July 2021 Healthy News from Hollstrom & Associates Inc
Distraction and Patient Education and Exercise
Osteoarthritis in the knee and hip are known and growing concerns as our society gets older…around the world. Currently in 2021, Canada is reviewing the “Good Life with Osteoarthritis in Demark” (GLAD) program for knee and hip osteoarthritis. The program includes 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 improved 26-33%, walking speed got better by 8-12%, chair standability got better by 18-30%, and joint-related quality of life got better by 12-26%. (2) (Another study used MRI to measure the thickness of knee joint cartilage after knee joint distraction to document that it thickened with treatment resulting in significant short- and long-term cartilage regeneration up to 10 years after treatment. (3) This was done with young people, but there is hope!) Back in 2017, a Canadian chiropractor described the benefit of his treatment using 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 reported a mean visual analog scale score drop from 7.7 to 1.8 in 3 weeks and 5.3 visits. Acute knee OA patients’ scores dropped from 8.1 to 1.1 in 4.8 treatments in 2.4 weeks. Chronic patients’ scores reduced from 7.5 to 2.2 in 3.3 weeks and 5.4 treatments. (4) Chiropractors like yours at Hollstrom & Associates Inc 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. Let’s talk today about how distraction treatment may help your Largo knee and hip osteoarthritis!
HOPE FOR DEGENERATED DISCS: Chondroitin Sulfate
Back pain treatment approaches from surgery to manual therapy to exercise to nutrition flourish while back pain endures. Injecting hyaluronic acid hydrogel is showing some promise as it seems 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 show promise 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 plus controlling the hydrostatic pressure of the disc is helpful. (6) Cox® Technic is shown 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 that has chondroitin sulfate to your schedule after we talk. Hollstrom & Associates Inc is ready!
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. James Cox on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he discusses the role of chondroitin sulfate in the health, degeneration and potential regeneration of the intervertebral disc and in the Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management.
CONTACT Hollstrom & Associates Inc
Schedule your next Largo chiropractic appointment with Hollstrom & Associates Inc. See you then!