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Your SCANS Says
Abnormality,
But Is That The Cause of Pain?
Ross HAUSER,
M.D.
There is an epidemic of people
suffering from
chronic pain. We believe part of the reason is
incorrect diagnosis. For instance, very seldom do we find that
arthritis itself, is the cause of the pain in sufferers. It is
estimated that 15% of the U.S. population has arthritis, with
prevalence being about 50% over the age of 65 and only 5% under the
age of 44.
Part of the problem is that medical technology has taken over the
role of the medical touch. It used to be that doctors would touch
patients to make a diagnosis, especially in regards to pain. Today
it's very common for people in pain to get an extensive array of
tests to show some abnormality. The problem is that often the
abnormality is NOT causing the problem.
Did you know that up to 50% of asymptotic people have
abnormalities on MRI scans, including herniated
discs. The most
important thing a doctor could do for you, when you go in for an
office visit, is to reproduce your pain. Yep, that's right, that
doctor or
chiropractor ought to be poking around until you they can
make it hurt! We believe, in our practice, if you can reproduce
someone's pain in the office, then the pain can be relieved.
Generally chronic pain stems from the soft tissue structures of
the body, such as ligaments and
tendons. It is reasonable, if
you have not had a trial of
chiropractic manipulation, to give this
a try. Vertebral subluxation or improper positioning of the
vertebrae can cause pain. Any physician or chiropractor who is
skilled in manipulation can provide you relief and this may be a
good place to start.
You should also make sure that you have proper
nutrition, as this
will be necessary to help the soft tissues heal and the manipulation
to hold. For an unknown reason, some folks are slow to heal when
they injure tissue. You may not know it, but everybody is injuring
tissue all the time. Just our daily activities of working, running
around, or mowing the grass causes some injury of soft tissues. Our
muscles get strained and ligaments and tendons become weak over
time. We use Prolotherapy to encourage these to heal.
Prolotherapy injections start the healing cascade so ligaments and tendons begin
to grow. This is in contrast to cortisone injections, which relieve
pain (often temporarily), but ultimately weaken the tissue.
Prolotherapy
injections are given generally every four to six weeks until the
pain subsides. The average person needs three to four treatments.
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