Hey ya’ll!  This week is big as I enter clinic, tomorrow!!  This has been after 2 years of grueling academics and learning many of the daunting facts that I need to know as a doctor. Now its FINALLY time to apply these facts to so many patients and people who just want to feel better and get back to their lives and have found that chiropractic can help.

Now one of the most common complaints to walk into a chiropractic office is back pain. Many of the times this back pain is caused by a disc herniation. Now this may sound horrible, but it is SO COMMON!!!  There are hundreds of thousands of people walking around with disc herniations that cause them no disability, no problems, no pain. They don’t even know about these unless they are found by accident! But, when they do cause pain, WOW. From local back pain to the characteristic “pain shooting down the leg” is horrific. It can ruin someone’s ability to live, even if temporarily and cause so much fear and anxiety about the future.

Chiropractic and other conservative management has been very effective in the treatment of disc herniations, especially those in the lower back. One recent study took a total of 277,941 people with disc herniations and found that 97% successfully were treated conservatively and avoided surgery. The last 3% were able to manage their symptoms with surgery. This is amazing news for all those with disc herniations and for students like me who are learning so many ways to help these people!  I can’t wait to start this week and help patients realize that they are able to avoid surgery and its complications and gain their lives back with my help.