Passing along a rare opportunity for anyone in the Las Vegas area next weekend suffering with symptoms of Fibromyalgia, RSD/CRPS, Parkinson’s, MS, Lupus, RA, Migraines or any Chronic Pain. Some of the country’s top pain management doctors, including our Dr. Joan Burrow, will be gathering for a conference on natural, non-pharmaceutical treatment of neurological disorders.
Anyone suffering with these conditions is invited to attend a free lecture, on Sunday, August 3rd at 12:00 pm located at:
Superior Health Solutions
1661 West Horizon Ridge Pkwy, Suite 280
Henderson, NV 89012
The lecture will be about 45 minutes long. Afterwards, attendees are welcome to receive a free relief test. Please forward this information to anyone you know who may benefit.
This promises to be a great source of cutting edge research, new techniques and important information for anyone suffering with these conditions. Please call 866-287-5465 Ext. 3 to reserve a seat.
Big News! Dr. Burrow will be holding and publicly speaking at an event for the first time in over 25 years! Our office will be having a one night workshop on new natural solutions to eliminating pain. Dr. Burrow will be presenting alternative methods to managing and understanding your pain.
The Lewiston City Library is kind enough to let us hold this workshop in their new conference room.
This workshop is free to the public but space is limited so please let us know if you would like to attend.
Childcare will not be provided, so please no children under the age of 12.
As an extra bonus, all guests who bring a friend along will receive a free detoxifying footbath at our office! If you plan on bringing a friend then please let us know. Space is limitied.
Please RSVP to (208)798-8228 or email burrowoffice@gmail.com
We love looking at other Chiropractors work. We can learn, give advice, or even just be reminded of techniques and ideas that we haven’t used in a while. Today we ran across a great article by a Dr. Daniel P. Bockmann, a fellow Chiropractor in Austin, TX.
In his article he talks about what causes shin splints and what kind of injury they are. Here are a few of our favorite points:
“…the term “shin splints” doesn’t refer to an actual condition”
“There are 4 general causes for that deep, achy pain you feel around your shin bone, and if you’re a runner it’s very important to know the difference between them. Here are the 4 biggest causes:
1. Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome (MTSS). The most common cause of leg pain in athletes, period. A deep, achy pain felt on the inside and sometimes around the back side of the tibia (or shin bone). Caused by micro-tearing of the posterior tibialis muscle where it attaches to the back & inner part of the tibia.
2. Tibial Periostitis. An irritation or inflammation of the periosteum, the thin membrane surrounding the tibia. Pain is felt directly on the front of the shin bone, usually near the ankle and extending part way up the leg.
3. Anterior Compartment Syndrome. The muscles on the front of your lower leg are encased in a thin, leathery sheath, or compartment. Excessive swelling within that sheath can quickly compress nerves and blood vessels, causing pain on the front of the leg, outside the shin bone.
4. Stress Fracture. These are small, sometimes microscopic cracks in the shin bone that can quickly worsen if you continue running. Caused by the repetitive impact of landing strides while running, the pain from a stress fracture is usually localized to a very specific area, rather than spread out across the bone like the other 3 conditions. Early diagnosis and treatment is critical, as stress fractures can lead to COMPLETE fractures if left untreated.”
You can read all of Dr. Bockmann’s article on his website. HERE
Our office has some great news! Our Sunlighten™ Far Infrared Sauna is up and running. If you want to get really healthy then this is a great way to start the process.
Far Infrared Sauna Therapy has been Documented,
to Provide the Following Results:
Detox: Detoxing without getting sick afterward. It changes the toxins as they come out so you don’t get sick afterward.
Removal of Fat-Soluble & Heavy Metal Toxins: Most effective far infrared and full spectrum therapy for natural, non-invasive cellular detoxification – only saunas clinically shown to raise core temperature. Quickly expels toxins hidden in fat-soluble cells. Toxins are released through the skin before they reach major organs.
Increased Quality & Duration of Sleep: Our saunas’ Acoustic Resonance Therapy (A.R.T) provides a calming environment to reduce stimuli and induce relaxation for better sleep. In this case, take your sauna session before you go to bed.
Pain Relief: Far Infrared heat increases blood circulation by penetrating deep into the body’s joints, muscles and tissues to allow more oxygen to reach injured areas and reduce inflammation.
Non-Invasive, Natural Treatment: Offers a whole body treatment without surgery or injections. Studies show that infrared sauna sessions can help speed the effects of antibiotics to see faster results and relief of symptoms.
Sensory & Cognitive Issues: Sunlighten’s FIR technology in combination with A.R.T. will assist in increasing motor processing and enhance creativity and problem solving. Clearing of brain fog.
Depression: The circulation, relaxation and detoxification that our saunas provide can be uplifting to your overall state of mind.
Boost Immunity: Increased blood circulation allows more toxins to be released from the cellular level to the skin’s surface to improve cell health, aid in recovery and boost immunity to help battle current symptoms.
Cold Intolerance: Proven 95-99% effective, Solocarbon heaters increase core body temperature to alleviate lower body temperatures.
Sound Sensitivity: Sunlighten saunas provide a soothing atmosphere for those with hyperacusis to find relief. A.R.T. balances brainwaves, bringing the body to a deeper state of relaxation.
Improved Circulation: Increases blood flow to reduce the body’s hold on toxic metals and helps get nutrients where they need to go. Also increases body temperature to keep hands and feet warm.
Weight Loss: A 30 minute infrared sauna session can burn up to 200-600 calories! As the body works to cool itself while using an infrared sauna, there is a substantial increase in heart rate, cardiac output and metabolic rate. Sunlighten’s infrared heat therapy raises core body temperature causing passive cardiovascular conditioning. Your body’s natural response to infrared heat therapy is to increase circulation and sweat. Check out the results with a heart rate monitor and you will be amazed.
Relaxation for the Whole Family: Creates a sanctuary the whole family can benefit from detoxification, heart health, weight loss, pain relief, cell health and anti-aging.
Cancer Therapy: Far Infrared Therapy has been applied as Cancer Treatment Worldwide for 20 years. Far Infrared Saunas Increase the Production of White Blood Cells, Killer T-Cells, and Interferon which have been shown to Fight Cancer Cell Growth.
Organic Skin Care: Infrared Sauna Treatments dramatically Renew Elasticin-Collagen Tissues while Crow’s Feet, Forehead Lines, Wrinkles, Age Spots, Scars, Varicose Veins and Stretch Marks Naturally Fade Away. Look Younger while you Cleanse Your Body from the Inside Out.
Bullet proof Your Immune: Increased Production of White Blood Cells and Toxin Removal through Sweating combines to Improve Immunity against Chronic Infections, Flu, Sinus, Allergy Symptoms, Germs and Bacteria. Infrared Heat causes the body to produce Special Heat Shock Proteins, which are Powerful Immune System Stimulators.
The answer to those chronic aches and pains? Take a couple of ibuprofen every few hours. Pain becomes manageable, life is better, right?
Well, maybe not. Some British researchers took a look at data from the Rotterdam Study, which is based in the general population and contains detailed information on drug exposure (based on prescriptions filled). Notice here, that over the counter ‘exposure’ may have been missed.
The authors pulled the records of 8423 participants in the larger study without history of atrial fibrillation at the beginning of the study, and specifically looked at whether those who developed atrial fibrillation during the next few years used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications. The average initial age of the study population was 68.5 years and 58% were women.
During an average follow-up of 12.9 years, 857 of the participants developed atrial fibrillation. Their conclusion?
Current use of NSAIDs was associated with increased risk [of atrial fibrillation] compared with never-use
Recent use (within 30 days after discontinuation of NSAIDs) was associated with an increased risk of atrial fibrillation compared with never-use
Here’s the link to the British Medical Journal article.
This is the medical model for treating low back and leg pain that is caused by spinal stenosis (pictured, here) – a narrowing of the space that the spinal cord or nerve root passes through:
Try exercises and physical therapy first.
If you are still having more problems than you can deal with, try an epidural injection of steroids at the pain clinic.
When that doesn’t help, surgery is then offered to open up the space.
A small study published in the February 2014 issue of the journal Spine suggests thatthe injections may do more harm than good!
The Spine Patient Outcomes Research Trial (SPORT) was a four year comprehensive study to look at different ways of treating low back and leg pain and how effective they were for patients, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Some patients had surgery, others had non-surgical interventions, and the research published from the trial said, basically, that those who had surgery were, by and large, happier with their results one to four years later than those who didn’t.
Researchers with access to the SPORT database took a look at the results from a group of those non-surgical patients, specifically those patients with lumbar spinal stenosis, to see how the patients who received epidural steroid injection compared to those who didn’t.
There were 276 patients in the original SPORT study who had the diagnosis of lumbar spinal stenosis, and the data from this subgroup was analyzed to see how well the 69 who received the epidural steroid injections within the first 3 months of the study did, compared to the 207 who didn’t have the injections.
The conclusions? Pretty scary if you’ve already had the injections!
Those patients who had epidural steroid injection were associated with significantly less improvement at 4 years among all patients with spinal stenosis in SPORT.
Furthermore, for those who eventually had surgery, having epidural steroid injections were associated with longer duration of surgery and longer hospital stay.
There was no improvement in outcome with epidural steroid injection whether patients were treated surgically or non-surgically.
In case you didn’t catch it: At the end of four years, everyonewho had the injectionshad significantly less improvement than those who didn’t have them (whether they ended up in surgery or not).
Okay. Yes, this is a small study. Yes, it only studied the people with one of the possible causes for low back/leg pain. Do you really want to have such an injection IN CASE they find something different when they look at the rest of the population?
Should you have epidural steroid injections as part of the recommended course of treatment for your low back pain? I think not.
They took 98 people who didn’t have low back pain and looked at their low backs with MRI scans. 36% had normal discs at all levels. 52% had a bulge at one or more levels (with 38% having more than one disc involved). 27% had a disc protrusion, and 1% had a disc extrusion. They noted that the prevalence of bulges increased with age.
Their conclusion?
“On MRI examination of the lumbar spine, many people without back pain have disk bulges or protrusions but not extrusions. Given the high prevalence of these findings and of back pain, the discovery by MRI of bulges or protrusions in people with low back pain may frequently be coincidental.” (emphasis is mine)
Some definitions might come in handy. In this study,
A disc bulge is defined as a circumferential symmetric extension of the disk beyond the interspace
A disc protrusion is defined as a focal or asymmetric extension of the disk beyond the interspace
A disc extrusion is defined as a more extreme extension of the disk beyond the interspace
These definitions are very basic, fairly vague, and non-universal. The people who read MRI’s don’t have a universal language, so what one radiologist might call a protrusion another might call a herniation, someone else might call a prolapse, and yet another might call a rupture. More information than even I want to read about the naming of this kind of radiographic finding can be found here.
I did find an article that gives a pretty balanced look at when it’s time to see the surgeon. Take a look if you are considering this option.
And, that said, if you are experiencing pain that you cannot get away from (no position of comfort), if you are experiencing loss of bowel or bladder control, if you have foot drop . . . get evaluated sooner (like, now), not later.
According to an article published January 4, 2014 in the University Herald (a publication that focuses on what’s happening at higher education institutions around the world), animal studies are confirming that Dehydrocorybulbine (DHCB), a compound derived from the roots of the traditional Chinese herb Yan Hu Suo is an effective treatment for pain.
Eventually, after many more trials, pharmaceutical companies may be able to use this extract to provide something that is not narcotic and doesn’t lose efficiency like opiates to treat acute, inflammatory and neuropathic pain. Eventually.
Meanwhile, you could buy the herb in bulk, make a tea, and use it as it’s been used traditionally for a few thousand years.
This paper was published May 2013 in the journal SPINE:
Early Predictors of Lumbar Spine Surgery After Occupational Back Injury
Results From a Prospective Study of Workers in Washington State
Objective. To identify early predictors of lumbar spine surgery within 3 years after occupational back injury.
Results. . . Reduced odds of surgery were observed for those younger than 35 years, females, Hispanics, and those whose first provider was a chiropractor. Approximately 42.7% of workers who first saw a surgeon had surgery, in contrast to only 1.5% of those who [first] saw a chiropractor. . .
Conclusion. . . There was a very strong association between surgery and first provider seen for the injury even after adjustment for other important variables.
I use the work being done by Dr. Marty Hinz and his team at NeuroResearch in Duluth, MN to help my patients balance neurotransmitters with nutrition.
And, you say, what is a neurotransmitter?
A neurotransmitter is a chemical released at the end of a nerve fiber that causes the transfer of an impulse to another nerve or muscle fiber or organ – it’s what your body uses to ‘transmit’ the signal.
If you don’t have enough of the signaling chemicals, the message doesn’t get across – like not having enough bars on your cell phone to get a message through. If you have the wrong blend of signaling chemicals it’s like being in an area without a tower that talks to YOUR carrier.
There are many illnesses caused by an imbalance or deficiency in neurotransmitters, and correcting the underlying cause keeps us from having to chase each issue.
Here is a partial listing of diseases and disorders that are related to unbalanced or inadequate neurotransmitter levels:
If you have any of these (and, especially, if you suffer with several) and are not getting satisfactory results with the treatment you are currently receiving, please consider working on the cause, instead of the effects.
Global Wellness 