“You have to know where you came from to know where you are
going.”
It is true for all of us personally,
familiarly, and professionally. It’s true for
medicine – allopathic and alternative - too. It is true for the understanding
of the disc and the spine it holds. Awareness
of Burlington and Hamilton back pain keeps evolving, and
one of the foremost milestones was rather new
in our human history. Spinal Care Clinic shares
old and new discoveries about the disc
and the back pain it produces as well as the
Burlington and Hamilton chiropractic care that reduces that back
pain.
HISTORY OF THE DISC HERNIATION
The understanding of disc herniation as a
compressive force on spinal nerves causing back pain and leg
pain is a relatively new wonder. Remember that the spine changes as it ages. The spinal disc’s shape and tissue
composition changes. The center part of the disc,
nucleus pulposus, changes and decreases in size. (1) We know
differently today, but in 1909, the disc herniation was believed
to be a tumor. In 1930, a neurologist (T Alajouanine) and surgeon (D
Petit-Dutaillis) described their surgical experiences with disc
herniations that were initially studied by a pathologist
named CG Schmorl. But it wasn’t until 1934 when WJ Mixter and JS
Barr published the first report of surgically getting
rid of disc herniations in 19 patients. (2) (Unless it is
published, it did not happen…and you don’t get credit
for it!) So it was less than a century ago that
the disc herniation was termed a disc herniation and known
as such! Allopathy and alternative medicine like chiropractic have risen
to the challenge in that time.
ALLOPATHY and ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
Allopathic medicine is usually centered
on the disease and has a tendency to focus
on symptom-specific treatment (usually pharmacological or invasive) to get
rid of the cause of pain. Alternative medicine traditionally
focused on a whole-body approach and tends to focus on treatments that increase
the body’s capability to heal itself (herbal supplements, Reiki, chiropractic, Tai chi, acupuncture, etc.) to decrease pain. (3) Today, integrative medicine is growing in its valuing and use of the best of both.
CHIROPRACTIC TREATMENT FOR DISC HERNIATION
Chiropractic care is all-encompassing
care for spine pain conditions. For the disc herniation resulting in
low back pain, neck pain, leg pain and/or arm pain, gentle flexion distraction
spinal manipulation is easing. A new study points
out that horizontal traction was very effective
in producing a significant enlargement of
average lumbar spine disc height and reduction in lumbar
lordosis. (4) Such is available with the Cox Technic System of Spinal Pain
Management causing long-y axis distraction. Spinal Care Clinic specializes
in this treatment. Cox Technic is described as a non-thrust low
velocity variable amplitude spinal manipulation that takes care of low
back pain non-pharmacologically. It is shown to
decrease pain in chronic low back pain patients. (5) It reduces
intradiscal pressure in the disc to as low as -192mmHg, opens the
spinal canal area by 28%, and increases disc height by 17%. (6)
Spinal Care Clinic eases back pain due to disc herniation very
effectively.
CONTACT Spinal Care Clinic
Listen to this PODCAST
by Dr. Jake Bohnen on The Back
Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson. He presents a
case of a disc herniation he treated with Cox® Technic and reduced pain…and the
herniation on MRI!
Schedule a non-surgical Burlington and Hamilton chiropractic care
appointment with Spinal Care Clinic today. Together, we will figure
out where you’ve been on your back pain journey
and make a course of correction and control for its
future with the most proper treatment possible.