The mnemonic device “PRICE” is a good tool to use in the acute stage of many musculoskeletal conditions:
- P: PROTECT your health by not placing yourself in an environment that is likely to harm you, such as playing sports or doing heavy yard work. Think about what you do before you do it and with any activity, if sharp, radiating pain occurs, stop and assess the importance of what you are doing. If you want your injury to heal, don’t keep irritating it!
- R: REST is similar. Limit your activities to those that can be done without increasing your symptoms.
- I: ICE – The use of ice reduces swelling and inflammation, which reduces pain and promotes healing. Use cold for no more than 20 minutes per hour max, and apply ice several times per day.
- C: COMPRESS – While not applicable in the neck for obvious reasons, you can certainly de-compress the cervical spine by using a cervical collar worn backwards. There are even inflatable collars which are pumped up with air to traction the neck.
- E: ELEVATE – The concept of raising a sprained ankle to the height of the heart so swelling can drain is the classic example of elevation. In the neck, the traction concept may apply once again.
“I don’t want to have surgery if I can help it. How can a chiropractic physician help me?”
The goal of all doctors, including surgeons and chiropractors, is to provide help to their patients. As a chiropractor, I can offer acute care measures, including ice, non-pharmaceutical anti-inflammatory agents and natural muscle relaxing agents. The specific adjustment of adjacent spinal joints, which may have lost their normal motion patterns, can take pressure off of damaged discs. Our office can also offer traction to decompress disc structures as well as therapeutic modalities such as electrical stimulation, low level laser therapy, ultrasound and others.
Most importantly, I will serve as a “coach” to guide you through the stages of healing.
If, in spite of all the best efforts of this non-surgical care approach, improvement doesn’t occur, we will coordinate care with specialists who may provide more aggressive and invasive care options. These options may include steroids (both oral and injected) and as a last resort, spinal surgery.
The true challenge of problems like cervical disc herniations, is that they occur due to a weakened spine which progressively worsens over time. One significant event can be the “tipping point” which causes the disc herniation, but in the vast majority of instances, long term neglect of spinal health results in structurally challenged structures and an ultimate disc failure. If you suffer from a degenerative spine and disc herniation, it may be too late for anything other than the most drastic of interventions. The procedures which I’ve outlined above are much like having a root canal performed on a tooth. The good news is that with prevention, spinal health is just like oral health. Simple brushing and flossing helps to maintain our teeth, and wellness care for spines helps to prevent spine decay resulting from prolonged vertebral subluxation (spinal joint movement disturbances).
If you would like to learn more about preventing herniated discs and spine decay, make an appointment for a free consultation with me this week! Call our office to schedule at 292-6777.
-David H. Mruz, Doctor of Chiropractic
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