"StandUpRight News" by Dr. Donaldson

Do You Need a Back Brace?

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Herniated Disc Doctor writes: A lumbar brace is a wrap-around or strap-on device that goes around the body to support the muscles and bony structures of the lower back. It may be called a lumbar brace, a belt or a corset. The purpose usually is to restrict the mobility of the spine. There are two basic kinds of braces, soft ones and rigid ones.

Soft braces are usually made of elastic or neoprene. They provide some degree of muscular support but mainly serve as a reminder to not move beyond a comfort range. They may help with better body mechanics and remind a person to stand upright but really do not aid in lifting ability or strength at all. People with arthritis or mild instability of the lower back may benefit from this type of brace.

Most spine problems are not the kind that need to be immobilized. The tissue heals better and faster with movement of the right kind. Excessive use of this soft type of brace does weaken the body's built-in muscular corset. We do not recommend the use of this type of brace for daily continuous use, even for weight-lifting. It may be used for specific tasks that may place you at risk of spinal injury by overloading the spine or putting you in a compromising position that might weaken your spine. Once that task is complete then the brace should be removed.

The rigid type of brace was made of plaster or stiff fiberglass in the past but modern ones are made of lighter materials like nylon, fiberglass and velcro. This allows greater comfort, better fit and adaptability.

There are certain circumstances when wearing a rigid belt is not only helpful but important. When the trunk musculature has been weakened to the point that it is unable to support the weight of the upper body, even normal motion can be damaging to the healing tissue. Immobilizing the spine becomes necessary until the muscles can regain enough strength and coordination to resume their normal role. We sometimes recommend the use of a rigid lumbar brace during the recovery period for people with herniated discs, degenerative discs or spinal stenosis in their lower spine.

While the brace can be uncomfortable or inconvenient, it is necessary to use for best healing. When you need it, you need it. And the time when you need it is when the spine needs to be immobilized to allow healing. Even in these cases the use of the brace should not be prolonged. Although a brace may require you to restrict some activities or form different habits, the support that a brace provides will speed your healing and may prevent further injury. It will be used during the treatment program and will be weaned when the muscle strength and coordination is rehabilitated.

So should you be wearing a brace?
The goal is to use the brace as little as possible but as much as is necessary. The muscles of the trunk are a built-in brace that makes the best support most of the time.  Adding an external brace to this complicates the motion pattern and may weaken the muscles. It is best in most cases to minimize the use of the brace so the muscles do not weaken.

Testing can show muscle weaknesses which can then be addressed. We will help determine if you will benefit from a brace and if so, which one. Then we will help you learn how to fit it comfortably and how to use it properly.

If you or someone you know has lower back pain, sciatica or a herniated disc, call us at (414) 355-0433 to schedule a Complimentary Consultation with Dr. Donaldson to find out if you qualify for one of our StandUpRight Spinal Disc Decompression programs or request an appointment online.

Is It Better To Rest Or To Exercise For Herniated Disc Pain?

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Herniated Disc Doctor writes: We hear this question a lot? Especially when people first come in. Some think that they are having a problem because they didn't exercise enough and want to start working-out right away. Some think they have been over-exercising and want to just stop all activity and lie around for a couple weeks.

When you start to feel better you become dangerous to yourself. You feel like getting back to doing the things that got you here in the first place.

The key is to avoid the extremes of both. Not too much, not too little. After fifteen minutes of immobility the tissue starts to stiffen up and you are more likely to re-injure yourself. After fifteen minutes of activity muscles may begin to fatigue and lose the ability to respond the the nerve trigger as rapidly as necessary and you may re-injure yourself by overloading the ligaments.

If you are wanting to rest, alternate between positions every fifteen minutes or so. Stand for a while, sit for a while, as you tolerate.  It is best to not remain doing any single activity or posture for long periods especially when you are really sore.

The things that will stress your spine the most are poor sitting posture and long periods of sitting, and the BLT. No, not the sandwich, but Bending Lifting and Twisting and especially combinations of those.

Just remember too little activity is just as damaging as too much.

If you or someone you know has lower back pain, sciatica or a herniated disc, call us at (414) 355-0433 to schedule a Complimentary Consultation with Dr. Donaldson to find out if you qualify for one of our StandUpRight Spinal Disc Decompression programs or request an appointment online.

Will Your Back Pain Be Healed by Taking Anti-Inflammatories?

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Herniated Disc Doctor writes: So your back starts to hurt. First thing you might do is take some ibuprofen or aspirin or other anti-inflammatory drug. The television commercials make it seem like the thing to do. But these drugs are not without well-documented risks. Is it really the right thing to do? Well, it depends on what you are trying to do and why?

If you are just trying to not deal with the pain, then it might do the trick. It might get rid of the pain. Good for now. And maybe good for a while. But then the pain comes back, so you do it again. And again. And again. Pretty soon you realize that it's not working this time.

Will Non-Surgical Disc Decompression Help Heal My Disc Herniation?

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Herniated Disc Doctor writes: Sometimes back pain seems like it goes on forever. It can be pretty scary wondering about your future. "What if I continue to get worse? What if my sciatic leg pain never goes away? Will I ever be able to get back to a normal life again?"

Some things never can get better. A piece of steak never turns back into a cow's leg. Humpty-Dumpty couldn't be put back together again. Done is done.

But the good thing about living things is they have the capacity to heal. Healing means repair and replacement of diseased, broken or failing tissue. Living things heal, dead things don't. So even the disc can heal. Slowly. And under the right conditions. But the tissue does have living cells that are able to repair and replace damaged tissue.

Spinal X-rays – The Missed Opportunity?

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Herniated Disc Doctor writes:

"I had x-rays and MRIs and they say nothing is wrong except arthritis."

"My doctor says my insurance company tells him I don't need x-rays of my back and that I should just take these drugs and my back pain would go away. Well, it didn’t. My back keeps hurting and all they do is keep giving me drugs. What’s wrong?"

 

Both of these stories point out the missed opportunity of spinal x-rays.

 

Sometimes people come to us with page after page of x-ray, CT and MRI reports and still have never had a good explanation of why they have not gotten any better. On the other hand we see people come to us with long-standing back pain that they can't get rid of and who have never been x-rayed. Some insurance companies refuse to pay for x-rays in the first thirty days, yet Medicare thinks the x-ray is important.

 

So what is the proper use of x-rays for back pain?

Will Walking Help My Herniated Disc?

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Herniated Disc Doctor writes:

Walking is not always the best exercise.

If you can't do any other exercise you can always walk, right? It's symmetrical, it's low impact, it can increase your aerobic capacity and burn calories, plus you get to enjoy being outside in the air and sunshine.

But there are people for whom walking might not be the best. It might actually do more harm than good, especially if you have a herniated disc in your back.

Help Your Child Avoid a Herniated Disc

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Herniated Disc Doctor writes:

Children don't need any more problems than they already have. And the last thing a child needs is a herniated disc problem. It can ruin some of the best years of a person's life. It is known that the risk of having back pain as an adult increases when a person experiences lower back pain as a child.

Years ago when computers first came into daily use we thought that by today we'd live in a "paperless society." But now when children have computers at school, computers at home, even computers in their hands, you'd think that text books would be obsolete and all they'd have to carry back and forth to school would be their lunch. That's waaaaay not true. Every year it seems like the backpacks get heavier instead of lighter.

Healing After a Herniated Disc Takes More Than Just a Core Exercise Program

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Sciatica Doctor writes:

Finally. A day without leg pain!

So you've overcome that nasty sciatica. No more shooting pain into your leg whenever you hit a bump while driving your car. No more having to drag yourself home after work and lie on the floor all night just to find a bit of relief. Maybe you can even stop the medication that knocks you out and constipates you for days on end.

The worst thing in the world would be for the pain to come back once you have had some relief. Sure, you are happy that you feel better. That's a good first step. But getting the pain reduced is only one step toward solving the problem that caused the pain in the first place. So let the healing begin.

Whether the direct cause of your sciatic nerve pain is a herniated disc, spinal stenosis, facet syndrome or piriformis syndrome, as the nerve pain begins to lessen you need to be paying close attention to your lifestyle so you can change the habits that got you into such a condition.

Mind Over Disc

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Sciatic Pain Doctor writes:

The other day while my daughter was at work, I changed the burned out headlight in her car. I left the dead bulb on the passenger seat just like the real car mechanics do. When she got into the car after work she was able to see that there was a dead bulb there. The new bulb worked. The old one didn't.

Seeing the dead bulb lying on her seat did not affect the performance of the new bulb. The new one shined just as bright as if she had not seen the dead one lying there. 

Apparently people aren't like lightbulbs.

Turn Your Bad Back Into a Good Back

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Bad Back Doctor writes:
You didn't start out with a bad back. In fact you didn't start with a back at all, not even a front! You started out round...as just a single cell. So there wasn't a front or a back. 

Everything that is you developed from that one cell. And through the miracle of life, that one cell became two, then four, then eight and on and on and on... until organs formed and you became recognizably human.

Of course you probably don't remember much about when you were one cell. But at some instant you became aware that there was something happening around you that you didn't cause, and likewise, that you could have an effect on your environment that persisted over time.