Dr Davis' Back & Wrist Pain Blog

San Francisco Herniated Disc Center Recommends YouTube For Back Exercises

YouTube is a great source for low intensity back pain exercise videos for the herniated disc patient. Check this one out:

Just type in what you want in their search box. Back pain stretches. Low Back pain exercises. Neck pain exercises. Hand pain exercises, etc.

WARNING: Some patients may be too acute, frail, or deconditioned to perform this exercise. Some may need to use a broom handle, a chair, or the wall for support.  If you are unable to perform this exercise, check www.YouTube.com for floor exercises for back pain.

If you or anyone you know is suffering with chronic back pain and would like to find out if you are a candidate for care at our San Francisco disc pain center, here are your options:

Call: 415-392-2225 and ask for a complimentary consultation or fill out our online information request form and someone will contact you by phone or email.

Read what our SF Bay Area patients have to say

Can Exercise Be Doing My Herniated Discs More Harm Than Good?

San Francisco Chiroractor and Disc Herniation Doctor Comments:

If we were to pull ten random people off the streets of San Francisco and perform lumbar MRI exams on all of them, five of them would probably show some sort of disc herniation or disc bulging. Six or seven of them would most likely have some advanced degeneration, and five or six would actually have back pain. Would the people with the disc herniations have the back pain ? Not necessarily. What about the people with the disc degeneration, would they have back pain. Maybe, maybe not. Back pain is tricky because at any given time, half the population has it. Something like 80% of the population will have bad back pain at some point in their lives. And, just because someone has disc herniations or disc bulges, it does not mean they will have back pain. You see, most of the time back pain either resolves on it's own, or responds to chiropractic, physical therapy, or exercise. But, about 10-15% of the time, nothing seems to help and the symptoms will not go away. This is what we call chronic back pain. Sometimes the symptoms of chronic back pain can  be crippling. Nothing seems to work. Pain pills, exercise, physical therapy, chiropractic, massage, acupuncture, etc. Some patients end up having surgery. Now, when we examine the spines of patients with chronic back pain, usually what we see is not good. My experience has been that about 70-80% of the patients I consult with that have chronic severe back pain, have combinations of disc herniations, disc bulges, stenosis, disc degeneration, subluxations, muscle spasms, chronic inflammation, facet syndromes, and other findings. It is rare that we examine someone with chronic back pain and the spine looks normal, although it does happen sometimes. Patients with chronic back pain need to be very careful what exercises they perform. Some patients tell me they know the exercise they are doing is making them worse (usually self prescribed), but they just need to do it to maintain sanity. I understand completely and there are usually exercises we can come up with that will be safe and effective with less risk. Depending on the level of severity of your condition, we may not want you to exercise for a week or two while we try to get the inflammation and pain under control. Then, we will take you through step by step program of stretches, strengthening exercises, and core (spinal and abdominal) strengthening exercises. Some exercise you do at home. Some you do at the clinic. We monitor your progress closely and move you through the levels of intensity in a controlled manner. The exercises are done in conjunction with manual therapies and spinal decompression, depending on the individual case. One thing for sure, exercise can do you more harm than good if you you have serious chronic back pain and you do the wrong kinds of exercises. Make sure you only do what your doctor prescribes. 

Bay Area Spine Center Offers New Hope for Senior Citizens with Chronic Back Pain

San Francisco Bay Area Chronic Back Pain Center comments:

We are achieving tremendous outcomes with elderly patients with severe, chronic back pain. We are treating them with the DRX 9000 spinal decompression system. Then we follow up with spinal muscle reconditioning on our Spine Force machine. There is an extensive home care regimen which includes a plant based diet, exercises, stretches, fish oil supplementation, meditation, breathing & yoga. Conditions such as disk herniations, spinal stenosis, facet syndrome, and disc degeneration all seem to respond favorably.   Often times there is no where to turn for senior citizens once a spinal condition has been around for many years. Some patients are no longer considered surgical candidates because it would be too dangerous. There is so much decay and degeneration that all that could really be done is complete fusion. Some patients are unable to exercise because it is too painful. Most have tried cortisone injections, acupuncture, and chiropractic. Sometimes these things help, sometimes they don't. Some patients are taking pain medication daily putting their kindeys and liver at risk. When we take on a new case we the first thing we do is set forth the treatment objectives and goals. We need to manage the expectations. There is no way we can make these patients normal again. This needs to be clear. What we can do, most of the time it seems, is take what's there and make the most out of it. Allow the spine to express it's potential within the limitations of matter. The DRX 9000 spinal decompression  sessions seem to be able to pump life back into the spinal joints and discs. I liken the process to a respirator, which helps the lungs to breath when they are unable to do so on their own. The DRX 9000 helps the spine to do what it would, if it could, which is pump the discs so they can exchange nutrients with the blood stream. This seems to reduce inflammation and , promote healing. This makes it so we can introduce exercise and therapy. The fish oil and the plant based diet (along with 80-100oz of H20 per day) also help reduce inflammation levels and cleanse the body, creating fertile soil for healing to take place. This is NOT magic. What it is, is the most advanced technology available today for the nonsurgical treatment of severe spinal conditions. We take it to the next level and beyond by incorporating the SpineForce and the Home Care regimen. We very much enjoy helping return lost life and function to our patients. We are opening up an office in San Rafael (Marin County) in a few weeks. There is a very active senior citizen population over there, and we look forward to serving them. For more info contact us at 415-392-2225.

Are Weak CORE Spinal Muscles an underlying cause of Spinal Degeneration and Disc Herniations ?

San Francisco Bay Area Spinal Rehabilitation Center comments on the relationship between Disc Degeneration and weak Spinal Muscles:

Why Spinal "CORE" Exercises?

First of all, the "Spinal CORE" muscles are not the muscle groups that most therapist refer to as the CORE. A complete spinal rehabilitation program will address both. The Spinal "CORE" muscles wrap around the spine like the CORE of an apple. There are 180 of them. These are the little muscles that connect from one vertebra to the other controlling the inter-spinous ranges of motion. Research shows that when these muscles are injured it can create fertile ground for disc  disease and spinal degeneration. Here's the deal, two kinds of muscle fibers make up the musculoskeletal system. One is fast-twitch muscle fiber. The other is slow-twitch muscle fiber. Muscles have both types of fibers but usually one fiber type dominates a muscle group. Our postural muscles, which include the muscles of the "Spinal CORE" have mostly slow-twitch fiber. These muscles are very difficult to exercise. In the gym, when we’re ‘pumping iron’ and doing aerobic exercises, we’re affecting fast-twitch muscle fiber or phasic muscles. What’s happening to our postural muscles? Not much. So exercises to strengthen phasic muscles don't improve posture.

When phasic muscles fatigue and/or when they’re injured they go flaccid and collapse. Postural muscles react very differently from phasic muscles when they’re injured or fatigued: they spasm. And the way postural muscles spasm is rarely even, either side-to-side or front-to-back. That’s why poor posture distorts our appearance because our spine is no longer aligned. It also sets the stage for abnormal spinal motion and asymmetrical forces on the spinal disc and joints.

Isometric exercises, which involve pushing against a force that moves very slowly or doesn’t move at all, help eliminate postural muscle spasms as well as rehabilitate their balance, strength, and endurance. Whew, that's a little tricky to explain. The bottom line is, a spinal correction program is not complete unless the "Spinal CORE" muscles are exercised. So, how do we do it you ask ? Well, a company called LPG of France designed a machine called SpineForce specifically for this purpose. SpineForce is the only machine in the world that is actually able to assess the integrity of the "Spinal CORE" muscles and create customized treatment plans based on the results. We incorporate the SpineForce into our DRX 9000 spinal regeneration programs. The sessions are 15-30 minutes and there are varying levels of intensity. Tiger Woods actually has a SpineForce at his training facility. It is very popular with elite athletes and was actually written up in The ROBB REPORT a while back as something the rich and famous athletes are using to improve performance. We are one of the only clinics in the Bay Area with the SpineForce. I am told the Golden State Warriors have one for their players. If you would like to go for a free trial session, give us a call at 415-392-2225.

San Francisco Chronic Back Pain Center comments: Treatment for Herniated Discs must include CORE Strengthening Exercises to prevent relapse

We are in the business of fixing badly degenerated spines and herniated discs at our San Francisco Chronic Back Pain Center. When it comes to spinal regeneration and rehabilitation, it must include CORE strengthening exercises for the spine and trunk. All of your power originates from your CORE. Most degenerative spinal conditions ended up where they are (at least partially) because of lack of CORE conditioning. But, just to go in and treat the CORE without first reducing inflammation and making the spine healthier can make some conditions worse. It is a fine line. In addition, to just treat what most experts consider to be the CORE (abdominal, pelvis, hips, low back) without considering the SPINAL CORE (the 180 deep spinal muscles from skull to tail bone) is sub-standard treatment in my opinion. We must treat both.  When you reach the point  where you are ready to perform CORE exercises we will typically make you an appointment with one of our Physical Trainers and show you a floor routine based on your level of conditioning.  There are various levels of intensity. We have special exercises for elderly patients also. But when it comes to exercising the SPINAL CORE, this is a whole different animal. These muscles are very hard to access. They are involved in posture and coordination. You really can't exercise them on your own at home. This is why I purchased a machine called the SPINEFORCE. It was designed by LPG of France to assess and treat the SPINAL CORE muscles. It actually scores you at the end so we can track your progress objectively and move you safely through the various levels of intensity. Yes, you have to do this at our office vs. at home. So, there is a cost involved. But, it is worth it because it teaches the muscles to work with the spine in it's newer, healthier state and increases the odds of a more favorable outcome with our spinal regeneration program.   

San Francisco Spinal Rehabilitation for Chronic Back Pain is Enhanced by Yoga. Start Now!

How many patients tell me they want to start a yoga practice? Alot. How many of them actually do? Some of them.....some don't. The point here is that no benefits will arise from yoga...unless you actually do yoga. The nature of yoga is very conducive to a person recovering from a disc treatment or back treatment because it is a practice that unfolds as you go. There is no forcing and no over-efforting allowed!

The idea behind yoga is that a union is formed between your mind and your body (and if you want to get into the philosophy behind it, the sun and the moon, the yin and the yang, etc..). Yoga translates as "Union". It is this union that a practice should try to cultivate, not flexibility or strength. Those benefits come along with fostering the union. So, how do you connect, or form a union, between your mind and your body? It is by controlling your breath. Your breath is the link between your mind and your body. Think about how you breath when you are rushed, stressed, or scared. It's very shallow and often rapid. These mental constructs influence your respiratory rate. When you are relaxed, chances are you are breathing deeply and slowly. There is a connection between your mind (how stressed you and are how anxious you are) and your body (how fast or slow your lungs and heart move). In a yoga practice, both aspects are manipulated to have an effect on each other and bring about both physical and mental health. Here's a pretty good description of how yoga creates change in your body by relaxing and not over-exerting: Ananda online.

So, all that being said, your yoga practice should be a careful series of movements and exercises that are co-ordinated with your breath, not a rushed workout. After staying focused on your body's movements for an hour or so, you will be amazed at the changes that will occur. You don't need to do anything crazy like stand on your head for 20 minutes, you just simply need to get started at your own pace. Please make sure you talk with an experienced teacher first for guidance. Patients at Dr Davis' office, please ask me for some ideas on where to start - or let me know if you want to schedule a private session to get going on bringing movement back into your life and expedite your healing process.

I have Herniated Discs on my MRI. How do I know how long I have had them or if they are what's causing my Back Pain or if I really need Surgery ?

I meet with 20-25 patients per week with chronic back pain at our San Francisco Disc Herniation Center. The purpose of these appointments is to determine if they are a candidate for Spinal Decompression featuring the DRX 9000. Many of these patients have MRI films which show disc herniations, sometimes at multiple spinal levels. There is usually quite a bit of spinal degeneration and loss of normal curvature. All of the above leading to spinal stenosis, which is when the spinal canal or nerve channels (foramina) become occluded (smaller due to obstruction from bony degeneration or herniated disc material). But, sometimes the symptoms are the same as one would expect from herniated discs, but there are no herniated discs. And, sometimes there are herniated discs with no symptoms. In fact, most of the patients that have symptoms from the herniated discs, spent a great deal of time in an asymptomatic state. And when you do finally get symptoms there is no way to know for sure if they are from the disc herniations or the compensatory responses and adaptations. So, what do we make of all this ? Well, this is the big controversy when it comes to surgery. You can go in and operate but you don't really know if what you are operating on is actually causing the problem. This is especially true when there are multiple levels of involvement. The surgeon will usually pick one spinal level, the one that appears to be the worst, and go with that. What if that was not the right one ? The was all the risk that goes with surgery and the downtime, and the problem is still there. This is why I love what I do and it makes so much sense. We know what the optimum position of the spine should be. We know how the spine functions and how the discs breath. They are avascular, meaning they have no blood vessels connected directly to them. They breath through a process called imbibition. This is a pumping action that allows the discs to exchange nutrients with the bloodstream. When discs herniate and the vertebrae subluxate (lose their normal position), it sets up a chain reaction that causes the forces to be distributed unevenly on the rest of the spine causing more degeneration and abnormal wear and tear. For me, it makes more sense to try and reverse this process without drugs or surgery. Sure, some people may end up needing surgery in spite of what we do, but it's still worth a shot. In a nutshell, what we do with our Spinal Regeneration program is try to take what is there and make the most out of it. The DRX 9000 is able to mimic the pumping action of the spine, acting like a respirator on a lung. Pumping nutrients into the discs, re-hydrating and re-nutrifying them. At the same time we create a healthy environment by adjusting our CONTEXT (lifestyle) in the direction of health and well being. We switch to a Plant Based Diet (to reduce inflammation and lose weight) . We have you drink 80-100oz of water per day to rehydrate the discs and cleanse the body. We have you meditate to relieve stress and promote healing (happy thoughts become happy molecules). And we slowly engage you in very specific exercises which you are better able to handle as the spine becomes stronger. Next, we rehab the Spinal "CORE" muscles on the SpineForce machine tying it all in. We are the only clinic in the Bay Area with this technology.  Eventually some of you will be able to receive gentle chiropractic adjustments and physical therapy, even Pilate's. We teach you Yoga breathing exercises (just ask for a private session with Sara, our in house Yoga instructor). In most cases we are able to make your spine stronger and healthier, reducing symptoms, increasing function, and making it so you can enjoy life the way you are intended to. But, it takes Two to Tango. Don't expect the DRX 9000 to do everything. Sure, that's all some of you do and it still works out great. But if you want to increase the odds of a favorable outcome, do your part, and we will do ours. 

San Francisco Disc Herniation Center comments: Back Pain, Nutrition, Stress, and Exercise. How are they connected ?

We take a different approach to treating chronic back pain at our San Francisco Disk Herniation treatment center. We believe that we are they end result of what we eat, what we think, how we sit at a computer, how we lift, how much we exercise, how we sleep, how we relax, the shoes we wear, the pillow we use, etc. We refer to these things as our CONTEXT (internal and external environment).  We call this "Contextual Healing". Every time you do something a decision is made (by YOU) as to how it is done. In fact, you have a knob that is adjustable (by YOU) for just about every aspect of your CONTEXT. When you adjust these knobs, you either adjust them in the direction of health or the direction of illness. The thing is, we do not come with an owners manual when we are born. So, we do not necessarily know which way to adjust the knobs. Sure, most of us know that we should eat more fruits and vegetables, and that stress is bad, or sitting at a computer for 6 hours without a break can't possibly be good for us. But, when it comes to things like back pain from disc degeneration and disc herniations, we just don't connect the dots from these Contextual Parameters to our  spinal conditions. This is where WE come in. We know that they are all connected. We also know that when we begin to adjust the knobs in the right direction we adjust ourselves in the direction of health and well being. We are here to teach you the best way to adjust the knobs. We are here to provide you with the owners manual you never had. And yes, we understand that there are accident's and physical traumas that have contributed to your spinal conditions. But we also understand the body is best able to deal with anything when the knobs are adjusted in the right way. This is why we incorporate a Plant Based Diet, Yoga, Meditation, and Exercise into our Spinal Decompression (Regeneration) program. The DRX 9000 will do it's part. Will you do yours ?   

Degenerative Disc Disease and Exercise: It's Never Too Late For Weightlifting, No Matter How Old You Are

San Francisco Herniated Disk Pain Center Comments:

I know it's hard to imagine weightlifting if you are a senior citizen with multiple-level herniated disc secondary to aggressive spinal degeneration. But, please do not rule this out somewhere down the road. The objective of our non-surgical spinal regeneration program is to make your spine healthier, stronger, and more functional. We want to get you to the point where you can incorporate some weightlifting into your health maintenance program. There are just SO many positives that come from weight lifting, most notably, increased muscle mass and strength, and decreased body fat composition. There is also a decreased risk of osteoporosis due to increased bone density which results from weight lifting. It also helps to strengthen your joints and ligaments, making everything work better for longer. Here are the results of a study from the Arthritis Reading Room at John Hopkins University entitled "Arthritis and Exercise: All about Weightlifting". I have been weightlifting since I was 16 years old, and I plan to do it until I die. I know it will help keep me young. Your Spinal Regeneration program includes advice and consultation on resistance training. Of course we do not want to implement weightlifting too soon. But when the time is right, lets go for it. 

 

Research Shows Fish Oil To Reduce Pain from Degenerative Disc Disease (DDD) and other Spine Pains

I found an article I thought you would enjoy about the benefits of Fish Oil supplements and back pain. Here is the first paragraph (link to the full story above):

Fish oil supplements containing omega-3 essential fatty acids (EFAs) might help treat neck and back pain, a new study shows. Such supplements might be "a safer alternative" to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for some patients with spine-related pain, write Joseph Maroon, MD, and Jeffrey Bost, PAC. Maroon and Bost work in the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's neurological surgery department. Their study appears in Surgical Neurology. The study doesn't prove that fish oil pills work as well as NSAIDs for back pain, note Maroon and Bost. They call their study a "starting point" for research on omega-3 fatty acids and other nonpharmaceutical treatment alternatives for spine-related pain.