If I Have a Slipped Disc Don't I Need to Have Surgery?
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Can my back pain be helped by losing weight? Have you ever been told that your back pain is being caused by your weight? As a former football player and coach that has never made sense to me. If that were true then virtually every lineman in the NFL and college should have back pain. Obviously they don't. An article in "Spine" by Leboeuf-Yde reviewed all available studies regarding back pain and bodyweight. So what did all these studies reveal? The majority of studies conclude that there is no link between low back pain and being overweight. The bottom line is if you have low back pain and are overweight look for another cause to your problem than your weight. - Dr. C YOUR SOURCE FOR NO-NONSENSE HEALTH NEWS CREATED BY BACK CARE PROFESSIONALS · 2452 Kuser Rd. · Suite D · Hamilton Square NJ · (609) 586-5009 Voted The #1 Place for Back and Neck Pain Relief! WARNING: This Newsletter Is Not For You If Your First Choice For Back and Neck Pain Relief Is Drugs Or Surgery Issue 2 If I have a slipped disc don't I need to have ©Back Care Professionals surgery? In This Issue: Many people with back pain have been told that due to the findings of an MRI, they have Do slipped discs a herniated disc and will need surgery. Is that true? Well consider the following: MRI need surgery? findings revealed that 64% of the people with no back pain showed a disc abnormality. Why two Darrins Myelogram testing showed 24% of people with no back pain had a compressed nerve. on Bewitched? A lot of are people are being told that their back pain is being caused by a disc problem. Dr. M’s When in reality, that may not be the case at all. Spinal nerves do not cause pain unless chiropractic they are first irritated and inflamed. story. It has been shown in studies that not all pain going down the leg from the back is caused Health Vampires by a disc problem. Many structures in the back, if irritated, can send pain into the legs. So, if you’re diagnosed with a herniated disc and told you need surgery, at least consider the possibility that a herniated disc may not be the cause of your pain. “Back and Neck Pain Relief without Don’t Be The Next Darrin Stevens Dangerous Drugs or If you’re old enough or if you’ve been tuning into TV Land, you probably remember the 1960’s TV show Bewitched. It was about the mad cap adventures of a mortal man married Surgery” to a young beautiful witch. The show starred Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha Stevens and Dick York as her husband, Darrin. It was a big hit and Dick York had a very promising Our Office Hours career. In 1959, before he starred in Bewitched, he was on a movie set filming They Monday - Friday Came to Cordura with Gary Cooper and Rita Hayworth. During one of the scenes he 8:30 - 12:00 wrenched his lower back. This injury would plague him for the rest of his life. His back 3:30 - 7:00 pain would flair up severely from time to time during the shooting of the Bewitched Saturday episodes. By the end of his Bewitched career he would have to be filmed in sitting or 8:30 - 12:00 laying down positions because he was in so much pain. Finally, he just couldn’t go on any longer and had to quit the show. And if you ever wondered, this is the reason there were two Darrin’s. 87% of our The treatment for back pain in the sixties was somewhat less than desirable. Heavy duty new patients drugs, ineffective bed rest and surgery were pretty much the standard. With that being the are referred case, York became bedridden and addicted to pain killers, basically destroying his career. by our existing Over the years, he eventually was able to break his addiction but never regained the patients. income or status he once had. Who knows how his career would have been if he’d gotten the right care? No individuals, including those under our active care, should use the information; resources or tools contained within to self-diagnose or self-treat any health-related condition. Diagnosis and treatment of all health conditions should only be performed by the doctor or other licensed health care professional. My Back Is What Made Me Chiropractor by Dr. Neal Mathews My first experience with chiropractic occurred while I was just out of high school. At that time my aspiration was to be a NJ State Policeman. My best friend in high school, John, also wanted to be one too. We were only 18 years old and our chances of being accepted by the academy seemed pretty slim. We were just too young and had no experience what-so-ever. So we decided that it may be in our best interest to join the U.S. Army and earn our experience as a Military Policeman. We figured that when we got out of the Army our chances of being accepted by the state police academy were better. John was 6 foot eight and 250 pounds. Great state police material. I was a skinny 135 pounds soaking wet. Not too impressive for a trooper. Before I was to report for military duty, I thought it would be a good idea if I try and beef up a bit. I started lifting weights and working out rather heavily. During one of the exercise routines, I felt something “go” in my lower back. I didn't think much of it at the time but gradually over the next few days it got to the point where I couldn't move or even walk. The memory of that horrible pain is still burned into my brain. I remember that little things seemed impossible to do. Just trying to get up and make to the bathroom was a major feat. I remember having to either crawl on my hands and knees or try and make my way by holding onto some piece of furniture. This happened during the summer after school ended. My enlistment date was September 5th and I wanted the summer to prepare myself and enjoy some time off. But now I was down for the count! I waited about 2 weeks hoping the pain would go away but it only improved very slightly. There was no way I was going to get in the Army in this condition. I come from a small town, Riverton, NJ and during those times we still had our hometown medical doctor making house calls. He was a good man. Tough old bird too. He was at Pearl Harbor during the attack and served in the Navy as ship’s surgeon. He was a “Quit your whining, I’ve seen a lot worse!” kind of doctor. However, I did still appreciate his “Let’s get to work” attitude. Well, except for the time he was treating me for a burn on my foot. That little gem was the result of some not-so-smart antics on the Fourth of July. I discovered that a Roman candle (a stick like thing that you light and shoot cool looking balls of flame into the air) can blow out the bottom and go into your high top sneaker. Yes, there’s a warning label stating that it is dangerous to hold in your hand but I was young and I knew everything back then. That label didn’t apply to me. I also discovered that those little flame balls don’t stop flaming until they’re all done burning themselves fully out. That’s not a good thing when it’s inside your shoe. Anyway, while under care for the resulting hole burned into my foot, the good doctor said he needed to see if the burn under the scab was healing. He then proceeded, without warning, to rip off the scab and then calmly commented, “Nope, no infection. Everything looks good.” I don’t think it’s necessary to describe my feelings for the man at that moment. The term no-nonsense described him extremely well. Well, the good doctor was summoned to our house and he found me in pretty bad shape with my back. I knew things weren’t looking good because he didn’t tell me to, “quit my whining.” He gave me some medications that he dug out of his little black case that I would always see him with. Those meds made me feel all groggy and they really didn't help the pain that much. He visited me a few times at home and eventually said that it may be a good idea - 2 - to go into Philadelphia and talk to a back surgeon. Well, one: I didn't like the medications and, two: I certainly didn't like the recommendations for surgery. I remember being terribly upset about the possibility that I was not going to be able to go into the Army or even be a trooper. My mother had been seeing a local chiropractor and she suggested that I go see him. I had never gone to a chiropractor before and I was very apprehensive. Supposedly they were pretty weird dudes. We actually had two in our area. One of them I heard was suppose to be really over the top and that sounded a little too far-out for me. The other one, the one my mom went to, had a better reputation, plus the added benefit of the blessing from my mother.