Spinal Health
Spine is the central support structure, providing stability, flexibility, and protection for the delicate spinal cord. Explore our resources to learn more about caring for your spine and optimizing your physical health.
Subscribe to the BlogAre Bone Spurs Bad? Bone Is Alllllliiiiivvvveeee…
Are bone spurs bad? Bone spurs inspire fear in the hearts and minds of most patients, kind of like The Blob from a bad ’60s horror movie. When they hear that they have them, they’re immediately freaked out. However, much like the title of Stanley Kubrick’s ’60s movie, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to…read more
Fibrin Treatment for Back Pain: Do You Need to Seal a Degenerated Disc?
This week, while I was performing a procedure on another patient, Dr. Bashir poked his head in to let me know of his great success with a chronic disc pain patient. It was an impressive 95% improvement in a patient who had tried it all and was now back to golf after a stem cell…read more New Disc Treatment: DISCSEEL™ to Heal?
For patients with chronic low back pain, there are more non-surgical options than ever in 2016. This can also be a two edged sword, in that there’s also more misinformation. This morning I’d like to highlight a new disc treatment called Discseel™ (aka Diskseel ™) that’s seems to have lots of confusion surrounding it and…read more How to Read a Low Back MRI Report : What Type of Disc Problem Do You Have?
I find that one of the most confusing things for patients learning how to read a low back MRI report is understanding that there are different types of disc problems that each require a different therapeutic approach. So without understanding their type of disc issue, there is no way to understand which of the newer…read more Stem Cells for Disc Regeneration?
Across the Internet right now, you can find countless websites advertising stem cells for disc regeneration. Is this for real or is it a scam? A recent patient post on our RIP fusion blog can help explain what’s real and what’s likely not. What Is a Degenerated Disc? The reason for trying to regenerate a…read more New England Journal of Medicine: R.I.P. Back and Neck Fusion Surgery
There has been an explosion in low back and neck fusion surgeries in the past two decades. However, I often tell my patients that “fusion is a dog with big fleas.” After they have a spinal fusion and are seen in the office and have more pain somewhere else, I tell them that they’re now…read more What Is a Flexion-Extension X-Ray?
On this page: What is spinal instability? Can instability be seen on an x-ray or MRI? What is a flexion-extension x-ray? The problem with flexion-extension x-rays How to make sure your test is worthwhile Back and neck pain patients and doctors are often confused by the idea of instability in the spine. From the patient’s…read more
The Multifidus Muscle and Spine Pain – Cause and Effect
The multifidus muscle is the most important stabilizer of your spine, but one that most patients and physicians have never studied. There are now hundreds of research studies confirming that when this little muscle goes south, all heck breaks loose in the neck and back. The multifidis is easy to spot on the average MRI…read more 
