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Diagnosing Back Pain From Degenerative Disc Disease

admin — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 04:25:00 +0000

Low back pain from degenerative disc disease can be severe and cause depression, lost time from work, and hinder recreational activities. How does a doctor diagnose the problem? And then how does a doctor guarantee that the problem intervertebral disk is the cause of one’s back pain?

The intervertebral lumbar disk is made of two parts analagous to a jelly donut. The inside part, the jelly, is known as the nucleus pulposus and does not cause any pain. The outer part, the anulus fibrosus, does have nerve endings and if they are injured the individual can have acute and potentially chronic back pain as a result.

When a patient has back pain, the work up includes the following.

History and Physical – Typically the patient has pain located in the low back, and often aggravated while sitting and in flexion posture. Studies have shown flexion positions actually increase pressure on the lumbar disc.
X-rays – Plain films are a standard initial imaging workup. Plain films can show degenerative disc disease as a decreased space between the vertebrae so there is less space between the bones. Hence, this is an indirect diagnosis. Be aware that x-rays may show a decrease in disk height that reflects degenerative disk disease but may not in fact be the source of one’s pain.
MRI – A Magnetic Resonance Image is very good at noticing differences in the soft tissues of the musculoskeletal system. If a lumbar disk is degenerated, the MRI will detect the loss of water and the disc will show up dark on the scan. Also an MRI can sometimes show a tear in the outer part of the lumbar disk, the anulus. As with x-rays, an MRI can suggest that a lumbar disc that is degenerative may be producing back pain, but may just be an incidental finding.
Lumbar Discogram – A discogram is a study meant to delineate if the lumbar disk is the source of low back pain. Discograms are done with sedation, however, the patient is not out completely since the pain doctor needs input during the study from the patient. Usually a control level is included at a disc level thought to be normal. The pain doctor places the needle into the disk space and injects dye along with the fluid. This fluid is designed to raise intradiscal pressure and produce pain from the degenerated disk. There are three potential answers. One is the person has no pain. Two is the patient has pain from the fluid that is unlike what he experiences on a daily basis. That constitutes a negative study at that particular level. Three is the individual has the exact same pain he or she has on a daily basis. That is therefore a positive study. A diskogram therefore has no true therapeutic benefit and does not relieve pain, it actually creates it! The study serves a diagnostic benefit for pre-operative planning.

Currently the studies used to diagnose degenerative disk disease, known as DDD, are the best modern medicine has to offer. There is not one study that is definitive.

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Benefits Of Seat Cushion

admin — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 06:20:00 +0000

Regardless of you what job function you do in an office, you most likely spend a great deal of time sitting. Office chairs of currently are far better than they were even 10 years ago, however lots of people still suffer from chronic back discomfort or coccyx because of poor assistance in their office chair. Back trouble isn’t the only ailment connected with sitting, poor posture, cramps, and chronic system aches can also be a problem with those who sit lengthy periods of time in an office.

The good quality that creates gel seat cushions stand out between its competitors, namely the foam along with the air seat cushions is how the honeycomb structure that these cushions are constructed with offers the maximum amount of comfort, cushioning as effectively as shape retention between its peers. This exceptional internal lattice structure combined using the semisolid gel that these cushions are filled up with helps make them an excellent selection to aid inside relief within your back again and neck.

The exclusive construction techniques that are employed also go a long way in producing the gel seat cushion far more thinner than cushions on the same width produced out of alternative materials. Their compact style tends to make them perfect for use in church pews, on picnic benches, stadium seats, cafe houses in addition to for whenever you may possibly wish to indulge in camping without having to worry about throwing your rear off. And to how the truth that gel disperses pressure far more successfully than foam promoting circulation moreover to relieving the crucial strain points.

A fine gel seat cushion generally has some grooves or alternate space inside the center that would allow it to accomplish probably the most critical thing that may be possible to help relieve your pain; it completely relieves the pressure off of your tailbone as only your buttocks are in contact with all the cushions.

Of course you’ll be able to try changing your chair, and this may well fix your problems. But it truly is a costly remedy and not always an efficient one. However you can find goods offered now that enhance the comfort and ease and help of an office chair that quite a few have success with. A memory foam seat cushion is a assistance method you use with your chair that supply additional help in the high stress points of your respective back and upper body, giving it the boost needed to prevent chronic pain.

Memory foam seat cushions come in many different styles and designs, but most either possess a pad portion that you sit on, and may have a lumbar portion behind your back. The idea is commonly to use a a lot more supportive kind of material on areas like your lower back to enrich your chair’s built in support, and relieve soreness such as that triggered by coccyx. The tend to have additional of an orthopedic design, as opposed to the stylish and d cor design of a chair, and are solely focused on the comfort and ease and service on the sitter.

If you decided this paper was worthwhile you should also want to be discovering about Stop Snoring Mouth Piece and Obus Forme Anti Snore Pillow.

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Causes of Lower Right Back Pain

admin — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 22:43:00 +0000

It is very necessary to understand the structure of the lower right back to understand what causes pain there.

The back, with its spinal column of vertebrae, connecting ligaments, tendons, huge muscles, and nerves, is meant to be incredibly durable and flexible. With all this complexity, it’s fairly easy for things to go awry and the result is lower back pain.

Muscles will be stressed, Ligaments will be torn apart, Joints can be injured, Bones will be broken, Nerves can be aggravated, Discs can be herniated, Stress will tighten back structure

The lower right back is susceptible to injury, since it carries the weight of the torso, and has a lot more movements than than the upper back. Constant movements will create components to break downand wear out over time.

The lower right back has many tissues that can cause pain. Those sophisticated muscle groups that support your spine and help your movement can be strained by improper lifting or posture. Of course, muscle spasms are the most common cause of low back pain. Twisting or pulling one of these muscles will cause pain within the lower right back:

Extensor muscles: These paired muscles within the lower back and gluteus assist support your spine. If the one on the lower right back is injured, it can be painful.

Flexor muscles: Hooked up to the spine s front, these muscles facilitate youflex, bend forward, and raise things. Once more, injury to the proper flexor muscle can trigger lower right back pain.

In addition to simple muscle strain, injury to ligaments, joints, and bones will also cause muscle pain. If any of those sections is injured or inflamed, back muscles will go into spasms, limiting movements and cause pain.

Stress might also be a cause of low back pain. Stress can make your back muscles squeeze. This happens to each muscle within the body, as we tend to tend to move into a fight or flight response. Muscles that are tightened lack the energy they need to support the spine. If the strain is frequent, and you don’t alleviate it, back pain results.

Chronic Lower Right Back Pain

My doctor tells me that one of the best treatments for lower back pain is exercise. Gentle exercises, performed daily with a with a warming up and cooling down procedure, in all probability will strengthen the mainmuscles around the lower back, relieving the pain and making them less vulnerable to future injury.

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A New Approach To Serious Back Pain

admin — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:47:00 +0000

Spinal decompression is a relatively new treatment for persons with serious back pain and many former back pain sufferers swear by it as the above video attests. Yet most insurance companies don’t cover this procedure. The result is many of these sufferers don’t get the back pain relief they are seeking and may turn to other solutions, even surgery, that prove to be ineffective. Here’s an account from two chiropractors who make a pretty compelling case for spinal decompression. And who knows what will be covered in the health care arena in the coming months!

We’ve been treating back pain in our San Antonio spine clinic for several years now, and one thing is for certain: chronic back pain is incredibly common and due to the failure of the typical treatments, a large number of people are living in pain needlessly.

The most commonly utilized treatments for chronic back pain have a poor success rate statisitically, but new treatment methods are now providing relief for even back pain sufferers who have suffered for many years.

One of these new breakthroughs that we use in our San Antonio office is spinal decompression. Spinal decompression is a high-tech form of spinal traction that reduces spinal disc bulging, enhances disc hydration and nutrition, and mobilizes spinal joints and connective tissue. When used appropriately, the results are often nothing short of amazing.

Unfortunately, spinal decompression remains underutilized as a back pain treatment for a couple of reasons. First, the early marketing for spinal decompression was often hype-filled and factually inaccurate. Although decompression is statistically the most effective treatment currently available for most serious types of back pain, the early marketing for it promoted it as a panacea for all back pain sufferers. Spinal decompression does enjoy an excellent success rate, but it is not effective in every patient and it is simply not appropriate for every back pain sufferer.

Another reason that spinal decompression continues to be underutilized for treating back pain is due to the usual challenges that all new health care procedures face in the United States.

Basically, insurance companies usually refuse coverage for health care procedures that do not have an established procedure code. In the U.S., the American Medical Association is responsible for producing the procedure codes, but they don’t make new codes until there are reasonably high numbers of doctors utilizing a given new procedure. Doctors are usually reluctant to invest the money in the equipment and/or training necessary to provide one of these new treatments unless they know they will be reimbursed for the treatment by health insurance companies. This brings us full-circle to the insurance companies not covering procedures that don’t have an established procedure code. Because of this system, most new medical treatments are not widely used for several years until consumer demand gradually pushes more doctors to start providing the treatment.

Because of the lack of insurance coverage for spinal decompression, many of the back pain patients we consult with at our san antonio spinal decompression clinic will opt to first pursue other treatment modalities that are covered by their insurance. Sadly, many of these patients go for months or years in pain, spending many thousands of dollars in insurance co-pays and deductibles on the standard back pain treatments without any results to show for it.

Many of these back pain sufferers finally opt for surgery looking for a cure for their symptoms. Statistically, about half of the patients who do seek a surgical treatment for their back pain discover that the surgery either does not help or makes things worse.

Although spinal decompression is not effective in every case, it does get good to excellent results for the vast majority of back pain patients. Some patients we’ve consulted with have opted to go the surgery route because they think it will be less expensive due to it being covered by insurance, but most back surgeries wind up being more expensive to the patient than spinal decompression.

What many back pain patients fail to realize is that the co-payments for a high-priced medical procedure like back surgery will usually run several thousand dollars. Even with no insurance coverage at all, spinal decompression typically costs the patient less out of pocket than an average back surgery, and a lot less than a complicated back surgery.

In most cases, spinal decompression is statistically the most effective treatment available and in the long-run is also usually the most cost-effective treatment available.

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Dr. Ronald Fielden, D.C. and Dr. Michael Golab, D.C. are the treating doctors at South Texas Non Surgical Spinal Center. Visit their website for more about spinal decompression and their San Antonio back pain treatment program.

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