Posted on 12/19/2022 3:04:55 PM PST by ConservativeMind
A recent study has found that adults who initially visit a chiropractor to receive spinal manipulation for low back pain caused by disc herniation or radiculopathy (i.e., sciatica) are less likely to undergo discectomy (i.e., disc surgery) over the subsequent two years.
Chiropractic is a health care profession that focuses on treatment of musculoskeletal conditions such as low back and neck pain. The most common therapy that chiropractors use is spinal manipulation, which includes a range of hands-on treatments directed to the joints of the spine. While chiropractic spinal manipulation has been found to be effective for treating low back pain, there has been limited research that explores whether this treatment is associated with a reduction in spine surgery.
The authors found that patients who initially received chiropractic spinal manipulation for their low back pain were significantly less likely to undergo lumbar discectomy through two years' follow-up.
- At one year follow-up, 1.5% of the patients in the chiropractic cohort had undergone discectomy, compared to 2.2% of patients in the cohort receiving other care
- At two years' follow-up, 1.9% of the patients in the chiropractic cohort had undergone discectomy, compared to 2.4% of patients in the cohort receiving other care
This study builds on previous work that explored the relationship between chiropractic and surgery. Specifically, the authors examined a more specific population of low back pain, and a more specific outcome of discectomy. It represents the first study to examine whether chiropractic care is associated with a reduction in likelihood of discectomy. While the finding that chiropractic spinal manipulation is associated with a reduced likelihood of discectomy is promising, the study design was observational and included real-world data.
The lead author, Robert J. Trager, is a chiropractic physician at Connor Whole Health, University Hospitals.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
That is funny in a coincidental way. Just started treatment at a chiropractor today. It is going to take awhile.
Bkmk
That said, manipulative therapy likely spared me from more invasive measures, such as back surgery.
The surgeon who did my neck surgery would not do surgery unless the patient had previously tried chiropractic and physical therapy.
Out of desperation, I began going to a chiropractor about thirty years ago. Chiropractic saved my life, or at least the quality of my life.
I am forever grateful. I still go about once a month.
For many years, chiropractic manipulation of the “snap-crackle-pop” variety saved me from back pain that more or less crippled me. I’d go into the chiropractor’s or osteopath’s office unable to take a full breath because of the pain, and would walk out of the office breathing normally, with a little residual soreness.
Surgeon: “Nothing heals like cold, hard steel!”
This was desperation, too. I did not want to be forced to use a wheelchair at 64.
Every injury and patient is different. There are some injuries that can’t be treated with chiropractic therapy.
I told my GP who is an Osteopath that my neck hurt and he adjusted me.
Took my chiro months to get me straightened out after that.
Ping for later.
90% of spinal disk rupture and displacement are caused by piriformis syndrome. Yes, if an L4-L5 disk ruptures or displaces it could require surgery. After surgery though, the problem will return unless and until the patient receives massage relief of the piriformis entrapment which causes it.
Whether the entrapment causes back pain or sciatic leg nerve pain depends on individual configuration of the two piriformis muscle leads in relation to the two sciatic nerve leads as they pass through the pelvis’s sciatic foramen.
Swelling of the piriformis muscle is caused by deteriorated, unremoved collagen in the piriformis muscle. It takes targeted massage to remove the old collagen and relieve the inflammation. You can do it with a tennis ball beneath your hip joint.
I go once/month and walk out like Gumby...or pokey...and feel great.
It’s like my own great reset
I injured my back when I was 17 playing football. I thought if I used the right technique, I could go head to head with a guy who was a good thirty pounds heavier than me. Both of us were running at top speed, and I was being tried out for running back so I had to block this guy.
Well, when we hit, he was thinking the same way I was, but he had thirty pounds on me, and when we collided at full speed, my spine got compressed by some indeterminate amount and it was never the same. They run laps at the end of practice, and I was out there all alone after everyone was done trying desperately to do laps in my crippled condition, and the coach came out and told me it was enough.
I was able to get into the Navy out of high school, but right after I got out of the Navy, it really flared up and made my life hell for about 15 years.
Ah. I’m not going to relate it all, darn it. I feel like I want to, but I won’t. I’m just glad I have a mostly normal life since then!
Sounds painful! Your back is better. now, right?
I go to an upper cervical chiropractor that has helped me way more than a conventional practitioner.
Since I am off blood thinners I went to my first acupuncture session in a long time. It helps with pains, especially the way my lower back aches sometimes since the bouts of hospital this year.
A real back massage also has helped me a lot every so often.
My solution to lower back issues to to do a dead hang for 1 minute once a day. That usually pops out all the crimped joints in my spinal cord. I can feel them popping. Then whenever I can, I’ll stretch my back over a big beach ball. Then for the area around my mid back to shoulders I’ll roll back and forth on a cylindrical black roller for 60 to 80 back and forth rolls. I don’t roll down to the small of my back.
All that together seems to help.
Chiropractic care and physical therapy has kept me from being put under the knife for over 30 years.
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