If you are considering disc/low back surgery your spinal joints look like one of the joints in this picture. While this is a great rendition of the many stages of disc/motor unit degeneration, it only tells half the story. The other half of the story has to do with disc/motor unit nutrition, fluid content and the healing process.

When stress alters a motor unit of the spine (usually in your late twenties) it goes through a 5 stage process. First it swells, then it starts to lose fluid and compresses, then ligament breakdown occurs, then disc bulging from lack of solid structure as it compresses more, then disc herniation usually with major nerve impingement. By the fifth stage you are into your forties or fifties and the surgeon tries physical therapy and meds and then various surgical procedures are considered. What the above structural orientated scenario leaves out is the cellular level of the process.

At the same time that the structure is degenerating:

1. Blood flow is reduced
   
2. Liquid nutrition, that is normally passed through the endplate of the lumbar vertebrae, slows or halts
   
3. Cellular toxins are not removed via the endplates
   
4. New cellular formation slows so repair and replacement of connective tissue cannot be done
   
5. Due to lack of liquid and nutrition, structural degeneration speeds up so the motor unit/disc breakdown occurs faster which cause acute inflammation process and pinching of nerves and visits to pain management doctors and surgeons.
   

This is where the Spinal Decompression Therapy Protocol helps.

Spinal Decompression Therapy pulls gently on the involved motor unit and the rest of the lumbar spine. It is so gentle, steady, and slow that your muscles do not tighten and resist as with traction therapies. The gentle pulling slightly decompresses all of the joints of the lumbar spine so there is no potential of isolated stress on any one motor unit/disc level. Repetitive decompression slowly changes the mechanical structures and increases the ability of the cells to pass liquid, nutrition, and toxins from and to the damaged tissue deep inside the discs of the spine. This allows healing to begin. Three months of regular Spinal Decompression Therapy Protocol is usually enough to feel the changes and the improved function of a healing spine.

HOW CHIROPRACTIC CARE FITS IN:

Chiropractic care unlocks the facet joints, and reduces the pressure on the nerve going to the disc, both of which affect disc health. It is key to making the motor unit movable and changing the stress on the disc so that the decompression therapy can work.

CALL 248-477-1492 to schedule a NO CHARGE Consultation, located at 23280 Farmington Rd., Farmington, MI.