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Are back problems influenced by your gut? Researchers think there may be a connection. In a paper, researchers looked at patients with and without lumbar degenerative spondylolisthesis to examine the differences in gut microbiome in the two groups. The researchers collected disk samples from surgery and imaging, along with blood, stool and saliva samples in those without and those with lumbar degenerative spondylolisthesis. This often common condition involves slippage of one vertebral body over another due to intervertebral disk or facet joint degeneration—and can lead to pain, disability and surgery. The cause is relatively unknown and has been under heated...

For adults with symptomatic lumbar disc herniation, unilateral biportal endoscopic (UBE) microdiscectomy is associated with longer operating times and with lower pain medication consumption in the early postoperative period compared with tubular lumbar microdiscectomy, according to a study Charla Fischer, M.D. and colleagues examined surgical outcomes and pain medication consumption for UBE versus tubular lumbar microdiscectomy in a retrospective cohort study of adults undergoing primary, single-level UBE or tubular lumbar microdiscectomy surgery at a high-volume institution. Data were included for 102 patients: 48 undergoing UBE and 54 tubular lumbar microdiscectomy. The researchers found that the average operative time was higher...

It’s the melting pot of all scams. Russian gangsters, MS-13 members, and a cadre of corrupt surgeons, lawyers and lenders are pulling off the latest big con in the city: bogus personal-injury lawsuits where immigrants go under the knife to help their twisted ruse. Migrants and other desperate New Yorkers are pressured into getting unneeded spinal fusion surgery and other operations to boost the value of their fake-accident claims, according to court records, insurance investigators and law-enforcement sources. Doctors cash in on the sick swindle by performing back and neck fusions, allowing fraudsters to swipe billions through bogus insurance filings,...

Conditions such as diabetes, heart attack, and vascular diseases commonly diagnosed in people with spinal cord injuries can be traced to abnormal post-injury neuronal activity that causes abdominal fat tissue compounds to leak and pool in the liver and other organs, a new animal study has found. Researchers found that a short course of the drug gabapentin prevented the damaging metabolic effects of spinal cord injury. Experiments revealed a cascade of abnormal activity within seven days after the injury in neurons and in visceral fat tissue. "As soon as we disrupt sensory processing as a result of spinal cord injury,...

A new study conducted by researchers sheds light on the potential benefits of chiropractic spinal manipulation (CSM) for adults experiencing ongoing sciatica following low back surgery. The study, titled "Association between spinal manipulative therapy and lumbar spine reoperation after discectomy: a retrospective cohort study," was recently published. The researchers investigated whether adults receiving CSM for sciatica at least one year after lumbar discectomy would be less likely to undergo lumbar spine reoperation compared to matched controls not receiving CSM, over a two-year follow-up period. Using a retrospective cohort study design, the research team analyzed data from a United States network...

Researchers have unveiled crucial insights into the factors that might influence Intervertebral Disk Degeneration (IDD). IDD is a predominant cause of lower back pain, impacting millions worldwide. The focus of this research revolved around nucleus pulposus cells (NPCs), pivotal in IDD, and how oxygen levels and the HIF1A gene could influence them. Employing advanced RNA sequencing (RNA-seq), the team meticulously captured a comprehensive transcriptome of NPCs exposed to different oxygen conditions and instances of HIF1A deletion. The study leveraged tissues sourced from patients who had given informed consent before undergoing surgery. The efficacy of HIF1A modifications was authenticated using q-PCR,...

Often debilitating, chronic pain is one of the most common reasons individuals seek medical help. Between 67 to 88 percent of them also suffer from sleep disturbances, including longer and more frequent nocturnal awakenings and poorer sleep quality. Because chronic pain and sleep are thought to be correlated, treatment of one could be beneficial to the other. One such treatment is spinal cord stimulation, which shows mounting evidence it improves aspects of sleep and has demonstrated efficacy in treating a multitude of chronic pain conditions. This treatment involves an implantable spinal cord stimulator that sends low levels of electricity directly...

Researchers have found a link between a common back ailment and a type of heart failure. Once considered rare, the heart disease, called transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy, is now thought to be a more common but underdiagnosed cause of heart failure. The disease is caused by proteins called transthyretin that can clump together and create amyloid deposits in the heart, the spine, ligaments, and other tissues. In the heart, the deposits stiffen the walls and reduce the amount of blood the heart can pump. Until recently, no treatment was available for this type of heart failure. But in 2019, the FDA...

Spine-related pain is increasingly common in older adults. While medications play an important role in pain management, their use has limitations in geriatric patients. Now a new review study has found acetaminophen is safe in older adults, but ibuprofen may be more effective for spine-related pain. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatories should be used short-term in lower dose courses with gastrointestinal precaution while corticosteroids show the least evidence for treating non-specific back pain. Additionally, nerve pain medications (gabapentin and pregabalin) can be used in older persons, with caution to dose and kidney function. Among their findings: Pain medicines gabapentin and pregabalin may cause...

Medics told the couple the only treatment available in the U.K. was surgery by a doctor who'd never performed the operation before, so they paid £9,000 (approx. $11,550) to have it done in Germany. Piper-Kohl Kelly was born prematurely at 30 weeks and four days - and now shares a birthday and name with Prof. Thomas Kohl, the In a race against time, the couple took out a loan and traveled 570 miles to Germany for the intricate operation, which has to be carried out before 26 weeks. The three-hour operation saw surgeons insert a "fetoscope" - a small telescope...

'Jeff Flake Has No Spine': Bongino Says Lawmaker 'Sold Out the GOP' With Call for Kavanaugh Probe

The Clinton Foundation will get new leadership in the form of longtime Clinton ally and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala as it continues to face ongoing questions about its foreign fundraising practices, former President Bill Clinton announced in Coral Gables, Florida on Friday. The news of Shalala’s new role comes as the foundation has caused all-but-certain 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton some political trouble in the final weeks before her expected campaign roll-out. Republicans have latched onto reports that the foundation resumed accepting money from foreign governments after Clinton left the State Department in 2013 — a...

Tailbone “serves no purpose”? New York Museum of Natural History misleads the public by Keaton Halley Published: 27 April 2017 (GMT+10) On a recent visit to the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York, I encountered a sign that struck me as an embarrassment to that institution. It claimed that the human coccyx, or tailbone, serves no purpose, but reminds us that humans have descended from ancestral animals with tails. [Emphasis added] Serves no purpose? Really? The claim is absurd. Although evolutionists since Darwin have been foisting such nonsense on the public, anyone who bothers to investigate the...

Generic video unrelated to the event A complicated surgery was completed Wednesday night on the woman who was stabbed in the back by an Arab terrorist in Gush Etzion earlier in the afternoon, and in it the knife's blade was removed from her spine. After being stabbed and moderately wounded, the woman was evacuated to Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem with the knife still in her back, and there she underwent the surgery. In the operation, the knife was removed from where it was stuck in her spinal column. She was then given additional checks to estimate the extent of...

CONFIRMED: Court records show Freddie Gray was receiving a structured settlement from Allstate Insurance and attempted to convert it into one lump sum in early March ———————————————————————————————————————————– EXCLUSIVE: The Fourth Estate has learned that Freddy Gray’s life-ending injuries to his spine may have possibly been the result of spinal and neck surgery that he allegedly received a week before he was arrested, not from rough excessively rough treatment or abuse from police. The Fourth Estate has contacted sources who allege that Freddy Gray received spinal and neck surgery a week before we was arrested, and was allegedly receiving a large...

Freddie Gray had a pre-existing spinal and neck injury and had severe damage and scar tissue from an accident that Allstate Insurance was paying him a large structured settlement. Freddie had several unsuccessful spinal fusion surgeries, he most recent spinal/cervical operation was a week and a half before he was arrested. Freddie should have been at home in bed resting and recovering from recent major operation instead of manufacturing and distributing drugs on the streets and resisting arrest. Freddie has a criminal record pages long for manufacturing and distributing controlled dangerous drugs that were cocaine crack heroine etc. along with...

I just found out that my sister has metastatic breast cancer that has spread to her spine. She had no problems with her mammogram last year so this makes me worry that it is aggressive. She is 62. Any prayers for her would be very much appreciated.

Associated Press reporter Matt Lee doesn’t understand how Kerry can go from a full-throated advocacy of military action against Syria to saying that Obama seeking the approval of Congress is ‘courageous’. And as usual he doesn’t disappoint. He asks Psaki if Kerry and others had their spines removed over the weekend just so they could agree with Obama: Watch presser's short film clip at link...

In an apparent turnaround, Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have decided that the Basic Principles of the Republican Party, as espoused by Ronald Reagan, will now be the SOP for dealing with Democrats and President Barack Hussein Obama (mmm mmm mmm). "We see that approving Homosexual Marriage, Illegal Aliens invading our borders, confiscating 40-60% of what everybody earns, is a disaster for America, said Boehner, with a tear in his eye. "I agree", added McConnell. "For too long, President Hussein Obama has been getting backrubs and his feet kissed by me and the rest of the...

The wife has had RA for seems like forever. But over the last several years the pain has gotten so much that the doctor has her living on Vicodin. He's even said to take it when there is no pain so she won't feel it when it returns. But she never went that far and gets by on maybe 6 or so a day. But then he told her to go to San Antonio and see a spine specialist. And this lady doctor immediately went about getting the wife approved for a spinal implant. They run two wires up and...