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Back in
business:
surgery isn't always
the spinal answer
Los Angeles Magazine
Jenna McCarthy
March 2002
OH, MY ACHING back." Take a
random, informal poll of friends or
colleagues and, research indicates, 9 out of
10 of them will admit to having uttered this
phrase, or one like it. Even though a
bothersome back is rarely a life threatening
condition, Americans spend between $20
billion and $50 billion a year trying to
find relief.
One of the most common causes of posterior
pain is a herniated disk, also known as a
slipped or ruptured disk. Disks are the
soft, rubbery cushions of
cartilage nestled
between the bones in the spinal column, and
they allow the back to flex and bend. As we
age, disks, like most other body parts,
begin to shrink and lose their flexibility.
When a disk degenerates, its outer capsule
may tear, allowing the core (or nucleus propulsis, for the detail oriented) to
squeeze outward and put pressure on the
surrounding nerves. The disk has now
slipped, and the pain can range from dull to
excruciating.
Although surgery is a common treatment
option, ifs safe to assume that most folks
would rather avoid vivisection, given the
choice. "If someone walks into a surgeons
office with
back pain and the surgeon does
an MRI [magnetic resonance imaging] and
finds a herniated disk, he'll likely
recommend surgery," says
Marc Darrow, M.D.,
medical director of the Joint Rehabilitation
and Sports Medical Center (www.jointrehab.com),
a holistic healing center that Caters to
L.A.'s busy bodies. "That's how he pays his
mortgage. But studies have proven that over
50 percent of people who have disk problems
do not feel any pain at all, which means
that a good percentage of the pain-free
population would be told they need surgery
unnecessarily. In our practice the goal is
to rehabilitate and restructure the body so
that surgery is not even an option."
CHILL ON THOSE PILLS When pain flares up,
popping a few Motrin apparently is not the
wise move. "Anti-inflammatory pills relieve
the symptom but do nothing to cure the
problem," says Darrow. "You may be winning
the battle, but you're losing the war. While
these drugs may reduce
inflammation, they
also shut down the body's natural healing
process."
The red-hot alternative at the Joint Rehab
Center is
Prolotherapy, a rather Orwellian
name for a relatively painless and
remarkably effective procedure. During a
five-minute treatment, a benign combination
of sugar water (dextrose) and a numbing
agent (Lidocaine) is injected into trouble
spots. The body recognizes the mixture as an
irritant and responds by increasing
collagen
production in the area. This new collagen
promotes healing by thickening and
strengthening soft tissues while eliminating
pain. "When a herniated disk is rubbing
against a nerve, the way to stop the pain is
to stabilize the back," says Darrow.
"Prolotherapy does this by increasing the
strength and size of tendons, ligaments, and
joint capsules. Ifs the same thing a surgeon
would do with bone or metal, but we do it
naturally." Thus far insurance companies
cover about 50 per, cent of patients
receiving prolotherapy. While many feel
relief from a single session, up to eight
treatments ($250 each) may be required.
If the problem is muscular, the Joint Rehab
Center uses an innovative computerized
diagnostic and rehabilitative tool called
MedX
to determine precise points of
weakness. Developed by Arthur Jones, founder
and inventor of the Nautilus weight-training
system, the MedX machine isolates and
strengthens weakened muscles supporting the
lumbar (lower) and cervical (upper) spine.
"Insurance companies love MedX because it
can detect fraud," says Darrow, referring to
the machine's ability to determine whether a
claimant is faking back pain. Patients
typically are seen twice a week for 12
weeks, with little if any out-of-pocket
expense.
"The first thing we do when a patient walks
in the door is take away their diagnosis,"
says Darrow. "People say, `I have
arthritis,' or `I have a herniated disk.'
Who cares? That diagnosis usually has
nothing to do with the problem. We give our
patients the visualization that the body is
healthy to move them into a healing
consciousness. We don't put a Band Aid on
problems, we fix them."
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