July 2021 Healthy News from Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office
Distraction and Patient Education and Exercise
Osteoarthritis of the knee and hip are known and growing concerns as our society ages…around the world. Today, Canada is reviewing the “Good Life with Osteoarthritis in Demark” (GLAD) system for knee and hip osteoarthritis. The program incorporates manual therapy, exercise and patient education. (1) One GLAD study had patients attend 2-3 patient education classes and 12 supervised exercise sessions over the course of 8 weeks, patients’ pain intensity got better by 26-33%, walking speed improved 8-12%, chair standability got better by 18-30%, and joint-related quality of life got better by 12-26%. (2) (Another study utilized MRI to determine the thickness of knee joint cartilage after distracting the knee joint to find that it increased with treatment bringing about significant short- and long-term cartilage regeneration up to 10 years post-treatment. (3) This was performed with young people, but there is hope!) Back in 2017, a Canadian chiropractor described the benefit of his application of Cox® flexion-distraction-principle-based distraction to the osteoarthritic knee, and the success he’s witnessed in his patients. Overall (acute and chronic patients combined), patients reported a mean visual analog scale score decrease from 7.7 to 1.8 in 3 weeks and 5.3 treatments. Acute knee OA patients’ scores decreased from 8.1 to 1.1 in 4.8 treatments in 2.4 weeks. Chronic patients’ scores decrased from 7.5 to 2.2 in 3.3 weeks and 5.4 treatments. (4) Chiropractors like yours at Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office 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. Let’s talk today about how distraction treatment may help your Groton knee and hip osteoarthritis!
HOPE FOR DEGENERATED DISCS: Chondroitin Sulfate
Back pain treatment approaches be they surgical, exercise, nutrition, and/or manual therapy based flourish while back pain continues. Injecting hyaluronic acid hydrogel is demonstrating some potential as it is shown to curb the loss of disc height, stimulate tissue hydration for disc repair, and reduce 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 key ones being chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan and hyaluronan. Making chondroitin sulfate available to the disc as well as controlling the hydrostatic pressure of the disc is helpful. (6) Cox® Technic is documented to decrease intradiscal pressure, so mixing it with chondroitin sulfate may be, too. Are you taking yours? Consider including a disc supplement that has chondroitin sulfate to your routine after we talk. Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office 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 potential regeneration of the intervertebral disc and in the Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management.
CONTACT Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office
Schedule your next Groton chiropractic appointment with Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office. See you then!