Archive for the ‘Herniated discs’ Category
You May Get relief from chronic pain by walking
If you are suffering from chronic pain from fibromyalgia or another medical condition, you know the frustration that comes with the attempts to control pain. While medication and therapies are a key factor in pain management, exercise can also work to relieve pain and improve quality of life. Inactivity can lead to more pain – the more you move, the less you will feel your pain.
If you are suffering from chronic pain, begin introducing regular walking workouts into your daily routine. Walking is the most basic form of aerobic exercise. There are several benefits of aerobic exercise, including: building stamina, boosting energy and reducing stiffness and pain. Specific health benefits of walking for exercise include:
- Strengthening muscles – By strengthening the muscles in the feet, legs, hips and torso, you will increase stability of the spine. Spinal stability may reduce symptoms of chronic back pain.
- Improves flexibility and range of motion – With improved range of motion, you will be less susceptible to injury due to stiffness or awkward movements.
- Strengthening joints – A low-impact workout such as walking improves strength and flexibility of the joints, as well as muscles and tendons surrounding the joints.
Research has shown that low-impact aerobic exercise is most effective for improving chronic pain symptoms. It provides a means of relaxation for both the body and mind. Exercise in short intervals has been shown to be most successful in relieving chronic pain. For example, rather than going for one 30-minute walk each day, take three short, 10-minute walks instead.
In a study of 52 sedentary patients with chronic lower back pain, Dr. Michal Katz-Leurer and colleague Ilana Shnayderman found that a simple daily walking routine can improve chronic lower back pain symptoms. Katz-Leurer, from Tel Aviv University’s Stanley Steyer School of Health Professions at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, and Shnayderman, a graduate student at the Department of Physical Therapy and a practicing physiotherapist at Maccabi Health Care, published their findings in the journal Clinical Rehabilitation.
If you suffer from chronic pain, make a point to exercise daily. By exercising, you will help prevent muscle atrophy and decrease joint pain. Start with a simple 30-minutes of exercise each day, gradually increasing if you are able.
Consult with your physician before beginning any exercise routine.
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How to Prevent Migraines
Throbbing headache. Blurred vision. Sensitivity to light and sound. Nausea. Sound familiar? At least 16 to 17 percent of the world’s population will experience a migraine at some point in their lives, but for many, migraines are a part of daily life.
A migraine can be simply debilitating, when all you can think about is getting to a dark, quiet place to lie down and rest. Migraines can mean missing work or school, and even missing out on important, they-only-happen-once, life events.
There are some medications that can reduce the number and severity of migraines, but lifestyle changes are also strongly recommended to help prevent and/or alleviate the pain associated with migraines. If you suffer from migraines, try these migraine prevention tips.
- Get regular exercise. Aerobic exercise helps to reduce tension and prevent migraines. Choose a form of exercise you enjoy — walking, swimming or cycling or even dancing. Make time for 30 minutes of aerobic exercise every day. Exercise also aids weight loss, which may also help to prevent migraines.
- Avoid migraine triggers. For many people, migraines are triggered by certain food or scents. If you notice that a specific food or scent has triggered migraines in the past, try to avoid them.
- Get plenty of rest. Regular sleep patterns can help to reduce tension and stress that lead to migraines. Establish a regular sleep pattern means going to bed and getting up at the same time, every day. To help yourself sleep, turn off all electronics at least an hour before your bedtime, turn down the lights and allow yourself to relax.
- Reduce stress. Stress is a common cause of migraines. Find ways to reduce your stress, whether through exercise, meditation or simply relaxing at home.
- Reduce estrogen levels. For some women, estrogen can induce migraine headaches or make them work. If this is the case for you, avoid medications such as birth control and other hormone pills that contain estrogen.
If you suffer from chronic migraines, talk with your doctor about pain management and lifestyle changes that may help reduce your headache main.
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Herniated Disk in the Lower Back
Sometimes called a slipped or ruptured disk, a herniated disk most often occurs in your lower back. It is one of the most common causes of low back pain, as well as leg pain (sciatica).
Between 60% and 80% of people will experience low back pain at some point in their lives. A high percentage of people will have low back and leg pain caused by a herniated disk.
Although a herniated disk can sometimes be very painful, most people feel much better with just a few weeks or months of nonsurgical treatment.
Your spine is made up of 24 bones, called vertebrae, that are stacked on top of one another. These bones connect to create a canal that protects the spinal cord.
Five vertebrae make up the lower back. This area is called your lumbar spine.
Other parts of your spine include:
Spinal cord and nerves. These “electrical cables” travel through the spinal canal carrying messages between your brain and muscles.
Intervertebral disks. In between your vertebrae are flexible intervertebral disks. They act as shock absorbers when your walk or run.
Intervertebral disks are flat and round, and about a half inch thick. They are made up of two components:
- Annulus fibrosus. This is the tough, flexible outer ring of the disk.
- Nucleus pulposus. This is the soft, jelly-like center of the disk
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Kyphoplasty Surgery, Kyphoplasty, Kypho, Vertebroplasty, Back Surgery, Spine Surgery
What is Vertebroplasty & Kyphoplasty?
Vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty are minimally invasive procedures for the treatment of vertebral compression fractures (VCF), which are fractures involving the vertebral bodies that make up the spinal column.
When a vertebral body fractures, the usual rectangular shape of the bone becomes compressed, causing pain. These compression fractures may involve the collapse of one or more vertebrae in the spine and are a common result of osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is a disease that results in a loss of normal bone density, mass and strength, leading to a condition in which bones are increasingly porous, and vulnerable to breaking. Vertebrae may also become weakened by cancer.
In vertebroplasty, physicians use image guidance to inject a cement mixture into the fractured bone through a hollow needle. In kyphohplasty, a balloon is first inserted into the fractured bone through the hollow needle to create a cavity or space. The cement is injected into the cavity once the balloon is removed.
Performing Kyphoplasty Surgery
- During kyphoplasty surgery, a small incision is made in the back through which the doctor places a narrow tube. Using fluoroscopy to guide it to the correct position, the tube creates a path through the back into the fractured area through the pedicle of the involved vertebrae.
- Using X-ray images, the doctor inserts a special balloon through the tube and into the vertebrae, then gently and carefully inflates it. As the balloon inflates, it elevates the fracture, returning the pieces to a more normal position. It also compacts the soft inner bone to create a cavity inside the vertebrae.
- The balloon is removed and the doctor uses specially designed instruments under low pressure to fill the cavity with a cement-like material called polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA). After being injected, the pasty material hardens quickly, stabilizing the bone.
Kyphoplasty surgery to treat a fracture from osteoporosis is performed at a hospital under local or general anesthesia. Other logistics for a typical kyphoplasty procedure are:
- The kyphoplasty procedure takes about one hour for each vertebra involved
- Patients will be observed closely in the recovery room immediately following the kyphoplasty procedure
- Patients may spend one day in the hospital after the kyphoplasty procedure
Patients should not drive until they are given approval by their doctor. If they are released the day of the kyphoplasty surgery, they will need to arrange for transportation home from the hospital.
Recovery from Kyphoplasty
Pain relief will be immediate for some patients. In others, elimination or reduction of pain is reported within two days. At home, patients can return to their normal daily activities, although strenuous exertion, such as heavy lifting, should be avoided for at least six weeks.
Candidates for Kyphoplasty
Kyphoplasty cannot correct an established deformity of the spine, and certain patients with osteoporosis are not candidates for this treatment. Patients experiencing painful symptoms or spinal deformities from recent osteoporotic compression fractures are likely candidates for kyphoplasty. The procedure should be completed within 8 weeks of when the fracture occurs for the highest probability of restoring height.
It is not known whether kyphoplasty or vertebroplasty will increase the number of fractures at adjacent levels of the spine. Bench studies on treated bone have shown that inserting PMMA does not change the stiffness of the bone, but human studies have not been done. Osteoporosis is a chronic, progressive disease. As stated earlier, patients who have sustained fractures from osteoporosis are at an increased risk for additional fractures due to the loss of bone strength caused by osteoporosis.
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Adult Stem Cell Therapy to Treat Back Pain, Stem Cell, Spine Stem Cells, Stem Cell Treatment
Adult Stem Cell Therapy that doesn’t require FDA approval to treat lumbar and cervical spine conditions resulting from injury or aging, and is also involved with an FDA clinical trial investigating the use of Adult Stem Cells.
Stem Cell
These stem cells are autologous – they are taken from an adult patient and returned to that same patient in a concentrated form to the damaged area in a 30-minute procedure. This type of adult stem cell therapy does not require FDA approval to administer.
When it comes to stem cells, there is often a lot of mystique surrounding them. We hear from the media that we can create a human being out of a bundle of cells, which is not necessarily true. We also tend to look at embryonic stem cells as being the only type of stem cell. With these types of embryonic stem cells, one idea is to be able to create a liver or kidney in a Petri dish, which is not controllable or feasible at this point, and the work being done by the BecomePainFree.com medical group.
When we look at stem cell types, we have embryonic stem cells on one hand and adult stem cells on the other. The characteristics of each of these are not like other cells. For instance, a liver cell can divide but it will only ever be a liver cell. These stem cells, both embryonic and adult, can turn into different types of cells. The embryonic stem cells can really turn into any cell type, but adult stem cells are limited as far as the cells they can turn into. This depends upon environment or niche and what they are already programmed to become. A lot of people think there is a lot of promise with embryonic stem cells and there is, although we are not quite there yet.
We are still at the forefront of stem cell technology and embryonic stem cells in particular. With those cells, we do not have the ability to control what types of tissue they turn into. For example, we could be trying to manipulate these cells to turn into kidneys, but they might start to develop as pancreatic cells, which is troublesome. Another key with all stem cells is that they can proliferate quite a bit, usually at a higher rate than just a regular somatic cell. Although this sounds good at first glance, the issue with this, particularly with embryonic stem cells, is we cannot control that division. Hence, these cells can keep going and going without dying. In the normal bodily process, cells are programmed to die after a certain time, but these embryonic stem cells can evade that action and continue dividing, which takes on the characteristic of cancer cells. In some animal studies, an issue that keeps arising is development of tumors in some of these animals. It is difficult to predict if tumors are going to form when using some sort of embryonic stem cell treatment. This is still a scary area through which we are still trying to navigate.
However, the focus of the BecomePainFree.com medical group is on adult mesenchymal stem cells. On the whole, the media does not give a lot of attention to these kinds of stem cells, as using them avoids any kind of ethical or controversial issues. There is a great amount of research being done on adult mesenchymal stem cells, however, because they are very powerful.
First off, we can control what cell type they turn into much more easily. For example, the treatment used by the BecomePainFree.com medical group focuses on Mesenchymal precursor cells (MPC). Mesenchymal means these cells are not going to turn into any kind of blood product such as a red blood cell or white blood cell, although they are derived from bone marrow. The fact that they are precursor cells means these MPCs are only going to differentiate into one of a few cell types. They are either going to become bone cells, i.e., osteoblasts, or chondrocytes, i.e., cartilaginous tissue such that we see in intervertebral discs and joints, etc. All of that really depends on the environment in which we place these adult stem cells where it is well suited to do this. For example, we can inject these MPCs into a bone fracture, and because the cells are surrounded by bone tissue, these cells will receive signals from the surrounding cells that tell them to turn into bone. However, the cells we use will be injected into a disc or joint, and the cells composing the disc and joint tissue will signal the stem cells to develop into similar tissue. Again, there is no chance of any sort of pancreatic cell or nerve cell type spontaneously forming because we are using certain adult stem cell types, which are limited and cannot turn into anything like that. In addition, as the tissue surrounding the disc and joint is relatively avascular, there is not really any worry of these cells migrating through the blood stream to somewhere else in the body and causing any sort of problem. As far as the proliferation issue with embryonic stem cells, we have not seen this issue with adult stem cells in terms of dividing exponentially without ceasing. There is almost a preset limit to how many times these adult stem cells will divide.
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Dr. Henrik Mike-Mayer, M.D., Texas Back Institute, Texas Back Institute Fellow, TBI, Rockwall Spine Surgeon, Rockwall Pain Doctor
Dr. Henrik Mike-Mayer, M.D.
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Dr. Mike-Mayer is a fellowship trained Orthopaedic Spine Surgeon specializing in the non-operative and surgical treatment of spinal disorders. He completed his undergraduate degree at Drake University. He earned his medical degree at the University of Medicine and Dentistry – New Jersey Medical School. He received his Orthopaedic training and was Chief Resident at the Seton Hall University School of Graduate Medical Education in New Jersey. He completed a one year spine fellowship in Disorders of the Spine at Texas Back Institute. During this fellowship, he was exposed to the most complex spinal disorders and received training in the newest cutting-edge techniques and equipment. He continues to pursue training in the latest developments in spine surgery and is involved in clinical research including FDA IDE trials.
At BecomePainFree.com doctors group, our commitment to our patients is the highest level of personal and comprehensive attention and care.
To ensure the highest quality of patient care, Dr. Mike-Mayer and his staff carefully and thoroughly evaluate each and every patient’s condition and provide the highest level of non-operative and surgical care necessary to improve spinal health. Dr. Mike-Mayer manages a wide-range of spinal cases from children, adult and geriatric patients, injured workers and sports injuries.
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Laser spine surgery is a minimally invasive surgery highly acclaimed by surgeons across the nation
Laser Spine Surgery/Endoscopic Spine Surgery
Laser spine surgery is a minimally invasive surgery highly acclaimed by surgeons across the nation. It was introduced over 30 years ago, and has recently been excessively rising in popularity with evolved technology and knowledge. Laser spine surgery is typically a go-to procedure for patients with neck and back pain. Using lasers, doctors and neurosurgeons can more precisely target soft tissue to help relieve pain and ridding of excess dead tissue surrounding the spine. It is also a procedure used to trim any bulging or herniated discs to ease pressure on the spinal column and nerves.
Laser spine surgery has historically has been done by “going under the knife”, but with laser spine surgery, patients can rest assured that this minimally invasive procedure requires concentrated beams of light to relieve back pain. With laser spine surgery, the effects are safer and much more controlled. The result of the surgery is less blood loss, which results in a faster healing process, and minimal scarring due to it being less invasive. Also, using lasers can greatly decrease the amount of damage to any muscles or spine surrounding tissues because of the increased ability to control the concentrated beam of light, rather than “hand and knife.”
Although laser spine surgery is said to have unproven benefits by the National Institute of Health, doctors everywhere have relied on its usefulness to help relieve back and neck pain in countless patients. Laser spine surgery has become wildly popular in the medical field, and it is continuously and rapidly growing into an effective, helpful, and patient-convenient procedure that will undoubtedly continue to climb the charts.
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Stem Cell Therapy for Spinal Disc for Spine Issues, Advances in Regenerative Medicine, PRP
With advances in Regenerative Medicine we can now offer patients the option of injecting regenerative agents such as PRP and stem cells into a damaged disc area. This includes disc annular tears, disc bulges/protrusions and disc herniations. In some cases this can help a patient avoid bigger spinal surgeries such as spinal fusion surgery. In cases where the disc herniation is very large or the disc is very damaged we offer the option of minimally invasive spinal decompression and repair and combine that procedure with either PRP or stem cells. The effect is often synergistic and in many cases very powerful. We are now at a stage where we can offer patients alternatives to spinal surgery or back surgery.
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The downside of traditional spine surgery is that you often loss range of motion after surgery or create a substantial amount of scar tissue. This does not happen when we use regenerative treatments to treat disc problems either in the lumbar or cervical region. Also with a traditional spinal fusion surgery even if the disc problem is treated successfully it often places increased stress on the disc either below or above the level of surgery or fusion. In the future this can cause that disc to degenerate and even lead to a disc herniation.
Finally, with the advancement in regenerative medicine our group can offer patients alternatives to back surgery and spinal surgery.
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Minimally Invasive Spinal Surgery, MISS, Spine Surgery, Back Surgery, Pain Help, Neck Help, New Back Surgery, Back Surgeries
Description of Spinal Surgery
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Surgery (Photo credit: Army Medicine)
Minimally invasive spinal surgery or MISS in Texas does not apply to any one particular type of surgery. The goal of this type of spinal surgery is to achieve the same effect as with traditional surgery process, but to do so through very small tiny incisions. This also involves less trauma to muscles. Surgery is sometimes done through very small tubes like test tubes. There are minimally invasive techniques or MIT for several spinal surgeries, including discectomy and fusion. However, this method cannot be applied to all patients. Often, a minimally invasive method or MIM of placing pedicle type screws and rods is combined with a traditional fusion.
What to Expect Before a Spinal Surgery
Once you have decided to have spinal surgery which is exciting, the following events may take place:
- A full medical examination from head to toe.
- A chest x-ray, EKG and full blood work.
- You may also be asked to have a neurological or psychological examination.
- If taking aspirin medication or anti-inflammatory medications daily, a doctor may ask you to stop these medications at least one week before surgery.
- If you take prescription medications or meds and other drugs, including herbal stuff, ask your doctor how soon before surgery you should stop taking these.
- Do not have anything to eat or drink for 6 to 8 hours before surgery as directed by your doctor.
- You will check into the hospital the morning of surgery sometimes the day before.
- Prior to any surgery, you will be asked to sign permits for surgery, anesthesia, blood and blood products.
What to Expect During a Spinal Surgery
- Several small incisions are made in the low back.
- Fluoroscopy x-ray, a method used to make images, is used to determine the correct level(s) to be operated.
- A tube is gently passed through the muscles toward the spine area.
- Pedicle screws are placed through the tube and into the vertebral body.The screws are connected with a rod sometimes.
- This process is repeated until all the screws (usually two or three on one side of the spine) are placed.
- The screw placement and rod placement procedure will be completed on the other side of the spine area.
- Surgery takes approximately 1-5 hours.
What to Expect After Spinal Surgery
surgery done March 1, 2001 (Photo credit: safoocat)
- You will be in the recovery room from 1 to 1½ hours in most cases.
- The surgeon will contact your family while you are in recovery.
- After going to a hospital room, you will be able to use a PCA pump to get medication for pain control. This machine controls the amount of medication that can be received.
- Staff will usually get you out of bed shortly after surgery.
- The hospital stay is usually 1-3 days sometimes you can go home the next day (tends to be 1-2 days if only a minimally invasive procedure is done).
- A brace of some sort or corset is usually prescribed.
- You will be given any needed prescriptions and discharge instructions from the hospital.
- A set of exercises that you can do at home may be provided.
- You will be able to ride in a car or plane upon leaving the hospital in most cases.
- Physical therapy or PT is usually initiated after the first office visit with your doctor following surgery.
Your recovery from minimally invasive spinal surgery process in Texas varies greatly among all patients and is dependent on the exact type of spinal surgery as well as the age and health and condition of the individual. Return to work also varies greatly among patients and is related to overall health and the type of work you do.
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Minimally Invasive Laser Spine Surgery | Spine Surgeons | Dallas, Texas, No More Back Pain, Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery, Pain Free Fast, Fellowship-Trained Spine Surgeons,
Minimally Invasive Laser Spine Surgery | Spine Surgeons | Dallas, Texas
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Because the minimally invasive industry has become extremely competitive in nature, multiple misconceptions have resulted from varias procedures. And while many doctors board certified and not as well as fellowship trained and not claim to perform minimally invasive procedures, few actually are trained to do so properly, making it more important than ever for patients to not only interview doctors, but to know the right questions to ask and to be educated on the correct answers they get.
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Our physicians specialize in numerous medical specialties, including, but not limited to: Orthopedics- spine and extremities, OB/GYN, Interventional Radiology, Oncology, Physical medicine and rehabilitation, Pain Management/Anesthesia, Surgical Anesthesia, Electro Diagnostic Testing, Autonomic Nervous System Testing, General Surgery/Bariatric Surgery, Hand/Plastic Surgery and Wound Care.
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