by: Eben Davis, D.C.
I have been practicing chiropractic in downtown San Francisco for almost 20 years now. During this time I have performed over 250,000 chiropractic adjustments and over 10,000 spinal decompression treatments.
For some reason… and it’s a lot better now… the general public has the perception that the only solution for a herniated disc in the spine is back or neck surgery.
I myself thought this when I first started practicing… but as time when on, I learned (from first hand experience) otherwise.
What I found out is that the body can actually heal a herniated disc on it’s own with a little help from a chiropractor, spinal decompression therapy, physical therapy, medical doctor… or just all by itself.
If we were to pull 10 random people off the street and perform a cervical or lumbar MRI on their spines… 6 or 7 of them would have positive MRI findings for a bulging or herniated disc. And maybe only a few of them have any sort of back or neck pain.What this means is many of us have herniated discs and we don’t even know it. We will live and die with them. And… many of us will have disc herniations that have repaired themselves naturally. In addition, when we look at an MRI of a patient with back or neck pain… we really don’t know for sure if the herniated or bulging disc is what’s causing the pain.
However, there is a subset of herniated disc patients that have spinal discs that have ruptured and do not heal on their own, and do not respond to conventional medical treatments, such as cortisone and physical therapy. These patients tend to develop chronic back or neck pain along with symptoms of sciatica or arm pain, numbness, tingling, weakness.
I quickly learned that many of these patients will respond to gentle chiropractic care. In fact, the majority of them will. And for those that don’t, there is nonsurgical spinal decompression with a machine like the DRX9000.
Sure, there are herniated disc patients (like my mother in law) that simply are too far gone and do not respond to either chiropractic or spinal decompression and require surgery… but it’s the exception… not the rule.
Here’s the deal… If you have spinal fusion surgery you will never be able to try spinal decompression with the DRX9000. And, the chiropractic adjustments we can do will be limited. As long as you qualify medically (not everyone does) I feel it makes sense to consider chiropractic or spinal decompression first. If they fail to deliver, you can consider other options… including back or neck surgery.
So, can chiropractic help a disc herniation? You bet it can.
What should you do next? If you have been diagnosed with a bulging or herniated disc, that is not responding to conventional medical care, or have been told you need back or neck surgery, you should find a chiropractor that has a DRX9000 spinal decompression machine and has lots of experience using it.
Let the chiropractor decide if chiropractic makes sense, spinal decompression, or a combination of both. Everyone is different.
If you need help finding a spinal decompression doctor near you, send me an email (ebendavis@yahoo.com) and I will help you find one.
You have options… and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!
Learn more about DRX9000 by contacting Dr. Davis in San Francisco.
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