Editor’s Note: “2 Your Health” is a new column in the SaddleBrooke Progress dedicated to health issues. Each month different doctors and or medical associations, from varying specialties, will be writing on issues of importance. Articles are based on experiences and independent research conducted by the doctors or medical associations. We encourage anyone considering changing medications and or altering medical therapy, as a result of information contained in these articles, to consult your doctor first. Robson Publishing, a division of Robson Communities, Inc. is not liable for information contained in these articles.
Brue Chiropractic: Are you missing the magic ingredient?
This past week Sally returned to my office for another episode of back pain. Sally told me that she had been experiencing lower back pain for approximately one month. And, she had done everything she could to help. She had been doing her morning stretches, her husband was rubbing her back, she had been using heat and she had been taking ibuprofen. I told her that she was missing the magic ingredient.
What’s the magic ingredient in the treatment of back pain? Let me answer the question by asking about your favorite sugar cookie recipe. Do you think that your sugar cookie recipe would be as good if you forgot to add vanilla extract? A sugar cookie recipe will not be as good if you forget any essential ingredient.
The treatment of back pain is similar. If you leave out the most important ingredient in the treatment of back pain, the results of the treatment will not be as effective. What treatment was Sally leaving out of her recipe for the treatment of back pain? She had forgotten that her underlying back problem was related to spinal misalignment and all of the home care treatments in the world would not correct the problem. In Sally’s case, the missing ingredient for the relief of back pain was a spinal adjustment to correct the misalignment of the fourth and fifth lumbar vertebrae.
In my everyday practice I see patients making some very common health mistakes.
1. Patients often have great results with chiropractic care and then decide to quit coming in because they feel better. It always amazes me that patients decide to quit the one treatment that has helped them. They want to see how they get along without chiropractic care. This is like deciding to not brush your teeth because you just had them cleaned.
2. When back pain returns, some people seem to think that chiropractic care didn’t work. This is the truth about back pain: back pain is manageable, but it isn’t always curable. Discs don’t grow back and arthritis doesn’t go away. Periodic care is often necessary to prevent and manage recurring back pain.
3. Some patients choose not to return to the office because there is a financial cost for periodic treatment. If you think the cost of health care is expensive, just get sick and see how much that costs.
4. Some patients want immediate and permanent results. They want the magic pill, the magic shot, the magic surgery or the magic adjustment that will cure them forever. I want you to know this: there is no magic cure for recurring back pain. Most patients need periodic spinal adjustments to effectively manage back pain.
Your body has a profound, miraculous and unbelievable ability to heal and repair. Periodic spinal adjustments are the magic ingredient for the prevention and management of back pain.
Dr. Craig Brue is an author, lecturer and chiropractic provider in SaddleBrooke, Arizona.
The Lung Institute: Vaccines and Stem Cells
David Ebner
Every fall the billboards and television commercials urging you to get a flu shot start appearing. Many people have reservations about the flu vaccine; however, the statistics strongly support the flu vaccination over trying to tough it out, especially for the elderly. The CDC estimates that, in people over 50, there is a 77 percent reduction in hospitalization for flu symptoms when vaccinated.
Why not give yourself the best chance to be healthy? The benefits are even more compelling for those with a lung disease. The coughing, shortness of breath and fatigue that come along with the flu are everyday symptoms of lung disease and contracting the flu can turn these already harsh symptoms into something fatal. That’s why the CDC-—and most pulmonologists-—recommend that people with these conditions get the flu shot yearly.
Now patients are asking about other options to protect and improve their lung function. If a shot can vaccinate them from the flu, what can be done about lung disease? New options are emerging and some have discovered stem cells as the answer. Just like the flu vaccine, stem cell therapy offers the possibility of improving lives through treatment of debilitating conditions.
Stem cells have become a buzzword in the news; however, few people are talking about the adult stem cells that are present in our own bodies. These cells live in blood, bone marrow and fat tissue. They naturally respond to injury or illness, yet since stem cells don’t move quickly, our bodies don’t instantly heal. Stem cell therapy can expedite this natural healing process.
A clinic called the Lung Institute (lunginstitute.com) treats lung diseases with stem cells from the patient’s own body. They extract cells through a minimally invasive procedure, clean them and reintroduce them to the lungs after giving the patient natural growth factors that promote cell replication. This quickens healing by directing the cells toward the diseased area. Although this doesn’t cure the disease, it acts like the annual flu vaccine by slowing further degeneration and bringing a normal life back within reach.
We are in the midst of a fight to eradicate the flu. In the past when the medical field banded together they were able to develop a vaccine. With the medical advancements today the question of whether this can be done for lung disease is forthcoming and, by the looks of it, stem cells could play a starring role.