Thank you for joining me again this evening for our nightly podcasts. I perform these podcasts in the hopes that you will be able to education yourself on the topics discussed so you can make better informed medical decisions regarding your health in the future. I am doctor Harrison Campbell of Restoration Health a premier sugar land chiropractors office. Previously we discussed disc herniations and facet syndrome by contrasting the differences in symptoms experienced. Tonight, we will be comparing treatment plans for disc herniations and facet syndrome.
Disc herniations occur when there are tears in the annulus fibrosus or outer shell of a disc. This produces the bulge in the disc and sets the stage for the nerve roots to become irritated and the radicular pains to start. The goal of treatment as sugar land chiropractors know is to allows the annulus fibrosus to heal properly, decrease pain, decrease inflammation, and the reduce the irritation on the nerve.
Facet syndrome occurs when there is a loss of proper motion in the facet joint, the joints which connect individual vertebrae together. This loss of motion produces pain, inflammation, promoted joint wearing and loss of the articular cartilage and can stimulate excess bone growth a process known to sugar land chiropractors as osteophytosis.
Now as you can see there are some symptoms which overlap between these two conditions. Namely inflammation ad obviously pain. Passive care is the most beneficial with decreasing inflammation. Ice and ultrasound in particular are very good as accomplishing this. At Restoration Health, a premier sugar land chiropractors office, we employ ultrasound to great effect when it comes to decreasing inflammation. Ultrasound uses sound waves to drive the inflammation our of the injured tissue which allows the healing process to occur faster. Additionally, ultrasound stimulates blood flow increases. This is important because the more blood flow a tissue has the faster that particular tissue heals. This is why tissue which naturally have more blood flow, like muscles, heal much faster than tissue which naturally have lower blood flow, like ligaments.
Ice as states is also good for decreasing inflammation. Most people are familiar with the acronym RICE when it comes to sprains. RICE stands for rest, ice, compression, and elevation. This means stay off the injured ligaments to reduce the risk of further reinjury, put ice over the affected area to decrease inflammation, apply compression to reduce swelling, and elevate above the level of the heart as best as possible to reduce inflammation. Now sugar land chiropractors will tell you the ice component goes beyond just slapping a cold pack over the area and calling it a day. You want to apply the cold pack for fifteen minutes, then take it off for fifteen minutes, then reapply for fifteen and repeat this cycle for as many times as needed. By alternating between ice and no ice you create a pumping action in the blood vessels helping to drive the inflammation from the area.
With facet syndrome we also want to restore proper range of motion to the facet joints. A chiropractic manipulation can accomplish this goal. Most people associate a chiropractic adjustment with the pop, but the pop is not the goal of an adjustment. The pop is simply gas in the joint capsule. What the adjustment is actually doing is restoring normal free range of motion to the joint, which is this case is the facet which is inflamed.
Now disc herniations can also have facet joint dysfunction associated with them Adjustments with disc herniations are a little different however. First and foremost is patient comfort. If sugar land chiropractors cannot put the patient in the position for the adjustment to be performed without severe pain on the patient’s part, then clearly an adjustment is not a viable treatment option at that time. In this case passive care and functional movements would be utilized to decrease the severity of the symptoms with the goal being to work towards the adjustment if that is a treatment required. When the patient is just experiencing the disc herniation or an exacerbation to the disc herniation a commo phrase used is a hot back. This comes from the fact that not only is the condition recent, but the inflammation produced physically makes the back warmer than the surrounding tissue.
We briefly mentions exercises for a disc herniation. There are two schools of thought when it comes to disc herniations. There is flexion or extension. Either we are doing exercises opening up the low back or we are doing exercises to close the low back and stabilize the herniation. Each patient is different when it comes to this. At Restoration Health, a premier sugar land chiropractors office the most common form we use is flexion to start with then progressing to the extension exercises once we have a good grasp on the inflammation. The reason for this is flexion produces a stretch for the lumbar paraspinals reducing the tension on the back. Once we have reduced the symptoms to a more manageable level we switch to the MacKenzie Williams exercises which are extension based. This allows us to reduce symptoms and stabilize the disc quickly and effectively. It is not only effective, but it helps the patient manage their symptoms while away from the office by being able to perform good exercises towards our end goal of recovery.
Finally, there is spinal decompression. This is more towards disc herniations, but it can be used with facet syndrome as well. We will not go in depth wit this treatment, because we are out of time for tonight so lets send it to the outro.
Thank you for joining me again this evening for another great podcast. I hope you enjoyed the discussion on the treatments available for disc herniations and facet syndrome at Restoration Health. As always should you or someone you know require a sugar land chiropractors services or simply have more questions on what was discussed please call Restoration Health today. We would love to schedule you an appointment and get you on the path to better health today. Thank you once again for joining us. Have a good night.