Some experts who have failed to look beyond their preconceived ideas have concluded that spinal decompression is no different from the regular spinal traction that has been used for many years in spine pain treatment with minimal benefits. But if one takes a closer look at the evidence, it is clear that there are distinct differences between regular traction and spinal decompression in both the physiological effects and the long-term treatment outcomes.

With regular traction treatment, the traction system pulls on the spine at a set rate and force. Spinal decompression systems pull very gradually and slowly build up the force over time, with the more technologically advanced spinal decompression systems also being able to monitor and react to the body’s reactions to treatment. As an example, the DRX-9000 spinal decompression system monitors the body’s resistance to the traction and if the body begins to resist the pull, within 1/17th of a second, the machine will decrease its pull and give to the resistance. This adaptive feature of the machine keeps the body’s muscles relaxed during the majority of the treatment and this allows for much greater effects on the spinal discs than what is possible with standard spinal traction machines, and even the less advanced spinal decompression machines.

Studies have shown that regular traction does reduce pressure in the spinal discs, but not enough to reduce disc protrusion nor enough to significantly improve the hydration or nutrition to the disc. Muscle resistance limits the effects of regular traction too much for it to produce significant benefits to most disc patients. The basic spinal decompression systems are a significant improvement on regular traction because the machine pulls gradually and avoids much of the muscle reaction and resistance, allowing for some retraction of disc bulging. High-end spinal decompression systems provide even greater effects on the discs because they can largely eliminated muscle resistance. These machines have been consistently shown to produce strong suction forces within the discs that result in good retraction of protruding disc tissue back towards the center of the disc and produce an influx of fluid and nutrients into the disc that are thought to assist in disc healing.

Despite the overall effectiveness of spinal decompression, it does not work for every patient. Some situations prevent the use of spinal decompression, but even with properly screened patients, there are some cases in which it does not help. Some published studies have indicated a success rate of nearly 90%, but the real-world success rate is not that high. Researchers have the advantage of being able to choose only the most ideal of test subjects and can remove test subjects who do not follow the treatment protocol precisely. When dealing with real-world patients, various complicating factors may be present and not all patients cooperate perfectly with their prescribed treatment.

With good patient screening, the true success rate for spinal decompression under real world conditions is probably closer to 70% by itself, and somewhat higher when combined with other forms of treatment. This success rate has proven to hold up long-term, and only a small number of patients are reported to relapse within a year of completing treatment. Even with the more modest success rate of 70%, spinal decompression is overall more effective than the more common treatments of spinal injections and surgery, which various studies have shown to provide long-term positive results in about 50% of cases.

The effectiveness of spinal decompression treatment for a specific patient will depend greatly on the nature of his or her condition. In general, spinal decompression works very well in cases of mild to moderate disc protrusion and/or degeneration. Disc extrusions (actual ruptures) and severe protrusions will sometimes get favorable results with spinal decompression, but the results are far less reliable than with less severe cases. Spinal decompression works well for patients of all ages. In fact, although some patients fear they are too old to get good results, my experience has been that older individuals actually do somewhat better than their younger counterparts, perhaps because the older patients are less likely to engage in heavy exertion that might cause a re-injury of the discs.

Is spinal decompression a legitimate form of treatment for bulging and degenerated discs? Yes. Will it be of benefit to you? Most likely it will be, assuming you are a suitable candidate for this form of treatment. I think it is important to temper your expectations though, because it is definitely not a sure-fire “cure” for your problem. I do recommend that people with disc-related pain at least try spinal decompression before considering a spinal surgery, and most who do will be able to avoid the surgeon’s knife. Even better, those people who do respond favorably to spinal decompression treatment can usually resume almost any activity they wish, while surgery patients are often limited in what they can do for the remainder of their lives.

Although is is far from a perfect solution to disc-related pain, spinal decompression is a good treatment option for most people with protruding and/or degenerated spinal discs.

Why are we so down on Spine Surgery San Antonio? As our San Antonio office is named South Texas Non-Surgical Spinal Center, we probably are somewhat biased, but we’re biased for good reason.

Back surgery is simply overused in San Antonio and throughout the United States.  If surgery produced consistently produced good results, the risks and financial costs would probably be worthwhile, but the results of surgery are just not very good. 

But don’t take our word for it, because we’re biased after all.  Here’s some facts and figures from neutral sources to give you food for thought:

Wikipedia - Failed Back Syndrome

November 2006 Article From USA Today

Kind of makes you wonder why spine surgery is still so popular.

Spinal Decompression Offers New Hope For Back Pain Sufferers

Through our experiences in our San Antonio back pain clinic, we have found that chronic back pain is incredibly common.  Due to the failure of the typical treatment methods, a large number of people are living in constant pain needlessly.

The most commonly utilized treatments for chronic back pain have a poor success rate statisitically, but new treatment methods are now providing relief for even back pain sufferers who have suffered for many years.

One of these new breakthroughs that we use in our San Antonio office is spinal decompression. Spinal decompression is a high-tech form of spinal traction that reduces spinal disc bulging, enhances disc hydration and nutrition, and mobilizes spinal joints and connective tissue.  When used appropriately, the results are often nothing short of amazing.

Unfortunately, spinal decompression continues to be underutilized as a back pain treatment for a couple of reasons.  The early marketing for spinal decompression was often hype-filled and factually inaccurate, leading to a certain level of distrust among patients and doctors alike.  Although decompression has statistically proven to be the most successful treatment for most serious types of back pain, the early marketing for it promoted it as a panacea for all back pain sufferers.  Spinal decompression does enjoy an excellent success rate, but it is not effective in every patient and it is simply not appropriate for every back pain sufferer.

Another reason that spinal decompression continues to  be underutilized for treating back pain is due to the usual challenges that all new health care procedures face in the United States.

Basically, insurance companies usually refuse coverage for health care procedures that do not have an established procedure code.  In the U.S., the American Medical Association is responsible for producing the procedure codes, but they don’t make new codes until there are reasonably high numbers of doctors utilizing a given new procedure. Doctors are usually reluctant to invest the money in the equipment and/or training necessary to provide one of these new treatments unless they know they will be reimbursed for the treatment by health insurance companies.  This brings us full-circle to the insurance companies not covering procedures that don’t have an established procedure code. Because of this system, most new medical treatments are not widely used for several years until consumer demand gradually pushes more doctors to start providing the treatment. 

Because of the lack of insurance coverage for spinal decompression, many of the back pain patients we consult with at our san antonio spinal decompression clinic will opt to first pursue other treatment modalities that are covered by their insurance.  Sadly, many of these patients go for months or years in pain, spending many thousands of dollars in insurance co-pays and deductibles on the standard back pain treatments without any results to show for it.

Some of these back pain sufferers eventually undergo surgery hoping for a cure for their symptoms.   About half of the patients who do seek a surgical treatment for their back pain find out that the surgery either does not help or makes things worse.

While spinal decompression is far from 100% successful, it does get good to excellent results for the vast majority of back pain patients.  Ironically, although some patients we’ve consulted with have opted to go the surgery route because they think it will be less expensive due to it being covered by insurance, most back surgeries wind up being more expensive to the patient than spinal decompression.

Many back pain patients don’t realize in advance that the co-payments for a high-priced medical procedure like back surgery will usually run several thousand dollars.  With no insurance coverage at all, spinal decompression typically costs the patient less out of pocket than an average back surgery (if they are paying an insurance co-payment of 10% or more), and a lot less than a complicated back surgery.

  In most cases, spinal decompression is statistically the most effective treatment available and in the long-run is also usually the most cost-effective treatment available.

Dr. Ronald Fielden, D.C. and Dr. Michael Golab, D.C. are the treating doctors at South Texas Non Surgical Spinal Center.  Visit their website for more about spinal decompression and their San Antonio back pain treatment program.

Back Pain San Antonio - Treatment Insanity

It has been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting to get a different result.  This definition could also apply to standard back pain treatment.

If you go to a doctor for the treatment of back pain, chances are good that the doctor will prescribe anti-inflammatory and/or muscle relaxer medication.

Then, if that doesn’t get rid of the pain within a week or two, many doctors will recommend steroid (usually cortisone) shots.

If that doesn’t work within a month or two, the doctor will then likely refer you for surgery. 

This happens over and over again despite the fact that the statistics paint a very gloomy picture for the outcomes of these treatments. 

Medication rarely makes any significant impact on recovery from back pain - the number of back pain sufferers who recover within a couple of weeks is pretty much the same for those who use medication and those who don’t.  Medication may make the pain more tolerable, but it doesn’t help you to recover any faster.

For those patients whose back pain persists past a couple of weeks, there is minimal help from steroid injections.  Steroid injections may alleviate pain short-term (from a few days to a few weeks), but the pain eventually returns in most cases.

Surgery may be the best option in some cases, but it is considerably over-used.  A report issued some years ago by the Agency For Healthcare Policy and Research (a former division of the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services) indicated that the majority of back surgeries performed in the United States were clinically unnecessary.  Overall, the long-term success rate for back surgery is approximately 50%, and many people who undergo surgery are actually worse off after surgery than they were prior to having it.  One of the most consistent factors that predicts a patient’s need for future back surgery is having had prior back surgery!

Despite these dismal results, the same approach to back pain is still applied over and over again. 

Medication - Steroid Injections - Surgery (and often more surgery). 

Insanity!

The vast majority of back pain is caused by musculoskeletal dysfunction and injuries that can be more directly addressed so that they can be corrected and healed.  The problem is, old habits die hard, and doctors get stuck in their old habits as much as anyone else.

If you suffer from back pain, you can’t afford to be complacent and just go along with your doctor’s old treatment habits.  New high-tech treatments like spinal decompression and cold laser therapy combined with low-tech approaches that have been largely ignored by the medical profession, such as spinal manipulation and rehabilitative exercises, can usually provide much better results at a much lower cost. 

If you’re ready to stop doing the same thing over and over again hoping for a better result, give us a call at:

(210) 408-7888.

We’ve been treating back pain in our San Antonio spine clinic for several years now, and one thing is for certain:  chronic back pain is incredibly common and due to the failure of the typical treatments, a large number of people are living in pain needlessly.

While the most commonly-used back pain treatments have a high failure rate, new advancements in treatment are getting excellent results even for patients who have been suffering for many years without relief.

One of these new breakthroughs that we use in our San Antonio office is spinal decompression. Spinal decompression is a high-tech form of spinal traction that reduces spinal disc bulging, enhances disc hydration and nutrition, and mobilizes spinal joints and connective tissue.  When used appropriately, the results are often nothing short of amazing.

Unfortunately, spinal decompression continues to be underutilized as a back pain treatment for a couple of reasons.  The early marketing for spinal decompression was often hype-filled and factually inaccurate, leading to a certain level of distrust among patients and doctors alike.  Although decompression has statistically proven to be the most successful treatment for most serious types of back pain, the early marketing for it promoted it as a panacea for all back pain sufferers.  Spinal decompression does enjoy an excellent success rate, but it is not effective in every patient and it is simply not appropriate for every back pain sufferer.

Another reason that spinal decompression continues to  be underutilized for treating back pain is due to the usual challenges that all new health care procedures face in the United States.

The problem is that insurance companies refuse coverage for medical procedures that don’t have an established procedure code.  The American Medical Association produces the codes, but won’t add a new code until a decent number of doctors are using the new procedure.  Doctors won’t invest in the equipment and/or training to use the new procedure if it’s not covered by insurance (because they will have a hard time getting paid for it).  This brings us back to the insurance companies not covering the new procedure because there’s no code for it.  Because of this system, it usually takes several years for any new treatment to be widely used, no matter how beneficial it may be. 

Due to the lack of insurance coverage for spinal decompression, many of the back pain patients we consult with at our san antonio spinal decompression clinic will opt to go with insurance-covered treatment methods. Unfortunately many of these continue to live in pain for years and spend thousands of dollars in insurance co-pays and deductibles on the standard back pain treatments without any lasting relief.

Many of these back pain sufferers finally opt for surgery looking for a cure for their symptoms.   Statistically, about half of the patients who do seek a surgical treatment for their back pain discover that the surgery either does not help or makes things worse.

While spinal decompression is far from 100% successful, it does get good to excellent results for the vast majority of back pain patients.  Ironically, although some patients we’ve consulted with have opted to go the surgery route because they think it will be less expensive due to it being covered by insurance, most back surgeries wind up being more expensive to the patient than spinal decompression.

What many back pain patients fail to realize is that the co-payments for a high-priced medical procedure like back surgery will usually run several thousand dollars.  Even with no insurance coverage at all, spinal decompression typically costs the patient less out of pocket than an average back surgery, and a lot less than a complicated back surgery.

  In most cases, spinal decompression is statistically the most effective treatment available and in the long-run is also usually the most cost-effective treatment available.

Dr. Ronald Fielden, D.C. and Dr. Michael Golab, D.C. are the treating doctors at South Texas Non Surgical Spinal Center.  Visit their website for more about spinal decompression and their San Antonio back pain treatment program.

Back Pain

 One of the most common mistakes people make when they have back pain is to lie or sit around trying not to move.  Although there are rare instances when moving around is completely intolerable, the vast majority of the time, just being upright and moving around is one of the best things you can do to relieve back pain. 

When you lie still, or worse yet sit, the already over-tight muscles common to most cases of back pain will get even tighter.  As the muscles get tighter and tighter, the tendency is to move even less, resulting in more tightness. 

The best approach to most back problems is to be up moving around as much as possible and to limit rest breaks to a few minutes at a time.  This keeps muscles from tightening up, and keeps circulation moving, which helps clean out injured tissue and speeds up healing.  Heavy exertion should be avoided, but walking and gentle stretching are important to reducing recovery time.

Epidural Injections:

Many people are under the mistaken impression that epidural injections suck fluid out of bulging discs to reduce pressure on spinal nerves.  In fact, epidural injections place steroids around the area of the bulging disc in order to inhibit the inflammatory response.  They do reduce swelling and pressure, much like an ice pack works on a swollen area, but they do not suck anything out of the disc.

Physical Therapy:

Many people think that the exercises physical therapists do are strengthening the spinal discs.  Discs are made of fibrocartilage, not muscle, so you can’t really strengthen them per se.  Exercises can be used to improve spinal posture and muscular support, which can reduce the stress on discs, but it doesn’t make them stronger. 

The other big misconception about physical therapy is that once you are released from care, you are “cured”.  Any benefits you gain from physical therapy are quickly lost if you do not continue your exercises after you are released from treatment.  For this reason, we favor a “low-tech” approach rather than using expensive exercise machines in our rehabilitation programs.  We want people to be able to continue their exercises long-term on their own, and that is difficult to do if they’ve only learned what to do on expensive machines they don’t have convenient access to.

Surgery:

Probably the biggest misconception about surgery is the idea that it takes care of disc problems “once and for all”.  This is far from being the case.  Surgery has a long-term success rate of only about 50% in the treatment of spinal discs, and it rarely eliminates back pain completely in the long-run.  In many cases, surgery produces scar tissue and/or changes in spinal biomechanics that eventually create new pain problems.

Furthermore, most patients who have back surgery must strictly limit their activities and most are unable to return to any type of heavy exertion or activities that place a lot of pressure and/or torque on the lower spine.  Many back surgery recipients are very disappointed with what they are safely able to do after surgery, even if it does relieve their pain.

Spinal Decompression:

The most common misconception about spinal decompression is that it is the same as traction and that all spinal decompression systems are the same.  True spinal decompression systems like the DRX9000 that we use are sophisticated machines that use computers to control the treatment.  Regular tractions systems simply pull on the spine at pre-set rates and force.  The effects of regular traction are limited by the body’s natural muscle guarding response that contracts the muscles around the spine and fights the decompressive effects on the discs.  True spinal decompression systems like ours use computer-controlled motors that lull the muscles into a relaxed state so that the vast majority of the force is actually applied to reducing disc pressure. 

The difference is dramatic. Regular traction devices have little effect on disc bulging, and patients tend to find the pull from the machines to be somewhat uncomfortable.  By contrast, spinal decompression has been documented to reduce or eliminated disc bulging, and most patients find the treatments to be very comfortable and relaxing. 

Hopefully you have found this review of the misconceptions about back pain treatments to be informative and helpful.

By Joe Herzanek

Technology is wonderful–up to a point. The medical and pharmaceutical industries have made huge advances to help those suffering from all sorts of diseases. Most of these advances are genuine lifesavers.

Americans are enjoying longer and higher quality lives–so much so, that we have come to expect many things as normal (diseases cured, symptoms gone and less pain for those suffering the debilitating affects of certain health problems).

Much Too Popular

One class of drugs–opiate painkillers, has become much too popular. These meds will not only relieve physical pain but will also give the user a pleasant euphoric effect at the same time. For a significant and growing number if people this euphoric state of mind is becoming more and more difficult to let go of (similar to the popularity of Valium in the 70’s–which by the way, has been recently increasing as well).

So how and why is this happening? How do pain meds cause even more pain? Let me start by saying that these drugs are very necessary for genuine pain–such as pain experienced after a surgery, broken bones, dental work and more. When used as prescribed, for short periods of time these drugs make life manageable. In some very rare cases they may be appropriate for extended periods of time–especially when a person has a terminal disease. A very small percentage of people fall into this category. Thank God for these medications.

The majority of people who take these medications do not fall in this group. Here is where the problem starts. Rarely does anyone start out to become dependent on opiate pain meds. It happens slowly without being noticed. This is an insidious process. Usually, there comes a time when a person’s physical pain is gone. With regular use of painkilling drugs, the central nervous system has come to expect the drug and the sedative affect it produces–as normal.

Withdrawal

When a person stops using the drug, the body revolts. This is called withdrawal. It’s normal. Much less extreme, but nonetheless similar, a heavy coffee drinker who suddenly quits drinking coffee altogether will experience headaches for a few days. This is because their central nervous system has become accustomed to regular jolts of caffeine throughout the day. Withdrawal from caffeine is usually short-lived and not too difficult. Stopping opiate pain meds is similar, but much, much more intense. The withdrawal symptoms are often very painful–so much so that the person will start to think that their pain is not really gone and they must get and take more pain meds.

A Vicious Cycle

Not only is the body expecting this drug, but a person who is taking pain medication is also building a tolerance to it. Their body is requiring more, sometimes lots more–to feel better. This is a vicious cycle that feeds on itself and only gets worse over time. The person taking theses drugs will also become much more sensitive to all pain–as the normal ability to handle mild pain with over-the-counter medications is now diminished.

I’ve recently watched this problem arise close to home, as a family member needed surgery. He had been regularly taking large amounts of pain meds for back pain. While in the hospital for knee-replacement surgery, he found that he required a much larger dosage of pain meds than a normal person would need. After he was given the maximum safe dosage–excruciating pain still persisted. One feels helpless in these situations.

To ensure that this doesn’t happen, pain meds really should only be used when truly needed. Otherwise, when the time comes that a person genuinely needs them–these pain-relieving drugs may not work at all.

How large is this problem really? In 2007 there were a total of 3.7 billion prescriptions written in the United States. 182 million were for pain meds*! I have double-checked these numbers because I thought they couldn’t be correct. Pain meds are second only to prescriptions written for lowering cholesterol (192 million prescriptions). Anti-depressant prescriptions came in third with 158 million.

If you subtract people aged 21 and under from these numbers–that leaves 230 million adults. According to these calculations, over 15 million people are taking opiate pain medications every day. This is 5% of the entire adult population.

Do all these people need opiate pain medication every day? The only way to know for sure is to quit, go through withdrawal and see how you feel after a few months–drug-free. More and more people are unwilling to go through this process. Today, addiction to opiate pain medications is one of the main reasons people are checking into rehab centers.

So how does one avoid becoming dependant on pain medications? And once a person has become dependant on them, how do they learn to safely quit?

Read more about this topic–chapter 27, Why Don’t They JUST QUIT?

* IMS Health Services (2007 Research Statistics)

Joe Herzanek, a man who battled his own demons of addiction over twenty-five years ago, says, “I know people can change. If I can do it, anyone can!”

A recovering person himself, Joe is the president and founder of Changing Lives Foundation and author of the 2008 Best Self-Help book (Next Generation Indie Awards) “Why Don’t They Just Quit?” As a professional addiction counselor in Colorado he has spent more than fourteen years working in the criminal justice system.

His passion for helping men and women struggling with addiction, as well as their family members and friends, inspire him to offer hope and solutions. Joe offers words of encouragement: “Addiction is not a hopeless situation,” he writes. “Addicts and alcoholics aren’t crazy, and they can quit.”

Joe and his wife Judy have three children, Jami, Jake, and Jessica, and enjoy the beautiful Colorado outdoors with their two Cairn Terriers, Lewis and Clark. http://www.whydonttheyjustquit.com http://www.changinglivesfoundation.org

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joe_Herzanek [http://ezinearticles.com/?Pain-Meds-Cause-More-Pain!-The-New-Silent-Epidemic&id=1918605 ]http://EzineArticles.com/?Pain-Meds-Cause-More-Pain!-The-New-Silent-Epidemic&id=1918605

Dehydration is a common problem, particularly during the hot summers here in San Antonio and South Texas.  Even if you stay inside out of the heat, the drying effects on the air that occurs with air conditioning can contribute to dehydration and the problems that go with it.  Severe dehydration can be life-threatening, and most people are at least enough aware of their circumstances to avoid getting into such a situation.  But many people live much of their lives in a chronic low-level state of dehydration, and this can create quite a number of milder health problems, one of the most common being back pain.

When you become even mildly dehydrated, your blood starts to become thicker.  The thicker the blood gets, the harder it is for it to flow through the small blood vessels that supply your muscles, joints, and other tissues.  Over time, this reduction in circulation results in less oxygenation, less nutrient and waste exchange, and of course less lubricating fluid in these important structures.

When this occurs, several reactions can take place that can cause or exacerbate back pain.  Muscles can become deprived of oxygen and/or electrolytes, joints lose their normal lubrication, and irritating waste products can build up in the tissues.

The net effect is that inflammation increases, muscles become prone to excessive contraction, and these effects are experienced as back pain and stiffness.

Obviously, the point of this article is to point out how important proper hydration is to back pain sufferers.  So, how do you stay properly hydrated? 

First, you want  to be sure to drink water frequently throughout the day.  Notice that I said WATER, not coffee, not tea, not soda, not juice, not beer, WATER!  While it is OK to enjoy other beverages in moderation, it is important to realize that many other beverages, particularly those high in caffeine, sugar, or alcohol, will actually tend to make dehydration worse. 

So how much water do you need?  That actually varies quite a bit, depending on your activities, your diet, and your overall health, but for most people, the general recommendation of eight 8-ounce glasses per day is a reasonable target.  A person who is sweating profusely working in the San Antonio heat will often need more.  A person who does not sweat much and who eats a lot of high water-content foods (fresh vegetables and fruits) can usually drink less water without dehydrating. 

For healthy people, the body will tell you if you are staying hydrated by means of your urine output, by both the frequency of urination and the color of the urine.  When you are properly hydrated, you will need to urinate periodically throughout the day and your urine will be light in color (unless you take a lot of B-vitamins, medications, etc. that change the color of the urine) and clear.  If you are only urinating two or three times per day and your urine is very dark yellow to orange in color, chances are you need to drink more water. 

By paying attention to  your body, you will be better able to judge what your hydration status is, and you can take steps to avoid the problems of chronic dehydration, including back pain.