injury, you are now in a cycle of inflammation and muscle dysfunction that can’t be fixed with the typical rest and pain management.

For example, say someone takes a slip on some nasty ice during winter, resulting in the very common herniated disc injury. The sudden combination jerking-twisting movement caused one of the “jelly donut” like cushions in between the vertebrae to have a micro-tear. As the body works to heal the tear, it may bulge into the spinal column, which is tightly packed with nerves. Needless to say, the nerves don’t like that very much, and this is where we can see shooting pain down the legs, buttocks, or even to the feet, as in Sciatica or radiculopathy.

You may be wondering: why can’t painkillers simply take care of the discomfort while the bulging disc heals? This is where things get interesting! So the whole area surrounding the tear is inflamed, right? Meaning lots of fluids are competing for space and it is causing pressure on the nerves… Well, it turns out that long lasting inflammation like this will actually cause the core muscles to atrophy, or lose strength. And these core muscles (ie: abdominals and glutes) are precisely what helps hold proper posture for the spine and protect it from shock.

This happens in non-injury chronic pain as well. The smallest things like repetitive movements at work or while playing sports can prevent a pain cycle from being broken.

This is where good physical therapy comes in. Rehabilitation science has advanced to the point where there are extremely effective exercises indicated for each back pain situation. Imagine for a second if we only used painkillers in the situation above. The patient would be stuck in a cycle of continued inflammation, muscle loss, and increased pain without any kind of physical therapy. This is where people will increase painkiller dosage, which presents quite a trap, especially when those painkillers are habit forming.

Is Dorsal Health legit for pain treatment and therapy?

We know that Dorsal’s treatment protocols are well vetted by its advisory board of accomplished specialists. But doing our own digging into the medical research confirms this as well. They are a legitimate, online telemedicine provider treating back pain with proven, science-backed treatments.

• Physical therapy has been shown to be extremely effective for back pain, especially when hip exercises are included. 
• The Mckenzie method has been determined to be more effective than manual therapy and exercise combined. 
• Core Strengthening has been proven to be more effective than resistance training at solving back pain. 
• Back pain patients who receive Education on back care and mechanics have been shown to have better outcomes than those who do not. 
• The 15 medications on Dorsal’s list are more effective than aspirin or ibuprofen but don’t include anything with addictive potential. 

What’s it like to use Dorsal Health at home?

The whole experience starts with a friendly questionnaire about your personal pain problems… even before you sign up for a payment plan, you answer the first set of basic questions about your goals, fitness levels, etcetera.

From there, the survey asks about qualities of your pain, including time of day, and what makes it worse or better, as well as how it started.

Here’s the important part: entering everything you’ve already done for your back pain, including any doctors, physical therapy, medications, injections, and especially any surgeries.

Any imaging you’ve had done along with the results is also important here. They will want to know which treatments have been working, and which are you still using. From there, the questionnaire goes into more focused questions based on your responses. 

Dorsal’s intake survey finishes with all the classic questions like height and weight, when your last physical exam was and what the results were, and whether you’ve had a blood pressure check in the last 6 months. One perk is that the online platform provides a pretty foolproof way of understanding and reporting your blood pressure numbers:

Perhaps the most innovative part of the questionnaire is the optional virtual physical exam, which takes just a few minutes but provides the doctors more information about your ranges of motion and which movements cause you problems. 

Movements include the slump test, which is classically used to detect spinal issues: 

How much does Dorsal cost?

Affordability goes a long way when it comes to choosing a telemedicine provider that you plan on using long term. Doral Health has a monthly plan that runs just under $60, but the upfront promo makes trying the service out very affordable. And shipping is included. See our next note on how they work with your FSA, and if they take insurance.