|
Five Medical Conditions You Believe
You Have…
But DON’T!
How Prolotherapy Can Help You Overcome Pain
from These
“Pseudo-conditions”
Ross Hauser, M.D.
The top five conditions I will describe today do exist for some people,
but most people who come to Caring Medical with these diagnoses do not
have these conditions at all. That is one of the reasons they have not
experienced pain relief, because the doctors they saw were likely
treating the wrong conditions. I hope to convince you as to why I
believe the diagnoses are wrong and how
Prolotherapy can help you and
others who have been diagnosed with these conditions. I will start with
#1, which I believe is the number 1 diagnosed, and if I may call it
this, “bogus” diagnosis.
#1:
Degenerative Disc Disease
#2
Sciatica
#3 Lumbar
Radiculopathy
#4 Pyriformis Syndrome
#5 Fibromyalgia
Most people who come to me for low back or
neck pain
truly believe that it is their degenerative disc disease that is causing
the problem. Since everyone has degenerative disc disease by the age of
40, this can’t be the cause of the pain, since almost everyone at the
age of the 40 has no neck or back pain. Honestly, degenerative disc
disease even shows up in teenagers. Did you know that the most common
reason that discs show up as degenerated on
MRI’s
and CT Scans is dehydration? The discs are very sensitive to
dehydration. Since most of us don’t drink enough water, is it any wonder
that so many people show up as having degenerative disc disease?
Why do you think so many people get
disc surgery and have continued
pain? Why do so many people get
IDET (frying of the disc) and still have pain? The reason is the
disc is not causing the pain problem the person is having. Sure, some
people have degenerative discs that cause them pain, but the majority of
people who have these diagnoses, have pain that is coming from another
structure. What other structure?
Besides the nerve, the most painful part of the musculoskeletal system
is probably where the muscles,
ligaments, and tendons
attach to the bone. The periosteum (outside of the bone) is very
sensitive. This is where all these structures attach to the bone. So if
a person has a ligament or tendon injury, it is almost always where it
attaches to the bone. This can be amazingly painful. When a ligament is
stretched, injured, or torn, the joint becomes unstable, since the
ligaments provide stability for structures.
Why do people with
low back pain
have muscle spasms? Not because the discs are degenerated, because the
discs do not provide stability to the lower back, the ligaments do. The
muscles spasm in order to stabilize the back after a ligament injury. If
you have neck or low back pain that is accompanied by muscle spasms,
then think ligament injury. Since you are thinking ligament injury, then
what treatment should you get to stimulate ligament repair? Prolotherapy!
See this isn’t so hard is it?
Everyone who has a pain radiating down the leg is diagnosed with
sciatica. Okay, not everyone, just about everyone. Do you know that if a
nerve is really pinched that you could barely have a conversation with
me? You be wracked with pain. As it is now, your pain comes and goes.
You may even have a tingling down your leg. No, it isn’t your sciatic
nerve getting pinched. You simply have a ligament in your lower back,
such as the sacroiliac ligament that is not stabilizing your pelvis. The
pain or numb feeling down your leg is a
referral
pain. It isn’t a nerve
getting pinched. If you can sit in a chair and raise your leg straight
out in front of you without reproducing your pain, then most likely you
have a ligament injury and not an injury to your sciatic nerve. (In
other words, you don’t have lumbar radiculopathy).
If you have more low back pain than leg pain, then most likely you have
a ligament injury in your back and not a pinched nerve. If you are in
pain but it isn’t to the point of causing you to sweat, you most likely
have a ligament injury, not a sciatic nerve getting pinched. If you can
feel equally in both legs, in other words the numbness you feel isn’t
true numbness, because when someone touches your skin you feel it fine.
It is thus numbiness. Numbiness is the sensation of numbness, but on
physical examination your sensation (sense of touch) is fine. This is a
referral sensation, generally from a ligament injury, not a nerve
injury.
#3 Lumbar
Radiculopathy
The arguments against this diagnosis are the same as sciatica.
If I suspect someone has lumbar
radiculopathy, I generally have the patient get an
EMG/NCV test to
verify it. No, you can’t verify a nerve is getting pinched by an
MRI or
CT scan. It can suggest it. The actual physiological test to verify it
is an electromyography/nerve conduction velocity test (EMG/NCV) on the
nerves. Someone with a true lumbar radiculopathy typically has
all of the below:
-More leg pain than low back pain
-90% of the pain or greater is leg pain
-Pain gets to a 10 out of 10
-The pain is unbearable
-Even
narcotic medications barely touch
the pain
-True numbness or weakness in muscles
-MRI documentation of severe disc herniation or
facet
arthritis
Very seldom do I see people like that. Generally, they have bad pain,
but they are talking to me fine. When I walk into the exam room to meet
a new patient and they are laying down in the fetal position and in
obvious pain, then I suspect lumbar radiculopathy. Otherwise, it is
another “bogus” diagnosis that the client received. Since ligaments,
like the posterior hip ligaments,
sacrotuberous, and
sacroiliac and lumbosacral ligaments refer pain down the leg, when
someone has some referral pain down the leg and doesn’t have the above
signs/symptoms, then most likely I tell them they have a ligament
injury. Once convinced they have a ligament injury, then the most
logical treatment choice for them would be? You betcha, Prolotherapy.
#4 Pyriformis Syndrome
#5 Fibromyalgia
Chiropractors and physical therapist love to give people the diagnosis
of pyriformis syndrome. “Your sciatic nerve is getting pinched by the
pyriformis muscle.” People then spend years stretching out the
pyriformis to try and “unpinch” the sciatic nerve. Since the person
doesn’t have sciatica or lumbar radiculopathy, the pyriformis syndrome
diagnosis is wrong. Please read information about lumbar radiculopathy
and sciatica. It applies to the diagnosis of pyriformis syndrome as
well.
Read more |
Prolotherapy
Our
Prolotherapy Books - 
POWER
OVER PAIN