A local chiropractor has written a textbook he hopes changes the way chiropractic medicine is taught in colleges and universities.
Joshua Browning, 33, a chiropractic orthopedist with Hillsboro Sports Medicine and a staff physician at Mercy Hospital Jefferson in Crystal City, wrote “Evidence-Based Evaluation and Management of Common Spinal Conditions,” which he said is being used in at least six American chiropractic schools, including his alma mater, Logan University in St. Louis County, as well as one in Canada and in schools in 10 other countries, including England, Italy and Germany.
“I’m hopeful it will expand,” Browning said.
He said it’s difficult for him to estimate how many copies of the 230-page book have sold to date.
“Some have been sold through the publisher (DC-PowerHours), some through Amazon and some through a Facebook group,” he said. “I do know that it has continued to sell.”
Browning said he believes his work is different from other chiropractic textbooks.
“The book is all about research,” he said. “There aren’t a lot of books out there on the subject of spinal issues for students and doctors that provides an easy way to get the latest research on spinal problems.”
He said the major reference book in chiropractic schools is “Differential Diagnosis and Management for the Chiropractor: Protocols and Algorithms.”
“It’s kind of the bible of chiropractic medicine,” Browning said. “It’s huge. It’s about 600 pages. So I can say there’s no other book out quite like mine.”
He said it’s a handier resource than the 600-page textbook.
“The topics (in Browning’s book) are common spinal problems. I’d like to say it covers about 95 percent of what doctors see. It includes information on what patients usually say, what questions a doctor should ask, how to treat it. It was written to provide quick-to-find topics and easy to follow.”
In a sense, Browning’s book has been much in the making for much of his life.
Browning, who plans to soon move to Jefferson County, is a Centralia, Ill., native and attended Bellhaven University in Jackson, Miss., on a tennis scholarship.
“I’ve always been an athlete, primarily bowling and tennis,” he said. “When I was 19, I got a neck injury, and my medical doctor at the time prescribed pain medicine. I didn’t want to take pain medicine. I had a friend who was a chiropractor and he said, ‘Let me take a crack at you.’ After two weeks, six months of pain was gone. I had planned on being an anesthesiologist, but I fell in love with chiropractic medicine.”
‘Treat and release’ practice
After graduating from Logan in 2013, he started his own practice in Festus, but was invited to become a partner in Hillsboro Sports Medicine in 2015, where he learned the concept of “treat and release,” or short-term chiropractic care.
“I was finishing a subspecialty fellowship as a chiropractic orthopedist,” he said. “What attracted me to it is that it is evidence-based, and very much based in research. It’s very much into getting patients out of pain as quickly as possible.
“There is no research that supports requiring patients to come in and get care when they’re asymptomatic,” he said. “That’s why this is very unpopular with some chiropractors.”
Browning said he spent about three years on his book, which was published in August 2021 – half of it doing research and the rest writing it.
“The research part I learned through my work on the chiropractic orthopedist subspecialty. There is a lot of research involved in that.
“Everything in the book is there because of research, from respected publications such as the New England Journal of Medicine, which many people have heard of, and another medical journal, ‘Spine.’ My book brings all this research from many sources into one place.”
Browning said gathering all that information and then distilling it into a single book was arduous.
“The process was not what I was expecting when I started it, but I was glad I did it at the end,” he said.
The book can be purchased for about $80, although discounts are available to students.
“The goal has never been to profit from it, but to supply a reference that gives students and doctors somewhere they can go,” he said.
Browning said the book might be beneficial for others as well.
“I wouldn’t say this is a book a lot of people outside the profession will want to buy, but it could be useful for patients and for caregivers of patients,” he said. “There are a lot of pictures and other images, including charts. People seem to relate to charts. You might learn about some things to talk about with your doctor. Any time someone can pick up some information that will help their doctor direct their care, that results in a better outcome for the patient.”
Career rolling along
Browning said when he and his partners are not seeing patients at their Hillsboro practice, they serve as the team physician for De Soto High School.
He also said he’s the lead physician for the Professional Bowlers Association.
Browning said he started those duties shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020. As part of the job, he travels to some stops on the tour and arranges medical coverage with local doctors at other tour stops.
“I traveled with the tour before COVID, but now, with it starting back, I’m only going to a few sites such as Indianapolis,” he said.
Browning also is an aspiring semi-pro bowler, with a 235 average.
“I’ve shot multiple 300s and 800 series. I had a 299 recently. I forgot that one pin on my last shot,” he said. “I guess missing it makes you more appreciative of how hard a perfect game is.
“In baseball terms, I guess I’d be shooting for the Triple A tour,” he said. “I’ve won some regional tournaments and had good success at other places. It helps having a wife who doesn’t mind travelling.”
Browning said he and his wife, Nicole, of St. Louis County are building a house in Imperial and hope to move in by the end of the year.