July 2021 Healthy News from Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka
Distraction and Patient Education and Exercise
Osteoarthritis in the knee and hip are known and growing concerns as our society ages…around the world. Currently in 2021, Canada is reviewing the “Good Life with Osteoarthritis in Demark” (GLAD) system 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 improved 18-30%, and joint-related quality of life improved 12-26%. (2) (Another study utilized MRI to measure the thickness of knee joint cartilage after distracting the knee joint to find 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 there is hope!) Back in 2017, a Canadian chiropractor wrote a paper describing his treatment using Cox® flexion-distraction-principle-based distraction to the osteoarthritic knee, and the success he has seen in his patients. Overall (acute and chronic patients combined), patients related a mean visual analog scale score drop 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 decrased from 7.5 to 2.2 in 3.3 weeks and 5.4 treatments. (4) Chiropractors like yours at Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka are ahead of the curve with their modified Cox® Technic principles-based-flexion-distraction-approach to knee osteoarthritis. Novel protocols for use in hip OA are also in development. Talk with us today about how distraction treatment may help your Sitka knee and hip osteoarthritis!
HOPE FOR DEGENERATED DISCS: Chondroitin Sulfate
Back pain treatment approaches be they surgical, exercise, nutrition, and/or manual therapy based abound while back pain continues. Injecting hyaluronic acid hydrogel is demonstrating some potential as it seems to curb the loss of disc height, promote tissue hydration for disc repair, and lower 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 components being chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan and hyaluronan. Making chondroitin sulfate available to the disc as well as controlling the hydrostatic pressure of the disc is advantageous. (6) Cox® Technic is shown to decrease intradiscal pressure, so mixing it with chondroitin sulfate may be, too. Are you including it in your daily supplements? Consider adding a disc supplement that has chondroitin sulfate to your schedule after we talk. Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka 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 possible regeneration of the intervertebral disc and in the Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management.
CONTACT Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka
Schedule your next Sitka chiropractic appointment with Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka. See you then!