Dr. Seth Labott D.C.
Spinal Disc Specialist

I think most of my wellness colleagues would agree, as much as we would like it to be otherwise, most of our patients seek us out for some type of pain or health concern. The majority of people do not seek out chiropractic to enhance optimum health and wellness. Yes, some people will find their way to chiropractic for peak performance and wellness, however most are motivated by pain. 

What I try to educate my patients about is that pain is actually a healthy process.  It is the body waking us up to the fact that some sort of action needs to be taken.  Sometimes that means a change in lifestyle or to just simply slow down.  Sometimes it means there is a serious problem that needs to be addressed.  When pain is ignored or masked by drugs for too long this ultimately hampers the healing process. 

I see it every day, pain can be absolutely debilitating.  Just recently I saw a woman that presented with neck and arm pain of massive severity.  This intermittant pain started as a nagging ache for the last several years. Then it porgressed to shoulder pain.  Then it progressed to numbness.  Eventaully after 15 years of some level of discomfort she lost strenghth in her arm.  She was in tears and described how her life had been robbed from her due to the constant debilitating pain she was experiencing.  She had been to two different surgeons.  One who offered a  corticosteroid injection and the other who offered another injection and or surgery. When visiting a medical doctor usually the first line or treatment for cervical radiculopathy due to a cervical herniated disc is generally a couple days of rest and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). If the pain is severe and/or continues for more than a couple of weeks, oral steroids can be useful to decrease inflammation. Oral narcotic agents are sometimes added for severe pain.

It is my belief that masking of the pain with drugs will just prolong the inevitable.  At some point one will have to address the root cause of the problem and look to correct, strengthen and rehabilitate the spine. 

Her mother had experienced this same problem, had multiple surgeries and now is still suffering still worse pain. She was determined to find an alternative treatment method; terrified that her fate would be similar to her struggling mother.

This patient arrived to my office with MRI in hand that described multiple levels of degenerative disc disease along with cervical disc herniations.  This was causing cervical radiculopathy which caused numbness and weakness in her arm.  She was dropping things frequently and was losing hope she would ever regain strength in her arm.  Traditional Chiropractic can often help patients with this presentation however, she did not respond with a valiant attempt by another chiropractor.  We decided to treat her with our DRX 9000c Non-Surgical Spinal Decompression Machine.  For many people with cervical radiculopathy Non-Surgical Spinal Decompression is a very affective treatment modality when other methods have failed.

After a couple weeks of care the numbness in her arm subsided and she began to regain her grip strength.  She then initiated a chiropractic care plan to keep her spine moving properly and to release spinal stress. Motion is life. When the body gets stuck and ceases to move properly then it starts to compress and degeneration occurs. We then educated our patient on how to make the necessary ergonomic changes in her everyday life to avoid further taxing her frame. We also taught her how to effectively stretch, elongate and strengthen her spine.  The body has an incredible ability to heal given the right environment.

If you or someone you know is suffering neck and arm pain due to a cervical herniated disc, Non-Surgical Spinal Decompression with the DRX 9000c might be the answer.  We offer complimentary consultations. Check us out at marinspine.com or call 415.398.1145 for more information.