Health Essentials - Spinal Stenosis
Hey, Dr. James Fedich here, Village Family Clinic, with a short video for you. I just had two patients come in with spinal stenosis, so somebody’s in the clinic here an awful lot. I just want to shoot this quick video, explain to you what spinal stenosis is, and how we might be able to help you.
So real soon—we all know the brain’s up top, spinal cord comes down the middle, and it goes to every cell, tissue, and organ in the body. Now, the spinal cord runs through this little canal here, the central canal, and the nerves branch off the side here and come through this little foramen, or hole there.
When we’re nice and young and everything’s open, we have a nice big space in there for that nerve. Now, as we get older, it doesn’t matter how healthy we are, these spaces get a little more narrow over time. It eventually can start pinching, choking, or rubbing off the nerve. Really bad spinal stenosis can even cause people to be in wheelchairs or have paralysis—that nerve is being totally choked off in there.
It’s a normal part of aging. It can start faster if we get in wrecks, falls, or if we’re straining too much at work, speeding this all up and making it happen a lot faster. In fact, people in their twenties can get spinal stenosis, even though it’s more common in older adults. I just had a patient yesterday who does jiu-jitsu—he started really young with stenosis.
So that channel gets smaller and smaller. Now, you can get a needle injection there. They’re going to stick a big needle in, put some cortisone in there, numb the nerve for a little bit—but ultimately, it’s going to come back, since it’s still being pinched. You can also take some pain pills. You might not feel it as much, but it’s still getting choked off in there.
The other option is to go to the surgeon. They’re going to do major spinal surgery on you. They’ll remove the back part of your vertebrae, take these, throw them in the garbage can, put four screws in there and two rods to hold that vertebrae apart a little bit. Now, this is a major back surgery. It costs $50, $60, $70, $80, even $100,000. You’ll be out of work for six months to a year—if it even works.
What we do here for spinal stenosis is somewhat different. We’re one of the few offices with nonsurgical spinal decompression. It’s advanced traction. So if we come in like this, this machine that I’m sitting on right here is able to gently open up that nerve channel by pulling harder and harder with computer-controlled traction. It’s able to pull at a certain pattern, a certain rate. It’s also able to send some feedback—so if it feels your muscles pulling back, it’ll release and pull a little harder in a controlled manner.
It’s a highly effective response to stenosis. It’s the only real nonsurgical option that’s going to be effective for you, and we’re able to do it here. We have two offices and two tables in this office. We’ve done thousands of spinal decompression treatments.
So if you already know someone suffering from spinal stenosis, definitely give us a call or text (908) 813-8200.
