Can Nonsurgical Spinal Decompression Help Lumbar Spinal Stenosis?

San Francisco Spinal Decompression Doctor Comments:

We have been helping patients with chronic, severe low back pain in downtown San Francisco for around 18 years now at Executive Express Chiropractic (formerly Front Street Chiropractic). 

One of the more common conditions chronic back pain patients present with is spinal stenosis (watch video). Here is an excerpt from the Mayo Clinic Spinal Stenosis page: 

Definition

By Mayo Clinic staff

Spinal stenosis is a narrowing of one or more areas in your spine — most often in your upper or lower back. This narrowing can put pressure on your spinal cord or on the nerves that branch out from the compressed areas.

Spinal stenosis can cause cramping, pain or numbness in your legs, back, neck, shoulders or arms; a loss of sensation in your extremities; and sometimes problems with bladder or bowel function. Spinal stenosis is most commonly caused by osteoarthritis-related bone damage.

Mild symptoms of spinal stenosis are often helped by pain relievers, physical therapy or a supportive brace. In more serious cases of spinal stenosis, doctors may recommend surgery.

Stenosis can also be caused by soft tissue such as inflammation of nerve tissue, ligaments, and bulging or herniated discs.

So not only can your spinal canal or nerve canals narrow from spinal degeneration, osteoarthritis, and bone damage (bony stenosis)...it can narrow from soft tissue inflammation and disc damage (soft tissue stenosis).

If the lumbar spinal stenosis is primarily due to soft tissue such as a herniated or bulging lumbar disc, then spinal decompression makes sense to consider as a treatment option.

                                         
Heck, I have even seen cases of bony stenosis respond favorably to nonsurgical lumbar decompression. How? Not sure...maybe the decompression therapy helps to take what's there and make it healthier. After-all...decompression therapy is able to enlarge the disc space, elongate the spine, and re-hydrate the spinal discs. Maybe this is enough to reduce the inflammation to the point where the symptoms subside.

Obviously the nonsurgical spinal decompression does nothing for a bone spur or growth...but something is happening (sometimes)...and that something may be enough for you to feel like you don't need risky surgery which may or may not help. 

You can increase your odds of spinal decompression success if you also lose any excess body weight you may have and adopt an anti-inflammatory diet such as a plant based "starch centered" diet like  The McDougall Plan. Hey...maybe nonsurgical spinal decompression does nothing for you...but at least you are still whole and can consider other options.

Nonsurgical spinal decompression is very safe also...and that's nice to know.

Anyway, to find out if you are a candidate for nonsurgical spinal decompression at Executive Express Chiropractic...call 415-392-2225 and ask for a complimentary consultation. It just makes sense.  

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Comments

[Randy Huggins]

I'm a 36-year-old male, and two years ago, I had a disk rupture in my back while getting ready for work. It was the disk between the L-4 and L-5 region. Sixty percent of the disk ruptured into my spinal column and did nerve damage. I had surgery to remove the bulge but still have severe pain and numbness in my foot and leg, including shooting electrical pains in various parts of my body and swelling in my left foot. I also have nerve damage on my left side. I'm taking narcotics to help control the pain and muscle relaxers to help with the spasms in my back and legs. If it had not been for the loss of feeling in my leg, 100% the day before the surgery, I would have opted to not have it and let my body heal itself. I would not recommend surgery for anyone who does not absolutely has to have it. I hurt as bad today as I did before and there is nothing else I can do about it. And my surgery was done by a neurosurgeon. My condition is so severe that it has kept me from working or having a normal life. Where do you turn when you're told by different doctors that, “You're as good as your going to get?” I have no answers, but to those of you who are hurting and have lost your ability to live a normal life, you're not alone. Good luck to everyone, and just maybe they will come up with a way to stop the pain.