ARTHRITIS IN LOWER BACK(Keywords: arthritis in lower back, back arthritis, chiropractic help, arthritis of the back ) ARTHRITIS IN LOWER BACK. Sometimes I am utterly humbled by the power of Chiropractic. When you as a practitioner are faced with a case history like this one, you absolutely know that Chiropractic has to do something special... it's an awesome responsibility. Mrs P, aged 69 first consulted me two months ago with a fifty-year history of low back pain. Her mother too had a horrid back. For the last year it had been unbearable and the pain in the right buttock and both legs despite various medical treatments was disabling, and walking had become very difficult.
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The first obvious abnormality was a short left leg, between 5-7mm. Sometime authorities think this not significant, but it's my fist step in a difficult case like this. She now wears a heel lift of 5mm in her left shoe. That immediately partially corrected the spinal curvature.There were disturbing neurological findings in her left leg. Weakness of the quadriceps, change in its reflex, and numbness on the side of the leg. The Femoral nerve stretch test was positive: pain in the upper leg. Thirdly, her sacroiliac joint anatomy was absolutely haywire. Orthopaedic tests were positive, and the fixation I would describe as like 'concrete'. Absolutely jammed, stuck, fixated, subluxated... and badly. No wonder the poor woman couldn't walk. All in all a tough call. TREATMENT: ARTHRITIS IN LOWER BACKThe question is where to start with a case like this. There are so many problems... I chose to start with some Thompson drop treatment on the sacroiliac joints and a very gentle side-posture drop bilaterally. There were no audible releases.I haven't needed to change the treatment, it has been so effective. It's not perfect of course, but she has little pain, plenty of stiffness but she is faithfully doing my exercises. She can walk again! With the heel lift. I now need to get to her feet to see if there are fixations, and a dropped arch. She's had nine treatments in nine weeks, and we are now spacing them out: the next over three weeks. When a 69-year old woman starts flirting with you, then you know it's getting better. I love the spirit of so many elderly Dutch people. So many of them at 70 and 80 and even 80+ are younger than some people I could name in their twenties. It's those brewing aneurisms that are going to get her, and probably quite soon. There are more than likely others in her head and neck. I don't touch her neck! She is on blood pressure treatment. Hopefully it'll be a quick and clean stroke, not on the day of a chiropractic consultation I hope, but it's coming... whether I treat her or not. We have discussed these things. She knows the risks, but her quality of life has improved to such an extent that she presses on. And so do I. Gently! Stop smoking? Never!
A hereditary condition: ARTHRITIS IN LOWER BACKMrs P is doing incredibly well, and now comes in every three weeks for maintainance care. Yesterday she told me... Her great niece, aged 17 had Harrington rods put in her spine about four years ago for the scoliosis. It was apparently reasonably successful. But last week, she went in for a further spinal fusion at L5-S1 - and woke up with a foot-drop. Nuff said...Update: Mrs P continues to do well. We have now exended the maintenance treatment to every six weeks.
When did you last look at your child's back? Ask them to bend over and view them from behind. What do you see...? An aside...The love of North Americans to sue their doctors at the drop of a hat, means that many patients with conditions like this go untreated, or undertreated. They must suffer; the Americans and Canadians have so intimidated their doctors that not many would take on a case like this.
"Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation." Susan B. Anthony, reformer and suffragist Enough said, nothing will change the culture of greed that characterises litigation... In a landmark case a Chiropractor was successfully sued a few years ago after a patient had a stroke SEVENTEEN days after a chiropractic treatment. Mrs P could have one any day, and it would have absolutely nothing to do with chiropractic. The treatment with drops is really quite gentle. It's said that a country gets the politicians it deserves. And certain other professions too. I'm sad.
HYALINE CARTILAGEHyaline cartilage is the super-smoother-than-ice (literally) substance that lines the ends of bones within a joint. The friction coefficient is lower than that of ice-on-ice. It's covered with highly specialised chemicals that retain water.This cartilage has no blood supply of its own and its nutrients and oxygen comes from the fluid within the joint. If that fluid is deficient... or isn't swishing about, ARTHRITIS.
Perfect young pig's cartilage... Obviously I have no pictures of the hyaline cartilage lining the ends of Mrs P's bones, but it certainly looks more like this... than our pig's beautiful shiny smooth hyaline cartilage.
CHICKEN BONES extract for healthy cartilage. GLUCOSAMINE CHONDROITIN sulphate... Return from ARTHRITIS IN LOWER BACK to RESEARCH PROPOSAL TOPICS … Go from ARTHRITIS IN LOWER BACK to CHIROPRACTIC HELP home page … MONTHLY NEWSLETTER - sign up here, it's free:
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