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Greetings!
June 13, 2011
Thank you for your continued support of my newsletter. It was nice to see all of the returning faces that came in for their Holistic Physical.
Not surprising to me, I have three patients who have now lost over ten pounds on the Standard Process Cleanse Treatment. Aside from getting rid of everyday toxins, it has a health and wellness benefit of weight loss. Please follow the link if you are interested learning more about the program.
 Review Me
If you have a Google gmail account, you can post a review of my services. Just click the button and you are on your way. Of course great reviews are preferred, but I won't "rub you the wrong way," for a lesser review.
Vacation Alert
I will be away from June 23 through the July 4th weekend. Erin will be in the office during this time to book appointments and for supplement purchases. Please call the office to ensure the hours that she will be available.
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How Routine Chiropractic Care Prevents Surgery
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Many people would agree with me that surgery is not something to take lightly. There are numerous possible complications that can occur, even with simple and routine surgeries. The statistics that are available that indicate the complications associated with many surgeries are very surprising and should always be considered before undergoing any procedure.
A person should always weigh the necessity of the surgery they are considering and the possibility of a complication. It is also very important to get multiple opinions before making a decision.
Spinal surgery is one surgery that is performed routinely in this country to alleviate low back pain. A patient may present to a surgeon with severe back pain, leg pain, hip pain, nerve symptoms such as numbness, tingling, or loss of motor control. Generally, an MRI is taken of the lower back, and a disc herniation or degenerative disc disease may be revealed.
It is the surgeon who makes the decision on whether he or she feels that it is necessary to operate. This decision is made with consideration of many factors. These factors may include history, prior treatment, the extent of the degeneration, age etc..
Unfortunately, there are many unnecessary back surgeries performed in this country and the side effects and problems that a post surgical patient can experience may be irreversible.
The most common spinal surgeries that are performed are laminectomies, microdiscectomies and disc fusion. Laminectomies involve removing the bony arches of the vertebrae to relieve pressure on the nerve. One of the possibilities of a complication from this surgery is post-laminectomy syndrome or failed back syndrome. The symptoms from post-laminectomy syndrome can be worse than the original patient's complaints and include, lower back pain, hip pain, sciatica, leg pain, numbness, tingling, and motor loss.
A microdiscectomy involves the removal of a small portion of the bone over the nerve root and some of the disc material from under the nerve root to relieve pressure on the nerve and provide room for the nerve to heal. Disc fusion involves fusing the disc and vertebrae together. These surgeries can work well at times to alleviate pain, but there can be a high incidence of degeneration of the vertebrae near the surgical sight, because these areas begin to compensate more after the surgery.
The weight distribution is changed and the spinal segments that have been fused no longer act as shock absorbers and the extra weight is transferred to the nearby vertebrae. It may take years for the other areas to have problems, but this may require getting additional surgeries in other areas years later.
In the 2010 Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, 33(8), 576-584, a prospective randomized clinical study was performed by McMorland, Suter, Casha , Plessis, and Hurlbert. In this study the researchers compared spinal surgeries (microdiscectomies) performed by neurosurgeons to nonoperative manipulative treatments (chiropractic adjustments) performed by chiropractors. They compared quality of life and disabilities of the patients in the study. All were found to be surgical candidates. The patients all had one sided lumbar disc herniations with radicular (nerve) symptoms.
Both the surgical and chiropractic groups reported no new neurological problems surfaced and had only minor post-treatment soreness. 60% of the patients who underwent chiropractic care reported a successful outcome while 40% required surgery and of those 40%, all reported successful outcomes.
Of those patients choosing surgery as the primary means of treatment, 15% reported a failed surgical outcome and then chose chiropractic as a secondary choice. Of those 15% with failed surgeries, all were reported to have performed worse in clinical outcomes.
This study indicates that a conservative non operative approach of chiropractic care prevented 60% of patients from needless surgery. Considering that 250,000 patients a year undergo elective lumbar discectomy, chiropractic care is a proven and effective alternative to try to avoid surgery.
There will always be a segment of the population that has such severe spinal problems that surgery is absolutely necessary, but it is important to allow for a conservative approach first and than move towards surgical options if all else fails.
I always make sure that a patient that wants to avoid surgery is given options of supplementation that will help alleviate their pain naturally, and help the soft tissue structures specifically the disc to be nourished, fortified, and to help avoid further degeneration. It is important to look into factors that may have contributed to the degenerative and inflammatory processes in the body in the first place.
These factors may include food intolerances, too much acidity in the body, lack of calcium and mineral absorption, toxicity etc. When the body is balanced it will degenerate less because it has what it needs. This can be applied to many disease processes.
Chiropractic care prevents spinal degeneration and helps to avoid surgery by the effective movement of the individual segments in the spine. This promotes circulation, lymph flow, cerebrospinal fluid movement, removal of toxins, and nourishes the spinal segments.
If a door has been closed for a long time without being opened, the hinges will start to rust, and that door will be more challenging to open. You can imagine what happens to the spinal segments if they never have movement.
The right movement encourages the preservation and promotes health of any area of the body. This is why stretching and exercise are also important, because they also promote circulation, lymph flow, removal of toxins, and nourish the spinal segments.
Long story short: See, or at least call me, before you decide on any surgery.
Healthfully yours,
Dr. Louis Granirer
Holistic Chiropractic Center
  
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