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 disc herniation, 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 disc, he’ll likely recommend surgery,” says Marc Darrow, M.D.,(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.”

COPYRIGHT 2002 Los Angeles Magazine, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group