July 2021 Healthy News from Spinal Care Clinic

Osteoarthritis of the knee and hip are known and growing concerns as our society ages…around the world. Today, Canada is evaluating the “Good Life with Osteoarthritis in Demark” (GLAD) program for knee and hip osteoarthritis. The program includes manual therapy, exercise and patient education. (1) In one GLAD study in which patients attended 2-3 patient education classes and 12 supervised exercise sessions in 8 weeks, patients’ pain intensity improved 26-33%, walking speed got better by 8-12%, chair standability improved 18-30%, and joint-related quality of life got better by 12-26%. (2) (Another study used MRI to guage the thickness of knee joint cartilage after knee joint distraction to document that it thickened with treatment resulting in significant short- and long-term cartilage regeneration up to 10 years after treatment. (3) This was performed with young people, but there is hope!) Back in 2017, a Canadian chiropractor described the benefit of his utilization of Cox® flexion-distraction-principle-based distraction to the osteoarthritic knee, and the success he’s witnessed in his patients. Inclusively (acute and chronic patients together), patients related a mean visual analog scale score drop from 7.7 to 1.8 in 3 weeks and 5.3 visits. Acute knee OA patients’ scores dropped from 8.1 to 1.1 in 4.8 treatments in 2.4 weeks. Chronic patients’ scores dropped from 7.5 to 2.2 in 3.3 weeks and 5.4 treatments. (4) Chiropractors like yours at Spinal Care Clinic are ahead of the curve with their modified Cox® Technic principles-based-flexion-distraction-approach to knee osteoarthritis. New protocols for use in hip OA are also in development. Talk with us today about how distraction treatment may help you with Burlington and Hamilton hip and knee osteoarthritis!

 

HOPE FOR DEGENERATED DISCS: Chondroitin Sulfate

Back pain treatment approaches from surgery to manual therapy to exercise to nutrition abound while back pain continues. Injecting hyaluronic acid hydrogel is demonstrating some promise as it is shown to suppress the loss of disc height, promote tissue hydration for disc repair, and lower inflammation and innervation to ward off more disc degeneration. (5) The nutritional approach continues to show promise for back pain sufferers as the disc matrix components are identified, two central ones being chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan and hyaluronan. Making chondroitin sulfate available to the disc in addition to controlling the hydrostatic pressure of the disc is valuable. (6) Cox® Technic is documented to decrease intradiscal pressure, so mixing it with chondroitin sulfate may be, too. Are you taking yours? Consider adding a disc supplement containing chondroitin sulfate to your routine after we talk. Spinal Care Clinic is ready!

Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. James Cox on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he discusses the part chondroitin sulfate plays in the health, degeneration and possible regeneration of the intervertebral disc and in the Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management.

CONTACT Spinal Care Clinic

Schedule your next Burlington and Hamilton chiropractic appointment with Spinal Care Clinic. See you then!