“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 is true for the comprehension
of the disc and the spine it houses. Understanding
of Pflugerville back pain keeps evolving, and
one of the foremost milestones was rather recent
in our human history. Pflugerville Wellness Center discloses
old and new findings on the disc
and the back pain it causes as well as the
Pflugerville chiropractic care that relieves that back
pain.
HISTORY OF THE DISC HERNIATION
The knowledge of disc herniation as a
compressive force on spinal nerves causing back pain and leg
pain is a relatively new 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 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) 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 circulated 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 fewer than 100 years ago that
the disc herniation was named 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 traditionally focused
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 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 reduce pain. (3) Nowadays, integrative medicine is growing in its appreciation 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 producing
low back pain, neck pain, leg pain and/or arm pain, gentle flexion distraction
spinal manipulation is easing. A new report states that horizontal traction was quite effective
in producing 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. Pflugerville Wellness Center 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
reduce pain in chronic low back pain patients. (5) It decreases
intradiscal pressure in the disc to as low as -192mmHg, widens the
spinal canal area by 28%, and enlarges disc height by 17%. (6)
Pflugerville Wellness Center relieves back pain due to disc herniation very
effectively.
CONTACT Pflugerville Wellness Center
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 Pflugerville chiropractic care
appointment with Pflugerville Wellness Center today. Together, we will determine where you’ve been on your back pain journey
and set a path of correction and control for its
future with the most proper treatment possible.