How Greg Healed His Herniated Disc Without Pills or Surgery

“The pain was horrible, I couldn’t even do simple things, like sit down for dinner, play with my kids, or do sports or exercise like I was used to. I felt like I was never ‘present’, even when I’d be socializing with friends, or playing with my kids, the pain was on my mind 24/7, it’s all I ever thought about ” – Greg, 45 Livermore

Can you relate?

The amount of people who suffer each day from back pain and sciatica is rising at an alarming rate.

As our society continues to become less active and more sedentary, more people are now being diagnosed with injuries known as “herniated discs” (also known as a “bulging disc, or a slipped disc”) more than ever before.

The most common symptoms that consistent with a herniated disc are:

- Back pain that frequently shoots into the hip, down the back of the leg (also known as sciatica)

- Inability to sit, or bend over to brush your teeth, tie your shoes, or play with your kids or grandkids

- Pain down your leg with sleeping, or getting out of bed first thing in the morning

If you have been diagnosed with a “herniated disc” it is easy to feel a bit nervous, confused, and frightened about what this diagnosis actually means for you, and your body.

Common questions you might be thinking to yourself are:

- “Will this condition get better over time?”

- “Am I going to live with this condition forever?”

- “Will my back ever get back to feeling normal again?”

- “Does this mean I’ll need to have back surgery?”

But what I want you to know is that there is hope! And my goal with this article is to help you understand that it IS possible to decrease your pain, and heal your discs naturally WITHOUT relying on pills, medications, or unnecessary back surgery, even if your doctor has told you nothing else can be done.

First off, what is a “herniated disc”, and how does it get injured in the first place?

A disc is like a tiny jelly doughnut that sits between the vertebrae in your spine. These soft, fluid-filled objects play a very important role in allowing our backs to be mobile. These discs create hinges for our backs to move, bend, twist, and function as humans.

But these discs are also known to be very susceptible to injury. Hundreds of bio-mechanical research studies show that almost all disc herniations come from a combination of 3 things:

1. Too much sitting

2. Poor mobility in the spine

3. Improper bending techniques

These harmful activities increase pressure on your discs, and over time, the structures holding the fluid within the disc start to wear out…

Over time, the fluid starts to become pressurized inside the disc, and creates a "bulge" (Imagine if I took two hands and squeezed one half of a jelly donut, the pressure would cause the 'jelly' to be forced towards one side of the donut, and eventually cause the jelly to 'burst' its way out)

Disc herniations ARE serious. And can be debilitating.

The reason why these “herniations” are so debilitating is because the disc bulge puts pressure on delicate nerve roots which come out of your spine…which in turn causes the sharp, shooting nerve pain down your back, into your hip, down the back of the leg.

If left untreated, these herniations can get progressively worse, and cause permanent nerve damage, chronic pain, and disability. There is always a possibility that surgery is needed in extreme cases, but surgery should ONLY be seen as a last resort. With back surgery, there is always a chance that the surgery won’t “take” and that it can lead to a lifetime of pain and disability, which is why exhausting all “non-invasive” options is so important.

Fortunately, due to new, advanced research, we know that it IS possible to heal these herniated discs.

And more importantly, it is possible to heal these discs WITHOUT relying upon pills, injections, or surgical procedures.

In working with now hundreds of people in the Bay Area in over a decade heal naturally from their disc injuries, and get back to living their normal lives…

I’ve realized that there one, underlying thing that you need in order to heal your disc naturally…

Which is having the right conditions and environment to heal…

What do I mean by the right conditions and environment to heal?

You see, the human body has an amazing ability to naturally regenerate and heal itself…

But in order for this to happen, you must treat your body correctly in order to let the healing process, play out.

Think like if you had a bad cut in your skin…

But instead of cleaning the wound and taking proper care of your skin, imagine if you constantly picked at the scab, or left the wound exposed to harmful stressors like bacteria, or dirt…

The wound would not heal, it might get infected, and it would probably hurt like hell.

Disc injuries, and back injuries are NO different.

And one of the major problems I’ve realized over the years, in working with my patients, is that the majority of people who are in pain are doing things during their day that are irritating, inflaming, and worsening their injury…

and aren’t even aware of it…

Common examples of these types of activities include:

· ‘Stretching’ of your ‘hamstrings’ or ‘pirifmoris’ muscles…

· Sitting on tennis balls for hours each night

· “resting” and waiting things out, thinking it will just get better over time

· doing “core” and “back strengthening” exercises

· Pain patches, magic creams and oils, and ‘electrical stimulation units’ also known as “TENS”

· Thousand-dollar devices, braces, or ‘inversion tables’

“I thought these things were supposed to be good for my back, why do they make the injury worse?”

While it is possible to see temporary, symptomatic relief using these types of interventions, rarely do they ever get rid of the pain permanently. And in some cases, when applied incorrectly, they can be dangerous to your discs long term.

Why is this?

Because these types of interventions are usually only focused on “symptom relief”, and they do NOT treat the underlying SOURCE of the pain. And of course, treating symptoms without fixing the underlying source of the pain will lead to more pain, more injury, and damage over time.

What do I mean by treating the “underlying source” of the pain?

What you need to understand is that the human body is highly complex, and everything is truly “interconnected.” And in order to treat the underlying source of the pain, you CANNOT just focus on one “singular” body part, method, or technique.

Instead, you must take a big-picture approach and use a combination of elements to create the proper foundation for healing.

Let me share an example of one of my recent “Virtual Therapy” clients, Greg who was on the verge of having a potentially dangerous back surgery…

Greg (age 46) had reached to me after he’d been diagnosed with a “severe “disc herniation of his L5-S1 vertebrae” in his back.

It happened while clearing out heavy objects in his garage one day in early 2018.

Greg had been suffering from the most common, but severe symptoms of a herniated disc…

Which included sharp, shooting pains into his legs, inability to bend forward, and his daily life was constantly being dictated by his pain.

“I tried EVERYTHING under the sun for a year and a half. I tried Physical Therapy, exercises, stretches, heat packs, colds packs, and none of it seemed to work”

How did Greg eventually get better?

Greg was initially VERY skeptical that we could help him virtually, given that our office has been closed to in-person visits, and we couldn’t see him in person.

Greg had already been scheduled to have a “microdiscectomy” surgery for his herniated disc, but his procedure was postponed due to the COVID-19 situation. While his pain was quite severe, he had been living with this condition for over a year, and he wasn’t considered an “emergency case.”

Since he was stuck at home without any solution in sight, he decided to at least “give it a chance”.

Luckily, we understand the principles of health and healing don’t change whether you see a provider in-person or not…and our job was to simply help Greg create the “ideal” conditions and environment so his body could heal naturally.

Before we did anything, we helped Greg understand that first he needed to make small, but very necessary changes to his lifestyle.

Greg, like many others, has to deal with long work hours sitting at a desk, stressful traffic and driving conditions, and also taking care of 3 young kids at home.

His lifestyle, in combination with the ineffective (and harmful) exercises and stretches he was initially prescribed were literally killing his back.

But after making these 3 little adjustments…

1. Getting a standing desk (this knocked off 4+ hours of sitting at his desk which took a tremendous amount of pressure off his disk)

2. Waking up 20 minutes early to go for a walk for 15 minutes BEFORE he rushed into his car to sit in heavy traffic on 580. (getting his blood circulating, and muscles, and discs in his back moving BEFORE he started the day did WONDERS for his back within just 2 days of implementing this strategy)

3. STOPPED doing ‘hamstring’ stretching, sitting on tennis balls that he was told to do which was only irritating his injury even further

Greg started to feel a 40% reduction in his pain within just under 2 weeks.

And once his pain reduced, through the use of our virtual rehabilitation platform to teach him the correct treatments to fix the true underlying source of the issue…

The treatments included:

· “Hip-Flexor Opening Exercises which focused on releasing the muscles in the FRONT of his hip instead of the painful “back” of the hip (years of sitting and driving take a toll on the “hip flexor” muscles) ...

· Self “Trigger Point” release techniques that took off years of built up tension in his upper back, hips, and thighs. (Releasing tension from these muscles took pressure off back to the point where he was able to stand up straight without ANY pain)

· A targeted ‘neuro-stretching’ program that focuses on decreasing the tightness and resistance in your “nervous system” instead of just “pulling” on your muscles. When stretching, most people make the mistake of creating too much stress on their muscles, instead of learning how to “relax” their nervous system. With new breakthroughs in neurophysiology research, these new “neuro-stretching” methods have consistently shown to work up to 20 times faster, and are MUCH more effective than traditional methods. Greg only needed stretch for 3 minutes each day for 2 weeks to regain flexibility he hadn’t seen in years.

· A safe, simple, but shockingly effective strengthening program. It’s common to see muscle weakness and “imbalances” that develop for people with spine injuries. But more importantly you must make sure the exercises you do are the RIGHT ones for YOUR body. We custom-built a strengthening program for Greg, and over the 6-week period, Greg is now realizing that if you do the “right exercises” that there shouldn’t be any pain, if anything, the exercises help REDUCE the pain.

With the combination of all of these methods, and information that Greg has gained in just 6 weeks…he went from:

Having a date scheduled with the spinal surgeon, to now CANCELLING his surgery, and on his way to completely getting his life back…

Greg is now 6 weeks into our program, and while he is not 100% by any means, he at least knows that there is hope, and he can see a definitive road to recovery.

“Now, for the first time, just this last weekend, I was able to sit down at my kitchen table for dinner with my family without being in constant pain. I’ve been able to get out of bed, walk, and have been able to exercise. I feel like I’m starting to feel normal again. The best part is that I realized I am no longer constantly thinking about my pain, and I can actually pay attention to my kids, and what’s going on in my life…It’s been just a wonderful change”

Could it be possible for you to live life again without constant back pain or sciatica problems?

While it is ABSOLUTELY possible for you to achieve results just like Greg, the results may not be the same for everyone, since everyone is quite different and presents with their own set of unique challenges, body types, and injury history.

Which is why, at Balance and Body Restoration, we are now accepting applications for a FREE “Virtual Movement Evaluation” during our 30-minunte discovery visit.

Click this link to apply for your ‘Virtual Movement Evaluation” with us today

What is a movement evaluation?

First, we will jump on a “Virtual Call” where we can hear your story, determine if we are a good fit for each other, and then move onto your “Movement Evaluation”

A movement evaluation is a head to toe movement screen of your entire body. We can detect muscle imbalances, stiff areas, weak areas which will pinpoint the “root causes” of your problem.

For Greg, we were able to quickly identify his root causes of leg tightness, and muscle imbalances within in his back within his initial 30-minute ‘movement evaluation’.

From there, we were able to create a plan of care, which we developed with him, over the course of a 6-week period.

This is NOT some sales pitch.

I am well aware that you might be thinking that this is just another “pitch” and that you are probably hesitant, or skeptical about this initial session.

I want assure you that it is NOT the case.

This session is PURELY a chance to meet over virtual therapy platform, for us to have an honest conversation about your health, so we can determine if we are a good fit for each other.

Healing from an injury as severe as a ‘disc herniation’ is VERY serious, it takes time, energy, and focus. Which is why we only work with people who are as serious about fixing this condition as we are…

We are very selective with the types of people we choose to work with and is why you must APPLY for this session.

So, if you are:

· Looking for a “quick fix” or “magic pill”

· Do not want to take an active role in your recovery

· Would rather sit back and ‘wait” for your body to get better

Then we will NOT be a good fit for you, and you do not need to apply

If you are someone who is:

· Health conscious and wants to learn how to heal your back ‘properly’

· Want to take an active role in your recovery

· Want nothing more than to get back to your active lifestyle and want to desperately avoid a potentially dangerous surgery

Then you can expect a truly amazing transformation with us!

Click this link to apply your very own ‘virtual therapy consult’ with us

Fill out this quick, 45 second webform, and tell us a bit more about what’s going on, and we will contact you with our availability.

Click this link to apply your very own ‘virtual therapy consult’ with us

Or call (925) 361-7726 to inquire about our costs and availability today

Sincerely,

Kevin Mao

Doctor of Physical Therapy

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