Disc herniations abound! 76% of us have one. (1) Do all 76% have back pain right now? Thankfully,
no! The presence of a disc herniation on imaging isn’t the chief issue. The matter is
whether that disc is causing pain either mechanically (by pressing
on a nerve) or chemically (by irritating a nerve). Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC determines this in the course of the all-important
physical exam. The MRI and other imaging studies are tools that
can assist - or distract - the chiropractic back pain treatment approach if the
doctor and patient let it. So let’s not allow it!
PERCENT OF SPINAL CANAL A DISC TAKES UP
DOESN’T MATTER
Some imaging studies or MRI images will illustrate
very large discs in back pain sufferers who have not a lot of
or no pain while back pain sufferers who are in excruciating
pain may show a small disc herniation. It can be upsetting.
Luckily, research maintains that size isn’t everything. A research
paper reported that there was no correlation of pain
and disability with the size of a disc herniation found on MRI. (2) Another
study of 368 patients diagnosed with a lumbar disc herniation reported
that 91.3% of them did not undergo back surgery within a year. The
surgery patients’ discs occupied 31.5%
of their spinal canal while the non-surgical patients’ discs occupied 31.2% of their spinal canals. That’s not much of a
variance. Researchers report that this doesn’t predict which patients will fail nonoperative
treatment and require surgery within 2 years after undergoing
a lumbar spine MRI scan. (3) In light of these
findings, Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC chooses conservative treatment of these
disc herniations.
CONSERVATIVE CARE EFFECT ON DISC SIZE
Chiropractors are back pain specialists. Your
La Grande chiropractor is the La Grande back pain specialist.
Disc herniations causing pain are welcome
at Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC as the spinal research indicates that, though
painful, disc herniations large and little react
nicely to conservative treatment. Actually,
in following up with patients who had conservative
treatment for their disc herniation, 35% to 100% of the cases showed
a reduction in the size of the disc. (4) Two
years after conservative care, herniated disc patients showed a 16.5%
reduction in size. 57% of patients had a reduction,
40% showed no change in size, and 3% had a bigger
herniation. (5) More specifically, conservative treatment of
the disc herniation with flexion distraction Cox® Technic produced
increases in the dimensions of the spinal canal by as much
as 28% in area, 17% in height and 7% in width. (6) La Grande back pain
sufferers are grateful for such improvement in their disc
herniations as pain relief results.
CONTACT Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC
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 created significant
pain and alteration to her lifestyle which was enhanced with his
use of the
Cox®
Technic System of Spinal Pain Management.
Schedule your La Grande chiropractic appointment
today. No matter its size, your disc herniation is in good
company and in good hands at Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC.