New therapy to help back pain introduced in Holly Springs

“Oh my aching back…” may be a passing phrase to those who sit at their computer too long, or decide to become a weekend warrior; however for some, back pain is debilitating and life altering. When Dr. Randall Adamson, owner of Holly Springs Chiropractic, saw the need for these patients to have an option besides surgery, it prompted him to take continuing education classes in “spinal decompression”. He became the first chiropractor in Holly Springs to purchase the needed equipment and offer a cost savings to patients who could benefit from the therapy. Adamson has been serving patients in Holly Springs for well over eight years, and during the course of treating patients, he has seen the need for this therapy increase. He best describes what spinal decompression is like this: “Picture a jelly doughnut and the jelly starts to ooze out. That is what it is like when you have a bulging disc between vertebrae. With spinal decompression, there is a gentle pull that creates a vacuum-like effect between the vertebrae that helps to suck the disc back into place.” While this may sound dramatic, the process is slow, controlled, and relatively painless. Patients lay on the Triton DTS Traction table. A belt- like harness is placed around the waist with a thin cable attached to the machine that is programmed to meet the patient’s individual needs. The spine is gently “stretched” using a controlled timed setting. It is this “pull” that creates the decompression allowing for a better positioning in the spine to stimulate blood and nutrient flow to the area that is injured or out of place. According to Dr. Adamson’s description, “During the decompression stage of traction you will feel several cycles of stretching and relaxation. The sessions last about 20 minutes and the number of treatments can run anywhere from five to eight in some cases, up to twenty over a two month period for patients that require more treatment.” While Adamson is pleased with results he has seen with spinal decompression, he also has seen cases where patients do require surgery to fix their back issues. “Sometimes, things are just too far gone,” Adamson says. “But, we can evaluate that for those interested in spinal decompression. We always offer a free consultation. We just want people who suffer with back pain to know, there are options out there for them.” We're glad to give you a forum to air your point of view on issues important to this community. We just ask that you keep things civil. Leave out the personal attacks. Do not use offensive language, ethnic or racial slurs, or assail anyone's personal or religious beliefs. For anyone who can't be civil, we reserve the right to remove your material. We also reserve the right to ban users who violate our visitor's agreement.

Futurity.org – Back pain therapy renews brain function

Researchers recruited patients who had reported low back pain for more than six months and who planned on undergoing spinal injections or spinal surgery ¬ to alleviate their pain.

MRI scans were conducted on each subject before and six months after their procedures. The scans measured the cortical thickness of the brain and brain activity when the subjects where asked to perform a simple cognitive task.

“When they came back in, we wanted to know whether their pain had lessened and whether their daily lives had improved,” says senior author Laura S. Stone of McGill University.

“We wanted to see if any of the pain-related abnormalities found initially in the brain had at least slowed down or been partially reversed.”

Not only did the team observe recovery in the anatomical function of the brain, but also in its ability to function.

After the subjects were treated, increased cortical thickness in specific areas of the brain that were related to both pain reduction and physical disability was observed and the abnormal brain activity observed initially during an attention-demanding cognitive task was found to have normalized after treatment.

While more research would be needed to confirm whether chronic pain actually causes these changes in the brain, Stone hypothesizes that chronic low back pain, at the very least, maintains these differences.

“If you can make the pain go away with effective treatment, you can reverse these abnormal changes in the brain.”

Researchers at the University of Maryland contributed to the study.

More news from McGill University: www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/

Were any of these patients using chiropractic manipulation to reduce or eliminate their pain? Epidural injections normally only aleviate pain in less than 50% of patients and only last about 4 months on average. Spinal surgery is now considered to be necessary in about 10% of the cases in which it is used. There was no mention of chiropractic so I assume it was not utilized.

Interesting that back pain is often associated with emotions coming from the brain such as stress. So the stress from the brain can cause back pain which can affect the brain! Anyway, during one very stressful time, I got to experience the horror of lower back pain. Luckily a relative told me about some relaxation techniques that relax the muscles in the front of the legs to stop lower back pain. Weirdly enough, they worked. I do not know if he invented them, but they are in the book Pain Free by Peter Egoscue, who is a physical therapist.