“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 is true for
medicine – allopathic and alternative - too. It is true for the comprehension
of the disc and the spine it holds. Understanding
of Richmond back pain keeps evolving, and
one of the major milestones was relatively recent
in our human history. Johnson Chiropractic shares
old and new discoveries about the disc
and the back pain it brings about as well as the
Richmond chiropractic care that reduces that back
pain.
HISTORY OF THE DISC HERNIATION
The understanding of disc herniation as a
compressive force on spinal nerves resulting in back pain and leg
pain is a relatively new phenomenon. Keep
in mind that the spine changes as it grows older. 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) described 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 did not 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 identified
as such! Allopathy and alternative medicine like chiropractic have risen
to the challenge in those intervening years.
ALLOPATHY and ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
Allopathic medicine is traditionally centered
on the disease and tends to concentrate
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 concentrate on treatments that stimulate
the body’s ability to heal itself (herbal supplements, Reiki, chiropractic, Tai chi, acupuncture, etc.) to reduce pain. (3) Nowadays, integrative medicine is escalating 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 causing
low back pain, neck pain, leg pain and/or arm pain, gentle flexion distraction
spinal manipulation is relieving. A new study states that horizontal traction was quite effective
in causing a significant increase in
average lumbar spine disc height and decrease in lumbar
lordosis. (4) Such is available with the Cox Technic System of Spinal Pain
Management utilizing long-y axis distraction. Johnson Chiropractic specializes
in this treatment. Cox Technic is depicted as a non-thrust low
velocity variable amplitude spinal manipulation that manages low
back pain non-pharmacologically. It’s evidence-based 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)
Johnson Chiropractic eases back pain due to disc herniation quite
effectively.
CONTACT Johnson Chiropractic
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 Richmond chiropractic care
appointment with Johnson Chiropractic today. Together, we will figure
out where you’ve been on your back pain journey
and make a path of correction and control for its
future with the most suitable treatment possible.