Dr. Butwell Sees Disc Disease in Young People
“You’re young! You don’t have to worry about back pain.” Not true! New research confirms young and old alike must deal with disc degeneration. Most of us will personally have to face disc degeneration’s pain at some point in our lives…or help a loved one dealing with its back pain or neck pain complications. Dr. Butwell is here for young and old alike when Georgetown disc degeneration interferes with your life.
DDD STARTS EARLIER THAN ONCE THOUGHT
It is hard to believe, but it’s documented in the medical literature. Disc degeneration starts in the late teens! A study of 18-20 year old healthy air force cadets found that 77% had13 disc degeneration or disc herniation. (1) That’s a new revelation! It’s been documented elsewhere that disc degeneration begins at age 20. Now it’s shown to appear in 18 year olds! In this study MRIs were done on all cadets. They all reported no spine pain. The MRIs revealed that: 30% showed at least one disc’s dehydrating, 13% disc narrowing, 49% disc bulging, 18% disc protruding, 8% disc extruding, 13% with spondylolisthesis, and less than 1% even showed asymptomatic vertebral fractures. These findings in young, seemingly healthy people are similar to what would be expected in adults. (1) It is never too early to start paying attention to the spine! Dr. Butwell takes care of spines at all ages via spinal manipulation, nutrition and exercise.
WHY?
Researchers (and parents) ask “why?” Why does lumbar spine disc degeneration or cervical spine disc degeneration start so young? It may be genetic. 80% of patients in a recent study had mutations in their collagen-encoding genes. Collagen is vital to disc and joint health. Lumbar disc herniation patients showed two variants in their gene encoding for aggrecan, a protein that the end plate depends on for load-bearing. Such a mutation influences the nucleus pulposus, annulus fibrosus and end plates. (2) Of course, the whole story of why a disc degenerates isn’t fully known yet. Dr. Butwell does have ways to restrain and relieve the pain of a Georgetown degenerated disc.
INTERRUPTING DISC DEGENERATION, PROMOTING DISC REGENERATION
Researchers described disc degeneration as a complex connection of mechanical, biochemical, and structural changes at the cellular level, cells that exist in an abnormal mechanical environment. Regeneration of such cells would require very specific conditions and would not always be possible. However, traction of 2 to 6 weeks was found to be a sensitive time for regeneration of a degenerated disc. The researchers suggest that this could interrupt the above explained cascade of changes. (3) Dr. Butwell uses Cox® Technic to gently create a positive environment for the healing of degenerated discs by increasing the area of the spinal canal by 28%, increasing the height of the disc by 17%, and decreasing intradiscal pressures to as low as -192mmHg in the low back and dropping pressures in the cervical spine by a mean pressure as much as 1265 mmHg. (4,5) Dr. Butwell enhances the Cox® Technic system of spinal pain management by adding spinal nutrition (especially disc nutrition supplementation) and exercise to boost the relief and clinical outcome for Georgetown back pain patients.
CONTACT Dr. Butwell
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Paxton Schofield on The Back Doctors’ Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson who presented his care of arthritis and degeneration with Cox® Technic.
Schedule your Georgetown chiropractic appointment at Dr. Butwell for your spine’s health. You may not be as young as you think for back pain, and you are certainly not too young to look after your spine. A Georgetown chiropractic treatment plan of spinal manipulation, nutrition and exercise can benefit all ages of back pain and neck pain sufferers struggling with disc degeneration.
