July 2021 Healthy News from Dr. Butwell
Distraction and Patient Education and Exercise
Hip and knee osteoarthritis are known and growing concerns as our society ages…around the world. Today, Canada is evaluating 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 improved 8-12%, chair standability improved 18-30%, and joint-related quality of life improved 12-26%. (2) (Another study utilized MRI to determine the thickness of knee joint cartilage after distracting the knee joint to find that it thickened with treatment bringing about 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 described the benefit of his treatment using Cox® flexion-distraction-principle-based distraction to the osteoarthritic knee, and the success he has witnessed in his patients. Inclusively (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 decreased from 8.1 to 1.1 in 4.8 treatments in 2.4 weeks. Chronic patients’ scores reduced from 7.5 to 2.2 in 3.3 weeks and 5.4 treatments. (4) Chiropractors like yours at Dr. Butwell 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 Georgetown osteoarthritis of the hip and knee!
HOPE FOR DEGENERATED DISCS: Chondroitin Sulfate
Back pain treatment approaches from surgery to manual therapy to exercise to nutrition abound while back pain endures. Injecting hyaluronic acid hydrogel is showing some promise as it is shown to restrain the loss of disc height, stimulate tissue hydration for disc repair, and lower 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 known, two key components being chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan and hyaluronan. Making chondroitin sulfate available to the disc plus 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 including it in your daily supplements? Consider adding a disc supplement containing chondroitin sulfate to your routine after we talk. Dr. Butwell is ready!
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. James Cox on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he presents research on the part chondroitin sulfate plays in the health, degeneration and potential regeneration of the intervertebral disc and in the Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management.
CONTACT Dr. Butwell
Schedule your next Georgetown chiropractic appointment with Dr. Butwell. See you then!