Douglas Kennedy, Boulder, Colorado: Best Pain Control: I use Deep Acupuncture every single day at work, and it is by far, the best thing I have ever used. Check out Dr. C. Chan Gunn's info on the internet: there is great science behind it!

Todd Austin, Virden, Illinois: Our clinic's arsenal of several different Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) devices. LLLT is very effective at least 70% of the time. In fact, LLLT quickly reduces inflammation, increases ROM & improves the ability of the once-damaged cells and tissues to handle additional stress. Using LLLT prior to the chiropractic adjustment helps to make my job as a chiropractic physician easier, as it prepares the patient for the adjustment.

In a perfect world, LLLT would be used to prevent all musculoskeletal surgeries. From my personal experience, I'm batting 1,000 when it comes to preventing neck surgeries with a combination of LLLT & chiropractic since I acquired my lasers 5 years ago. Unfortunately, I've had 2 shoulder pain patients in the past year that have needed surgery anyway. But, I've discovered that if we laser vigorously leading up to the surgery, we can provide the surgeon with the best possible product to work with. If we continue to laser post-surgically, the rehab & recovery is much less painful and happens much more quickly.

There are also some other chiropractors in my area that don't offer low level laser therapy. They refer patients in need of LLLT to me, and I gladly refer them back to their original D.C. for their chiropractic care.

I've also treated many non-chiropractic problems with LLLT: including burns, bad bruises, poison ivy, other unexplained skin rashes, detached rib cartilages, shin splints and pilonidal cysts. Some of these folks became patients in our clinic solely for LLLT treatments.

The bottom line is as a chiropractor, a husband and a father, I can't imagine my life without LLLT in it!

Loreen Daigle, Middlebury, Connecticut: I have found Biofreeze to help before an adjustment when muscles are spasmed. A patient also found that Biofreeze rubbed into muscles that were cramping after standing a long time at work stopped it immediately. Remembering the old remedy of bromelain for the appropriate swelling and inflammation has been helpful for pain relief in a portion of patients.

Ralph Bencivengo, Hamilton, New Jersey: Nutritional advice. Omega threes for anti-inflammation aids in pain reduction as does other supplements.

Dr Ralph Krutulis, Jamesville, New York: Nutrigenomic modulation of inflammation is the primary non-structural approach I use for drug free pain reduction.

First I look at hydration; how dry is their "garden". I tell patients to "stand on your bathroom scale every morning, look at that number, divide it in half, that is how much pure water you need per day in ounces".

Depending on the pain, ice may be indicated, as may the addition of Magnesium in the glycinate form. I use several products from Metagenics with great success; their Acute Phase packs for muscular injuries, Kaprex for arthritic pain, Essential Fatty acids and Vits C and D3 for many pro-inflammatory pain complaints. Some acute pain and chronic pain protocols look identical, some are very divergent where i help the patient to make lifestyle changes to reduce chronic source of pain such as helping them go gluten free with migraine patients.

No matter the pain, there is almost always an approach that can lower the patient's pain through specific nutrition modulation. This has added tens of thousands of dollars to my practice and hundreds of patients referred to me simply as I do clinical nutrition and many of my peers do not.

Ralph Stokes, Dallas, Texas: Decompression therapy and Standard Process Boswellia Complex.

David Weber, East Dubuque, Illinois: I have been using Kinesio Tex taping procedures for one year after taking the two weekend course. I have found it to be an invaluable aid in everything from edema reduction to reduction of muscle tension/spasm.

William Doggett, Albuquerque, New Mexico: The question becomes misleading if you use the FDA definition of drug. To paraphrase their statement, any substance ingested or administered internally for therapeutic purpose is a drug. In that regard giving oswalia, grapefruit extract, bromaline, or any herbal anti-inflammatory is giving or prescribing a drug.