Solutions Integrated Medicine Blog

     Osteoarthritis is the wear and tear of the cartilage in between your joints and is the most common reason for total hip and knee replacements. This process also occurs in the spine and is called degenerative disc disease. Misalignments in your spine cause uneven wear and tear on the discs making them degenerate faster. When discs deteriorate, they lose height and leave less room for sensitive nerve tissue, causing pain and loss of function from pinched nerves. Unfortunately, disc degeneration is permanent, however there are numerous things you can do to help combat this problem or at least slow it down. Keep reading to learn why the type of chiropractic care we offer at Solutions is the best way to manage degenerative disc disease.

     A study performed on whiplash patients 17 years after the accident and found 55% still suffered from pain caused by the original trauma.”(1) Perhaps the main reason for this is misdiagnosis. This problem is rampant for auto accident injuries causing patients to suffer longer than necessary and end up with lasting residual symptoms. When doctors fail to pinpoint exactly which ligaments in the spine are damaged, their treatment will miss important aspects of the patient’s condition. For example, if damage to the supportive ligaments is missed, they deteriorate and create spinal instability, a permanent source of future pain and problems. At Solutions, we see terrific results very quickly with most car accident injuries because we diagnose ALL the spinal ligaments, so nothing is missed. 

     Most patients facing joint replacement are focused on feeling better, however it seems few are aware of the high potential for risks. A 2020 study in the British Medical Journal showed complication rates for total hip and total knee replacements as 39.7% and 53.6% respectively (1). Previous studies showed risks for certain very common complications to be as high as 62%. Complications include infection, incorrect fit, prosthetic rejection and thrombosis.

     When evaluating low back pain, we always include a study of the arches in the feet. The arches are the foundation for the structure of the body. If they break down, they create a domino effect that leads to problems in other joints and contribute to early deterioration. In nearly all the low back pain cases we have success with at Solutions, orthotic arch supports are an important aspect of the treatment outcome. Custom arch supports are not just helpful for spinal problems, they also play a crucial role in our treatment of knees, hips and even shoulders. Read more about how caring for the arches in your feet can have a positive effect on the whole body, improves balance and helps prevent joint degeneration here.

     If you have a slow healing wound, you need every advantage. The longer a wound takes to heal, the greater the chances for infection. This is a very common in patients who have neuropathy from diabetes or chronic pinched nerves in the back. In these patients, if a wound is taking longer than 30 days to heal, it should be evaluated for advanced care. Treatment often consists of medication plus aggressively keeping the wound clean, moist and debrided. Despite this, 80% of lower extremity amputations are performed on patients with diabetes, most of which following a diabetic foot sore (1). Keep reading to learn why traditional treatment is losing the battle of wound care and how what we’re doing at Solutions is turning the tide … read more here

     Many people lose height as they age; the average loss is 1 to 3 inches! How much you lose is dependent on a combination of factors. These include loss of disc height, compression fractures, spinal curvatures, dropped arches in the feet and loss of cartilage in other weight bearing joints (feet, ankles, knees and hips). Besides trauma/fractures, most of this occurs because of deterioration of the joints associated with osteoarthritis. These changes to our body’s structure are permanent and nearly inevitable as we age. But there are a number of things you can do to greatly slow this process down. Keep reading for some helpful tips about how to keep your joints and spine healthy and your posture upright to keep walking tall here….

     Many patients neglect their nutrition and this can have a huge impact on how much better they get from regenerative therapy. Regenerative medicine stimulates the body to repair and replace damaged tissue with new healthy cells. The food you eat while you’re undergoing treatment is what provides the building blocks your body uses to make the new tissue. If the only fuel you put in your machine is junk that's laden with fat, salt and sugar, you're missing the bus. If you’re considering regenerative medicine (or currently under therapy), keep reading this post for some important tips on what foods to eat and what to stay away from to get the most out of your program. 

     At Solutions, we treat many different types of conditions that require various different treatments. While some patients need regenerative medicine, others chiropractic, orthotics, bracing, etc., the most common thread is rehab. Rehabilitation therapy is rarely the main treatment at our office, but we recommend it as an important secondary for nearly every patient. For patients getting regenerative medicine treatments, rehab can be critical for getting the most out of their therapy. To find out why and how you can get more out of your treatments by going thru the right course of rehab, read more here.

     For heel spur sufferers, every step can feel like there’s a nail poking into your foot. A heel spur is a sharp bony protrusion on the bottom of the heel bone caused by a calcium deposit. For severe cases, surgery is available however a last option as most heel spurs respond to conservative treatment methods (1). Despite its obvious appearance on x-ray, sometimes finding the real cause of the pain can be tricky, as there may be several causes other than the spike in your heel. If you suffer with pain from a heel spur, it’s important you go to a doctor who’s well trained in the most effective natural methods for treating this problem. There are several and we practice all of them at Solutions Integrated Medicine. 

     It’s frustrating when an MRI fails to show what’s wrong with the patient. Sometimes the patient has all the signs and symptoms of a disc problem, but the MRI comes back negative! This is confusing to doctors and can complicate legal cases. Many times the reason for the negative test is because the patient’s pain is coming from damage to the other ligaments of the spine; which unfortunately are not visible with MRI. When the supportive ligaments of the spine are damaged, it causes spinal instability, a condition with symptoms nearly indistinguishable from disc. So it’s no wonder MRI are recommended so often, however may sometimes miss the mark for the real cause of the patient’s pain. If you don’t want to hit or miss with expensive MRI’s, try taking motion x-rays first! Read more about saving money and reducing recovery time with a simple x-ray test here.