UW Gazette, April 2, 1997
     
     Have you been tortured by lower back pain for at least
three months? Martine Mientjes needs you!
     The kinesiology PhD student is looking for people who
suffer from chronic lower back pain to participate in a
study examining the relationship of chiropractic treatment
to the balance problems sometimes associated with such pain.
     Although complaints about back pain are common,
Mientjes said, most pain improves within a month. It's not
easy to find people with long-term back problems.
     But she needs at least 20 people with chronic pain and
believes the campus community can help. Adult participants
of all ages are welcome.
     While Mientjes can't guarantee that assisting with her
study will cure back pain, chiropractic treatment could
provide some relief.
     The study represents one of the first research projects
undertaken jointly by the UW faculty of applied health
sciences and the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College in
Toronto, which opened a research clinic at UW last fall.
     "The big picture," as Mientjes describes it, involves
an increased risk of people with chronic back pain losing
their balance, slipping and falling, and either reinjuring
their back or injuring another part of the body.
     "We need to understand what poor balance is before we
can work to help people compensate for it."
     To comprehend the complex mechanisms of balance,
Mientjes is using the Optotrak system developed by Northern
Digital, a UW spin-off company. Using a computer, the system
collects and records data from three video cameras which
record infrared signals attached to the participant; from a
force plate on which the subject stands to measure shifts in
weight; and from electrodes attached to the person to
monitor muscle activity. Using this combined data, the
computer creates an image of body movements over time.
     Tentatively, initial measurements will be taken, chiro
practic treatment will be given, then measurements taken a
second time. This data will be compared with that collected
from a control group without lower back pain.
     In addition, with the assistance of a scholarship from
CMCC, Mientjes will be collaborating with the CMCC resident
chiropractor to assess whether chiropractic treatment
improves balance for back pain sufferers.
     "In the past, chiropractors have had few objective
measures of the impact of their treatment. Traditionally,
they didn't have a research-oriented education, and tended
instead to rely on the self-reports of patients."
     Although this information provided important feedback,
said Mientjes, "they didn't know why or how people recover
faster and feel better."
     Chiropractor Dr. Lisa Caputo will be assisting Mientjes
in this aspect of the research until the end of July as part
of Caputo's six-month placement at the UW/CMCC research
clinic in the new wing of Matthews Hall.
     For Mientjes, who completed her undergraduate work in
Amsterdam, the study represents the first of several she
will be undertaking with chronic low-back pain patients
during the next couple of years. Although as the first stu
dent conducting chiropractic research with the new clinic,
she has spent more time than anticipated leaping over
bureaucratic barriers and surmounting technical hurdles,
she's excited to be part of the effort.
     "The supervisors here are well-known all over the
world. It's a very good place to do research - a very good
program."