“You have to know where you came from to know where you are
going.”
It is true for all of us individually,
familiarly, and professionally. It’s true for
medicine – allopathic and alternative - too. It’s true for the understanding
of the disc and the spine it houses. Knowledge
of Groton back pain keeps evolving, and
one of the key milestones was relatively new
in the history of man. Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office shares
old and new discoveries about the disc
and the back pain it causes as well as the
Groton 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 recent phenomenon. Keep
in mind that the spine changes as it matures. The shape
of the disc and the composition of it tissue changes. The disc’s center,
nucleus pulposus, changes and decreases in size. (1) We know
better today, but in 1909, the disc herniation was assumed
to be a tumor. In 1930, a neurologist (T Alajouanine) and surgeon (D
Petit-Dutaillis) explained their surgical experiences with disc
herniations that were initially talked about by a pathologist
named CG Schmorl. But it wasn’t until 1934 when WJ Mixter and JS
Barr published the first report of surgically taking out disc herniations in 19 patients. (2) (Unless it is
published, it didn’t happen…and you do not get credit
for it!) So it was fewer than 100 years ago that
the disc herniation was termed a disc herniation and recognized
as such! Allopathy and alternative medicine like chiropractic have grown
to the challenge in that time.
ALLOPATHY and ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
Allopathic medicine is traditionally focused
on the disease and has a tendency to focus
on symptom-specific treatment (usually pharmacological or invasive) to remove the cause of pain. Alternative medicine usually
centered on a whole-body approach and has a tendency to focus on treatments that stimulate
the body’s capability to heal itself (herbal supplements, Reiki, chiropractic, Tai chi, acupuncture, etc.) to decrease pain. (3) Today, integrative medicine is escalating in its valuing and utilization of the best of both.
CHIROPRACTIC TREATMENT FOR DISC HERNIATION
Chiropractic care is comprehensive
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 report points
out that horizontal traction was quite effective
in causing 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 utilizing long-y axis distraction. Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office 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’s shown to
reduce pain in chronic low back pain patients. (5) It reduces
intradiscal pressure in the disc to as low as -192mmHg, widens the
spinal canal area by 28%, and increases disc height by 17%. (6)
Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office eases back pain due to disc herniation quite
effectively.
CONTACT Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office
Listen to this PODCAST
by Dr. Jake Bohnen on The Back
Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson. He discusses a
case of a disc herniation he treated with Cox® Technic and reduced pain…and the
herniation on MRI!
Schedule a non-surgical Groton chiropractic care
appointment with Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office today. Together, we’ll determine where you have been on your back pain journey
and set a path of correction and control for its
future with the most suitable treatment possible.