“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 knowledge
of the disc and the spine it holds. Awareness
of Carrolltown back pain keeps evolving, and
one of the key milestones was rather new
in our human history. Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation shares
past and current findings on the disc
and the back pain it produces as well as the
Carrolltown chiropractic care that relieves 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 new wonder. Keep
in mind that the spine changes as it ages. The spinal disc’s shape and tissue
composition changes. The center part of the disc,
nucleus pulposus, changes and decreases in size. (1) We know
differently 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 studied by a pathologist
named CG Schmorl. But it wasn’t until 1934 when WJ Mixter and JS
Barr published the first report of surgically getting
rid of 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 less than a century 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 that time.
ALLOPATHY and ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
Allopathic medicine is usually focused
on the disease and has a tendency to concentrate
on symptom-specific treatment (usually pharmacological or invasive) to remove the cause of pain. Alternative medicine traditionally
centered on a whole-body approach and has a tendency to focus on treatments that increase
the body’s capability to heal itself (herbal supplements, Reiki, chiropractic, Tai chi, acupuncture, etc.) to decrease pain. (3) Today, integrative medicine is growing in its appreciation and use 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 relieving. A new report states that horizontal traction was quite helpful
in causing a significant increase in
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. Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation specializes
in this treatment. Cox Technic is described as a non-thrust low
velocity variable amplitude spinal manipulation that manages low
back pain non-pharmacologically. It is shown to
decrease pain in chronic low back pain patients. (5) It decreases
intradiscal pressure in the disc to as low as -192mmHg, opens the
spinal canal area by 28%, and increases disc height by 17%. (6)
Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation eases back pain due to disc herniation quite
effectively.
CONTACT Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation
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 Carrolltown chiropractic care
appointment with Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation today. Together, we’ll figure
out where you have been on your back pain journey
and set a path of correction and control for its
future with the most proper treatment possible.