From Chronic Pain to Healing: What Your Richmond Chiropractor Wants You to Know About Recent Discoveries
If you suffer with chronic low back pain, you know how frustrating it can be when treatments only provide short term relief. Although there's still much to learn, emerging research is shedding light on the reasons behind disc degeneration and investigating potential therapies that might provide better results in the future. Johnson Chiropractic is keeping a close eye on all of this to help our Richmond back pain patients best.
Understanding Your Disc Health: The Hydration Factor
Your spinal discs serve as padding between the bones of your spine, consisting primarily of water-containing molecules known as proteoglycans. When these discs lose their water content over time, they can't absorb shock as well, contributing to pain and further breakdown. While staying hydrated won't heal disc problems, it may support your discs' natural function—though we still need more research to completely grasp how this works. We can talk more at your next Richmond chiropractic visit about ways to hydrate your discs.
Early Promise: Lab-Grown Disc Components
Studies by Chopra's team (1) have made advances in developing "biomimetic proteoglycans"—artificial varieties of the natural components found in your discs. In laboratory studies, these engineered molecules can simulate some properties of healthy disc tissue. However, these studies are just beginning, and it may take time to determine if this treatment will be both safe and effective for people|this research is still in its infancy, and it will likely be some time before we know if this approach can safely and effectively help human patients like our Richmond back pain patients.
Why Decompression Techniques May Help
Exploring Natural Pain Pathways
Some of the most preliminary research by Melrose and colleagues (3) is exploring whether compounds from natural sources, including venoms (wow!), could be developed into targeted pain treatments. This work is still in its beginning phases and concentrates on figuring out how pain works rather than coming up with ready-to-use treatments. It may be many years before we see practical applications, if any come at all. Fasincating!
What This Means for Your Current Treatment
While these research developments are hopeful, they don't alter your immediate treatment options. What they do suggest is:
- Lifestyle factors like hydration and movement patterns may be more significant than we previously grasped.
- Current treatments your chiropractor uses may have stronger scientific support than before.
- Future treatment options are being researched, though timeline and real-life applicabililty remain uncertain.
- Managing expectations is critical—breakthrough treatments take time to develop and prove safe.
The reality is that back pain treatment remains challenging, and while research is advancing our understanding, most of these discoveries take time. Your best approach remains working with your Richmond chiropractor at Johnson Chiropractic who understands current evidence-based treatments like Cox® Technic while staying up-to-date about emerging research.
CONTACT Johnson Chiropractic
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. James Cox, on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he describes how The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management addresses disc degeneration and the back pain that accompanies it.
