76% of us has
a disc herniation. (1) Do all 76% have back pain right now? Nope! Thank goodness! The presence of a disc herniation on imaging is
not the chief issue. The issue is
whether that disc is causing pain either mechanically (by pressing
on a nerve) or chemically (by irritating a nerve). Pensacola Spinal Rehab Center figures
this out during the all-important
physical exam. The MRI and other imaging studies are tools that
can help - or distract - the chiropractic back pain treatment approach if the
doctor and patient let it. So let’s not let it!
PERCENT OF SPINAL CANAL A DISC OCCUPIES
DOESN’T MATTER
Some imaging studies or MRI images will illustrate
huge discs in back pain sufferers who have minimal
or no pain while back pain sufferers who are in excruciating
pain may have a small disc herniation. It can be frustrating.
Fortunately, research maintains that size isn’t everything. A research
paper documented that there was no correlation of pain
and disability with the size of a disc herniation seen on MRI. (2) Another
study of 368 patients diagnosed with a lumbar disc herniation said
that 91.3% of them did not have back surgery within a year. The
surgery patients’ discs occupied 31.5%
of their spinal canal while the non-operative patients’ discs occupied 31.2% of their spinal canals. That is not much of a
variance. Researchers wrote that this doesn’t predict which patients will fail nonsurgical
treatment and need surgery within 2 years after undergoing
a lumbar spine MRI scan. (3) In light of these
findings, Pensacola Spinal Rehab Center chooses conservative treatment of these
disc herniations.
CONSERVATIVE CARE EFFECT ON DISC SIZE
Chiropractors are back pain specialists. Your
Pensacola chiropractor is the Pensacola back pain specialist.
Disc herniations causing pain are accepted
at Pensacola Spinal Rehab Center as the spinal research indicates that, though
painful, disc herniations big and little respond
well to conservative treatment. As a matter of fact,
in following up with patients who underwent conservative
treatment for their disc herniation, 35% to 100% of the cases revealed
a reduction in the size of the disc. (4) Two
years after conservative care, herniated disc patients had a 16.5%
reduction in size. 57% of patients had a reduction,
40% showed no change in size, and 3% showed a larger
herniation. (5) More specifically, conservative treatment of
the disc herniation with flexion distraction Cox® Technic delivered
increases in the measurements of the spinal canal by as much
as 28% in area, 17% in height and 7% in width. (6) Pensacola back pain
sufferers are grateful for such improvement in their disc
herniations as pain relief results.
CONTACT Pensacola Spinal Rehab Center
Listen to the PODCAST
with Dr. George Joachim on The
Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson. Dr. Joachim shares
the case of a patient with a disc herniation resulting in
spinal stenosis that generated significant
pain and alteration to her lifestyle which was improved with his
use of the
Cox®
Technic System of Spinal Pain Management.
Schedule your Pensacola chiropractic appointment
today. No matter its size, your disc herniation is in good
company and in good hands at Pensacola Spinal Rehab Center.