July 2021 Healthy News from Young Chiropractic
Distraction and Patient Education and Exercise
Hip and knee osteoarthritis are known and growing concerns as our society gets older…around the world. Today, Canada is reviewing the “Good Life with Osteoarthritis in Demark” (GLAD) system for knee and hip osteoarthritis. The program combines manual therapy, exercise and patient education. (1) In one GLAD study in which patients attended 2-3 patient education classes and 12 supervised exercise sessions over the course of 8 weeks, patients’ pain intensity got better by 26-33%, walking speed improved 8-12%, chair standability got better by 18-30%, and joint-related quality of life improved 12-26%. (2) (Another study used MRI to guage the thickness of knee joint cartilage after knee joint distraction to find that it increased with treatment bringing about significant short- and long-term cartilage regeneration up to 10 years after treatment. (3) This was performed with young people, but there is hope!) Back in 2017, a Canadian chiropractor wrote a paper describing his utilization of Cox® flexion-distraction-principle-based distraction to the osteoarthritic knee, and the success he’s witnessed in his patients. Inclusively (acute and chronic patients combined), patients related a mean visual analog scale score decrease from 7.7 to 1.8 in 3 weeks and 5.3 visits. Acute knee OA patients’ scores decreased from 8.1 to 1.1 in 4.8 treatments in 2.4 weeks. Chronic patients’ scores dropped from 7.5 to 2.2 in 3.3 weeks and 5.4 treatments. (4) Chiropractors like yours at Young Chiropractic are ahead of the curve with their modified Cox® Technic principles-based-flexion-distraction-approach to knee osteoarthritis. New protocols for use in hip OA are also in development. Talk with us today about how distraction treatment may help your Easley hip and knee osteoarthritis!
HOPE FOR DEGENERATED DISCS: Chondroitin Sulfate
Back pain treatment approaches be they surgical, exercise, nutrition, and/or manual therapy based flourish while back pain continues. Injecting hyaluronic acid hydrogel is demonstrating some potential as it is shown to restrain the loss of disc height, stimulate tissue hydration for disc repair, and reduce inflammation and innervation to ward off more disc degeneration. (5) The nutritional approach continues to hold hope for back pain sufferers as the disc matrix components are known, two central ones being chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan and hyaluronan. Making chondroitin sulfate available to the disc in addition to controlling the hydrostatic pressure of the disc is valuable. (6) Cox® Technic is documented to decrease intradiscal pressure, so combining it with chondroitin sulfate may be, too. Are you including it in your daily supplements? You may want to think about including a disc supplement containing chondroitin sulfate to your schedule after we talk. Young Chiropractic is ready!
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. James Cox on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he presents research on the part chondroitin sulfate plays in the health, degeneration and possible regeneration of the intervertebral disc and in the Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management.
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Schedule your next Easley chiropractic appointment with Young Chiropractic. See you then!