SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - Imagine a way to get rid of that annoying lower back pain; pain so intense it can prevent you from even getting out of bed.
For many, the only option to deal with disc problems has been surgery... until now.
A Salt Lake City chiropractor is using a method that requires no surgery and often no drugs.
And many of his patients walk away with no pain.
When Jeana Hill walked into Dr. Erik Horsleys office, she rated her pain as extreme; a ten on a ten scale.
Hill says, “I would wake up in the morning. I could hardly walk. I would be in tears."
Somehow she had developed a herniated disc. The pressure of her vertebrae was causing a disc to bulge out of her spine putting pressure on a nerve.
Dr. Horsley explains, "We're trying to alleviate the pressure in the disk area. That damaged disk, we want to alleviate the pressure on that damaged disk because it’s under constant pressure."
Dr. Horsley is now offering patients with damaged discs an option to relieve pressure on the disc without any knives and without the old traction devices.
It's called spinal disc decompression.
A computer actually zeroes in on the exact area of the damaged disc.
Then pelvic restraints are placed on the hips and an upper body restraint holds the patient in place while the machine pulls on the spine.
The computer creates a distraction so the body will avoid the typical defense mechanism of tightening up. That's a problem with traditional traction. This allows the spine to decompress.
Dr. Horsley explains, "It actually has a sensor that is constantly working around that guarding reflex so it can actually truly alleviate pressure off that disk and truly achieve decompression."
The patient lies there for 30 minutes. In fact, Dr. Horsley says, "There’s some people who fall asleep during the procedure. There's some patients who choose to watch the procedure in progress on the monitor right here."
Jeana watches movies.
While the vertebrae decompress and pull off the damaged disc, Dr. Horsley says two things happen.
"One, the disc is rehydrated so fluids and nutrients get back into the disc and two; it retracts the disc back off the nerve."
After a series of 20 to 25 treatments, many patients, like Jeana, say the back pain is gone... in her case, from a ten to a zero.
Hill says "It’s been great for me and I’m back to normal activities that I enjoy and don't feel any repercussions from it."
Dr. Horsley says this needs to be combined with proper stretching and strengthening exercises for the lower back but he says his patients with discs that are bulging, degenerating or ruptured are having great success.
Horsley says, "These patients have gotten their lives back with it. They've avoided unnecessary back surgery and they're doing well."
Dr. Horsley says this treatment is not designed to be a band-aid. Its specifically designed to take pressure off the damaged disc and build that disc back up.
And the patients we talk to say its working.
To learn more about the procedure, you can log onto
www.SpineMEDutah.com.
