Executive Chiropractic of Iowa Treats Disc Herniation Pain
Disc herniations can bring about back pain and leg pain for some. Executive Chiropractic of Iowa welcomes those disc herniation pain patients. Gentle, relieving treatment without surgery is what we provide. West Des Moines back pain patients are relieved when they find us!
DISC HERNIATION: Size, Weight, Sleep
What matters when a disc causes back pain? Its size? Its weight? Its effect on quality of life? Spinal researchers have produced data and published that how the painful disc appears on imaging does not really matter. The shape and size of an intervertebral spinal disc’s protruded nucleus pulposus has no tie to a what a patient’s symptoms may be or how a patient feels. (1) The weight of a disc fragment did not correlate with the amount of time the symptoms lasted or severity of pre- or post-operative leg pain nor post-operative leg pain or back pain improvement, the percent of spinal canal occupation, herniation classification, or vertebral level. The size of the lumbar disc herniation did not have much effect on clinical outcomes. (2) Chronic lower back pain and sciatica due to lumbar disc herniation negatively impacted sleep quality. Treatment benefitted patient perception of pain in visual analog scale (VAS) scores and the PSQI Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index scores. (3) Pain lessening chiropractic treatment of a pain-producing disc entails reducing the risk of recurrent back pain episodes as well as reducing the pain of the current episode.
MANAGING BACK PAIN AND RISK OF ITS RECURRENCE
Once you’ve experienced a disc herniation and its resulting back pain, you don’t want to have it back! Executive Chiropractic of Iowa gets that and wants you to know that managing - as conservatively as possible - the disc herniation is more realistic than curing it. 6.05% of lumbar discectomy surgery patients experienced a re-current disc herniation. What prompted this? On their own, factors like age, BMI, current smoking status, heavy lifting, degenerative facet joint disease, operation time, and the ambulation time after surgery impacted the risk of recurrent disc herniation. Combined, older age, male sex, high body mass index (BMI), and early ambulation were significant factors in the experience of a recurrent lumbar disc herniation. Managing weight, not lifting heavy items, and exercising were proposed risk reducers. (4) One new study reported that the amount of sedentary time probably did not increase the risk of a new occurrence of low back pain as much as the amount and type of physical activity. (5) Pain relief comes more as a roller coaster than a straight hill to pain relief. A disc herniation is like a bruise on an apple making the apple (and by comparison, the spine) never quite the same again. That is where Executive Chiropractic of Iowa comes in with a treatment plan that ensures you understand the disc herniation, how to feed it nutritionally, how to get it back to being strong with exercise and keeping it that way, and how to do activities of daily living to prevent (re)injury. A recent systematic review of ways to approach the management of back pain listed 10 approaches: manipulation/mobilization, psychological/behavioral, advice to stay active/bed rest, reassurance, antidepressants, NSAIDS, opioids, muscle relaxants, and paracetamol. (6) Executive Chiropractic of Iowa promotes walking, moving, careful lifting, and especially being treated with gentle, safe, effective Cox® Technic spinal manipulation!
CONTACT Executive Chiropractic of Iowa
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Robert Patterson on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he illustrates the realistic expectations back pain patients can expect with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management.
Make your West Des Moines chiropractic appointment now. Disc herniation sufferers are invited to our practice for relief and a plan for controlling its future impact on life.
