July 2021 Healthy News from Vancouver Disc Centers

Osteoarthritis in the knee and hip 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) program for knee and hip osteoarthritis. The program incorporates manual therapy, exercise and patient education. (1) One GLAD study had patients attend 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 improved 18-30%, and joint-related quality of life got better by 12-26%. (2) (Another study used MRI to guage the thickness of knee joint cartilage after knee joint distraction to document that it increased with treatment resulting in significant short- and long-term cartilage regeneration up to 10 years post-treatment. (3) This was performed with young people, but it is hopeful!) Back in 2017, a Canadian chiropractor published a paper describing his application of Cox® flexion-distraction-principle-based distraction to the osteoarthritic knee, and the success he’s seen in his patients. Inclusively (acute and chronic patients together), patients related a mean visual analog scale score decrease from 7.7 to 1.8 in 3 weeks and 5.3 treatments. 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 Vancouver Disc Centers 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 you with Vancouver osteoarthritis of the hip and knee!

 

HOPE FOR DEGENERATED DISCS: Chondroitin Sulfate

Back pain treatment approaches from surgery to manual therapy to exercise to nutrition flourish while back pain continues. Injecting hyaluronic acid hydrogel is showing some promise as it seems to curb the loss of disc height, stimulate tissue hydration for disc repair, and decrease inflammation and innervation to ward off more disc degeneration. (5) The nutritional approach continues to show promise for back pain sufferers as the disc matrix components are identified, two key ones being chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan and hyaluronan. Making chondroitin sulfate available to the disc plus controlling the hydrostatic pressure of the disc is beneficial. (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? Consider including a disc supplement containing chondroitin sulfate to your routine after we talk. Vancouver Disc Centers 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.

CONTACT Vancouver Disc Centers

Schedule your next Vancouver chiropractic appointment with Vancouver Disc Centers. See you then!