VINDICATE

Whenever we see a new client, there’s a lot of things we need to discover. One of the key things is that we need to rule out any conditions that need further investigation, to ensure we are truly the best option for the client, or to refer them to the specialist they need.

We do this by looking for certain characteristics or symptoms that the client is displaying or describing. The problem is that many conditions have similar symptoms. Lower back pain is a symptom of well over 100 different conditions, so it would take hours to investigate every single one to figure out what's going on.

To do a thorough health assessment in less than an hour, we have to work smart. Different conditions can be grouped together depending on how they are caused or how they affect the body. This means we can very quickly rule in or rule out a lot of conditions just by listening to what the client says. 

We all know we have different tissues in the body, so we can split it up into categories like joint, muscle, bone, tendon, ligament, nerve, etc. But some conditions affect multiple tissues, and cause more widespread symptoms. Whilst we can't discount these, we have dig a little bit deeper.

We use the acronym VINDICATE to categorise different conditions we need to be aware of when assessing a client, to be sure we give the best recommendation possible.  

V- vascular: any condition involving compromise to the blood supply. One of the most common vascular issues that can cause lower back pain is an abdominal aortic aneurysm.

I- infection: any condition caused by a viral, bacterial or fungal infection. These are more common after direct traumas or surgery.

N- neoplastic: abnormal mass of tissue forming when cells don’t grow, divide or die at the rate they should. This includes benign or malignant tumours, so encompasses many different types of cancer.

D- degenerative: breakdown or loss of function within the tissue. This includes conditions such as osteoarthritis, but can affect other tissues like the discs in the spine.

I- inflammatory: inflammatory conditions can present similarly to infectious conditions, but will usually be more localised. This mostly includes ankylosing spondylitis, as well as other forms of arthritis. 

C- congenital: conditions present from birth. They are often diagnosed at birth or in childhood, or found incidentally when having a check up for something else. A lot of them are related to improperly developed vertebra within the spine. 

A- autoimmune: involves any condition in which the body starts attacking itself, rather than healing itself. Some of the more common ones we see include Multiple Sclerosis or Lupus.

T- trauma: this can either be an acute direct trauma, a fall from height or a car crash, or a repetitive trauma like a manual labour job. Most commonly it presents as a fracture within a bone. 

E- endocrine: involves the glands and organs in the body responsible for the release of hormones into the body. Diabetes is the most common endocrine issue. 

We need to be able to identify conditions from all these different categories to be able to determine if we are the best care option for the client, or if we need to refer them out. Often the client will already know if they have a specific condition, so most of the time we can help anyway!

If you have a known condition that you want to explore other treatment options for, or have symptoms that you want investigated, then get yourself booked in for a consultation and we’ll create a tailored plan for you!