Alex VanDerschelden alias The X-Ray Spine Guy

Alex VanDerschelden is not licensed or approved by California Board of Chiropractic Examiners to diagnose, treat, or cure digital x rays.

digital x rays

Supports

The influencer’s claim is extremely vague, but if interpreted as “chiropractic treatment using digital X‑rays as part of care,” there is some evidence supporting chiropractic manual therapy itself for common conditions such as low back pain, but not specific evidence that digital X‑ray imaging improves outcomes. Systematic reviews and randomized trials show that spinal manipulation and combined chiropractic interventions produce small to moderate short‑term improvements in pain and function for acute, subacute, and chronic low back pain, with effects similar to other recommended nonpharmacologic therapies like exercise and physical therapy.^[8][13] One Cochrane-type review found that combined chiropractic interventions slightly improved pain and disability in the short term and pain in the medium term for acute/subacute low back pain compared with other treatments, though long‑term differences were not clinically meaningful.^[5] A large comparative‑effectiveness trial in active‑duty military personnel reported that adding chiropractic care to usual medical care produced statistically significant moderate improvements in back pain intensity and disability at 6 weeks versus usual care alone, suggesting a real but modest benefit.^[12] Other randomized trials show chiropractic care can be modestly more effective than placebo or muscle relaxants for subacute low back pain and maintenance chiropractic care can reduce days with bothersome recurrent low back pain compared with symptom‑guided treatment, though with more visits.^[2][21]

Contradicts

There is no high‑quality evidence showing that routine or extensive use of digital X‑rays in chiropractic practice improves pain, function, or long‑term outcomes compared with guideline‑based use of imaging or no imaging; most high‑quality evidence on chiropractic care focuses on manual therapy and patient education, not on the imaging modality itself. Clinical guidelines for back pain generally recommend limiting imaging (including X‑rays) to cases with red‑flag features or suspicion of serious pathology, because routine imaging does not change management and exposes patients to unnecessary radiation; this applies regardless of whether care is provided by physicians or chiropractors.^[6] Systematic reviews and randomized trials of chiropractic care often achieve similar outcomes to other nonpharmacologic treatments without relying on extensive imaging, indicating that the benefit of chiropractic treatment is not contingent on digital X‑ray use.^[5][8][13] Evidence quality for many chiropractic trials is moderate at best, and several RCTs show only small, not clinically large, differences versus sham or usual care, which limits strong claims that chiropractic (with or without digital X‑rays) is superior to mainstream management.^[11] Furthermore, guidelines for conditions like hypertension, nutritional support, and headache management illustrate the mainstream emphasis on evidence‑based, risk‑benefit–balanced use of diagnostics and interventions, and they do not endorse routine chiropractic imaging or treatment as a core component of care for these systemic conditions.^[0][1][2][3]

Mainstream view

Mainstream medical and scientific opinion is that chiropractic spinal manipulation and related nonpharmacologic care can be a reasonable option for some patients with non‑specific low back pain and other musculoskeletal complaints, offering short‑term improvements in pain and function comparable to other recommended conservative therapies such as exercise therapy and physical therapy, but it is not uniquely superior. High‑quality evidence supports using chiropractic care as one of several nonpharmacologic options in a multimodal, guideline‑concordant approach for back pain, while avoiding overuse of imaging, including digital X‑rays, unless specific red‑flag indications or suspected serious pathology are present.^{[5][8][9][10][13][16]} Routine or repeated digital X‑rays solely to guide chiropractic adjustments or for “posture analysis” without clear clinical indication is not supported by major guidelines and is generally considered low‑value care, because it adds radiation exposure and cost without proven benefit to outcomes. Overall, mainstream practice supports evidence‑based, limited imaging and recognizes chiropractic as an adjunct or alternative conservative therapy for musculoskeletal pain, not as a technology‑driven imaging treatment in itself.^[0][3][6]

In their own wordsWatch source

“digital x rays”

Rule: Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §1000; 16 CCR §302