“You have to know where you came from to know where you are
going.”
It’s 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 houses. Knowledge
of Plainville back pain keeps evolving, and
one of the foremost milestones was rather recent
in the history of man. Layden Chiropractic discloses
old and new findings on the disc
and the back pain it brings about as well as the
Plainville 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 recent phenomenon. Keep
in mind that the spine changes as it matures. The spinal disc’s shape and tissue
composition changes. The disc’s center,
nucleus pulposus, changes and gets smaller. (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 talked about by a pathologist
named CG Schmorl. But it wasn’t until 1934 when WJ Mixter and JS
Barr circulated the first report of surgically removing disc herniations in 19 patients. (2) (Unless it is
published, it didn’t happen…and you don’t get credit
for it!) So it was less than a century ago that
the disc herniation was termed a disc herniation and recognized
as such! Allopathy and alternative medicine like chiropractic have grown
to the challenge in those intervening years.
ALLOPATHY and ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
Allopathic medicine is traditionally centered
on the disease and has a tendency to concentrate
on symptom-specific treatment (usually pharmacological or invasive) to get
rid of the cause of pain. Alternative medicine usually
focused on a whole-body approach and has a tendency to concentrate on treatments that increase
the body’s capability to heal itself (herbal supplements, Reiki, chiropractic, Tai chi, acupuncture, etc.) to reduce pain. (3) Nowadays, integrative medicine is escalating 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 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 very helpful
in causing a significant enlargement of
average lumbar spine disc height and reduction in lumbar
lordosis. (4) Such is available with the Cox Technic System of Spinal Pain
Management causing long-y axis distraction. Layden Chiropractic concentrates
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)
Layden Chiropractic relieves back pain due to disc herniation quite
effectively.
CONTACT Layden Chiropractic
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 Plainville chiropractic care
appointment with Layden Chiropractic today. Together, we’ll figure
out where you’ve been on your back pain journey
and set a path of correction and control for its
future with the most appropriate treatment possible.