Low Back Pain
Low back pain is a common condition characterized by discomfort or stiffness in the lower spine area, often affecting daily activities. It can arise from various causes, including muscle strain, injury, or underlying medical conditions.
Subscribe to the BlogAnother Lower Back Stem Cell Injection Patient Result
Way back when, in 2005/6, when I injected the first patient in the world with stem cells into a damaged low back disc, it was “way out there.” In fact, we had to be under the supervision of an Institutional Review Board just to get it done. How times have changed in 13 short years.…read more
Fusion Surgery No Better than No Surgery
Does fusion surgery work? I have blogged before about the research showing that this surgery is often no better in the long-run than no surgery. However, I’ve also pointed out that surgeons have a way of interpreting data in studies that benefit their preconceived notions of efficacy. Today’s blog is about one such study which…read more Fight the Awful Effects of Sitting and Gravity: My “Old Man” Stretch
As we get old, our spines and bodies suffer the effects of sitting and the weight of earth’s gravity with additional insults from smartphones. As a result, I have a secret stretch I do every day to help me fight these forces and to help avoid the worst of the “old man” (or “old woman”)…read more Lumbar Fusion Is Usually a Business Model, Not Effective Treatment
Surgical fusion hardware is one of the most successful medical business plans ever devised. You take a screw and rods made for a few dollars in China or India and sell them for thousands of dollars. As a result, we’ve gone from a world where implanting hardware in the spines of patients was rare, to…read more Why Is My Calf Muscle Twitching?
On this page: Calf muscle twitching and low back nerves What to do about calf muscle twitching Maybe you’re watching your favorite TV show or browsing the Internet, and suddenly you experience a spontaneous episode of calf muscle twitching. Or perhaps you’ve just finished an intensive round of exercise, CrossFit for example, and that exertion…read more Who Knew That the Hip Was Impacted by the Back?
Your body is connected, a fact that modern medicine often ignores. Why? It’s easiest as a physician to focus on the spot where it hurts. However, when we make changes to the body through surgery, it has impacts. This morning I’d like to review a study that shows that surgically fusing the low back for…read more You May Have a Pinched Low Back Nerve Despite What Your Doctor Thinks
The first day of medical school, our head honcho got up and was brave enough to say that about half of what they would teach us would probably be proven wrong. Yikes, was he ever right. This also applies to what your doctor thinks he or she knows about back pain. For example, we have…read more Can Cholesterol Drugs Cause Low Back Pain?
Cholesterol-lowering drugs are a huge business. If you’re a cardiologist, you’ll likely argue with your dying breath that these medications have revolutionized medicine. On the other hand, the data continues to mount that the positive effects of taking these medications are puny and the side effects are real. This morning I’d like to go over a new…read more 
