2930 W. Main St. Kalamazoo, MI. Inside Endurance Fitness & Wellness Gym
Strength & Shield Physical Therapy Kalamazoo
Kalamazoo's premier Physical Therapy provider for sports injuries
Back pain can be very scary, especially when you have nerve pain that goes down your leg or legs. It also can be very debilitating, where a person can go from running around a basketball court to not being able to tie their shoes or walk upright. For these reasons, people tend to first run to the doctor's office hoping to get an MRI to know how bad their injury is. The MRI often reveals loads of scary words ("degenerative disc disease" or "disc herniation" etc) which understandably causes people to seek injections or surgery to immediately "fix" the problem.
MRI | Injections | Surgery |
---|---|---|
Very high percentage of imaging findings in asymptomatic people | Hit or miss benefits; New study shows no benefits greater than surgery | Numerous studies show no benefit over exercise-only at 1 year mark |
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All of the above information is not to say that there is no place for these things (MRI's, injections or surgery). But it is important to understand that these should not be the first lines of approach but the last in the vast majority of cases. A conservative (exercise) approach has consistently been shown to be as good or better than surgery at the 1 year & following marks. It has also been shown that those who undergo surgery once are much more likely to undergo more surgery in the future.
Research seems to show that there is. Below is a comparison of the McKenzie Method (MDT), which we practice at Strength & Shield, versus general back exercises and also versus Chiropractic care. As you can see, MDT offers superior benefits over non-MDT Physical Therapy and over Chiropractic care when it comes to low back pain.
MDT vs Non-MDT Therapy | MDT vs Chiropractic Manipulations |
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MDT patients had 50% less imaging, 39% less injections, 78% less surgery | MDT patients showed the same improvements but required fewer treatments and 72% were able to manage recurrence themselves (not dependent on manipulations) |
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"The LORD is my strength and my shield; in Him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to Him." - Psalm 28:7
269 . 276 . 6742
(Fax: 269.397.2147)
2930 W. Main Street
Suite #1
Kalamazoo, MI 49006
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DrJon@SSmobilePT.com