April 2019 Healthy News: Richmond Chiropractic Care Improved Muscle Weakness and Vitamin C for Bone Health

Lumbar nerve root compression may trigger pain and/or weakness for some spinal stenosis and disc herniation patients. Younger patients tend to respond more quickly to both surgical and non-surgical care. (1) That’s logical as the nerve hasn’t been inflamed for very long. Disc herniations are more likely to arise in our 30’s and 50’s. Fortunately, only 3% to 6% of them are symptomatic. Spinal stenosis is more likely to bother us in our 50’s and 60’s. Muscle weakness appears in as many as 30% to 50% of disc herniation patients. 80% of disc herniation patients with weakness show improvement with 6 weeks of non-surgical care, 90% at 12 weeks, 93% at 24 weeks. Surgical patients find that the most clinically significant weakness improvement happened within 6 weeks of spine surgery for a disc herniation. 66% of these patients had no improvement after that. (Ghahreman in 1) Motor power improvement can take up to two years after surgery. Some sensory loss is typical but barely noticeable. (1) BONUS: The cost of chiropractic care for a lumbar disc herniation only totaled 2% of all the money spent, so the researchers recommended a trial of conservative, non-operative care before patients undergo back surgery for disc herniation. (2) Bring your Richmond back pain and related muscle weakness to Johnson Chiropractic for Richmond non-operative care first.

Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Dean Greenwood on The Back Doctor’s Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson about a patient with muscle weakness accompanying a synovial cyst that improved with chiropractic care utilizing the Cox® Technic System.

Keeping bones strong is important, and vitamin C can help! Osteoclasts are bone cells that break down bone tissue. Vitamin C blocks them from doing that. Osteoblasts are cells that connect bone while bone takes shape. Vitamin C promotes bone regeneration by promoting osteoblast formation. (3) Fruits and vegetables are excellent sources of vitamin C. They are full of antioxidants known to impact bone quality. In a recent report, vitamin C improved the L5 vertebra’s density! (4) That’s a benefit your Richmond spine specialist loves to hear! Get your vitamin C daily! Eat, or supplement! Let us chat at your next Richmond chiropractic appointment.

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Make your Richmond chiropractic appointment. Johnson Chiropractic is ready to help you regain your muscle loss and build your bones! Thank you for trusting your spine’s health to Johnson Chiropractic!