July 2021 Healthy News from OrthoIllinois Chiropractic
Distraction and Patient Education and Exercise
Knee and hip osteoarthritis 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) One GLAD study had patients attend 2-3 patient education classes and 12 supervised exercise sessions over the course of 8 weeks, patients’ pain intensity got better by 26-33%, walking speed improved 8-12%, chair standability got better by 18-30%, and joint-related quality of life got better by 12-26%. (2) (Another study utilized 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 performed with young people, but there is hope!) Back in 2017, a Canadian chiropractor published a paper describing his utilization of Cox® flexion-distraction-principle-based distraction to the osteoarthritic knee, and the success he has witnessed in his patients. Overall (acute and chronic patients together), patients related a mean visual analog scale score decrease from 7.7 to 1.8 in 3 weeks and 5.3 treatments. Acute knee OA patients’ scores dropped from 8.1 to 1.1 in 4.8 treatments in 2.4 weeks. Chronic patients’ scores dropped from 7.5 to 2.2 in 3.3 weeks and 5.4 treatments. (4) Chiropractors like yours at OrthoIllinois Chiropractic 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 McHenry osteoarthritis of the hip and knee!
HOPE FOR DEGENERATED DISCS: Chondroitin Sulfate
Back pain treatment approaches be they surgical, exercise, nutrition, and/or manual therapy based flourish while back pain continues. Injecting hyaluronic acid hydrogel is showing some promise as it seems to suppress the loss of disc height, stimulate tissue hydration for disc repair, and reduce inflammation and innervation to prevent more disc degeneration. (5) The nutritional approach continues to show promise for back pain sufferers as the disc matrix components are identified, two central ones being chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan and hyaluronan. Making chondroitin sulfate available to the disc in addition to controlling the hydrostatic pressure of the disc is beneficial. (6) Cox® Technic is documented to decrease intradiscal pressure, so mixing it with chondroitin sulfate may be, too. Are you taking yours? You may want to think about adding a disc supplement that has chondroitin sulfate to your schedule after we talk. OrthoIllinois Chiropractic 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.
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Schedule your next McHenry chiropractic appointment with OrthoIllinois Chiropractic. See you then!