76% of us has
a disc herniation. (1) Do all 76% have back pain right now? Nope! Thank goodness! The presence of a disc herniation on imaging isn’t the chief issue. The concern is
whether that disc is producing pain either mechanically (by pressing
on a nerve) or chemically (by irritating a nerve). The Chiropractic TRUhealthDR figures
this out during the all-important
physical exam. The MRI and other imaging studies are extras that
can assist - or distract - the chiropractic back pain treatment approach if the
doctor and patient let it. So let’s not let it!
PERCENT OF SPINAL CANAL A DISC OCCUPIES
DOESN’T MATTER
Some imaging studies or MRI images will illustrate
huge discs in back pain sufferers who have minimal
or no pain while back pain sufferers who are in awful
pain may have a minimal disc herniation. It can be frustrating.
Fortunately, research maintains that size is not everything. A study reported that there was no correlation of pain
and disability with the size of a disc herniation seen on MRI. (2) Another
study of 368 patients diagnosed with a lumbar disc herniation said
that 91.3% of them did not have back surgery within a year. The
surgery patients’ discs took up 31.5%
of their spinal canal while the non-operative patients’ discs took
up 31.2% of their spinal canals. That’s not much of a
difference. Researchers wrote that this does
not predict which patients will fail nonsurgical
treatment and need surgery within 2 years after getting
a lumbar spine MRI scan. (3) In light of these
findings, The Chiropractic TRUhealthDR chooses conservative treatment of these
disc herniations.
CONSERVATIVE CARE EFFECT ON DISC SIZE
Chiropractors are back pain specialists. Your
Colorado Springs chiropractor is the Colorado Springs back pain specialist.
Disc herniations causing pain are accepted
at The Chiropractic TRUhealthDR as the spinal research shows that, though
painful, disc herniations large and little react
well to conservative treatment. As a matter of fact,
in following up with patients who chose conservative
treatment for their disc herniation, 35% to 100% of the cases showed
a decrease in the size of the disc. (4) Two
years after conservative care, herniated disc patients showed a 16.5%
decrease in size. 57% of patients had a reduction,
40% demonstrated no change in size, and 3% had a bigger
herniation. (5) Particularly, conservative treatment of
the disc herniation with flexion distraction Cox® Technic produced
increases in the dimensions of the spinal canal by as much
as 28% in area, 17% in height and 7% in width. (6) Colorado Springs back pain
sufferers are grateful for such improvement in their disc
herniations as pain relief results.
CONTACT The Chiropractic TRUhealthDR
Listen to the PODCAST
with Dr. George Joachim on The
Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson. Dr. Joachim shares
the case of a patient with a disc herniation preoducing
spinal stenosis that created considerable
pain and alteration to her lifestyle which was enhanced with his
use of the
Cox®
Technic System of Spinal Pain Management.
Schedule your Colorado Springs chiropractic appointment
today. Regardless of its size, your disc herniation is in good
company and in good hands at The Chiropractic TRUhealthDR.