Woman Magazine features Leicester physio clinic achieving exceptional outcomes for slipped discs

Woman Magazine recently featured the story of 37 year old herniated disc sufferer, Sarah Phelan who finally found relief from pain with IDD Therapy spinal decompression.

For two years, Sarah suffered with debilitating back pain and grinding sciatica in her leg which left her totally dependent on her partner and her parents. She says:

“I couldn’t see a future without the pain and I was feeling heartbroken - I’d gone from being a very happy and active mum, doing lots of outdoor activities with my children...to a fragile and miserable shell of a person who was reliant upon everyone around me for help with the smallest of tasks.”

It transpired that Sarah had a herniated disc in her lower back which was putting pressure on nerves in her spine, causing her back pain and sciatica. She finally found relief with IDD Therapy at The Ashleigh Clinic, Leiceister and is now enjoying a normal family life again.

“I finished my treatment programme a couple of months ago and I’m feeling fantastic: my pain has drastically reduced and I’m able to walk, drive and sleep properly.  It’s really not an exaggeration to say that IDD Therapy has changed my life completely."

The Ashleigh Clinic is part of the UK network of IDD Therapy Spine Centres.  Treatment outcomes are impressive - clinicians in the network report significant improvement in 70-90% of patients.

Clinic Director and Craig Mortimer says:

“It’s wonderful to see patients like Sarah making such an excellent improvement with IDD Therapy and getting their lives back to normal.  IDD is our first-choice treatment for herniated discs and sciatica - it's an invaluable treatment tool to have within our back pain services.”  

To read or watch more IDD Therapy patient and clinician testimonials click here

For details of IDD Therapy at The Ashleigh Clinic call  0116 270 7948 or visit www.ashleighclinic.co.uk/iddtherapy.

Essex physiotherapist helps slipped disc sufferer avoid surgery with IDD Therapy

38 year old scaffolder, Scott Bryan suffered with excruciating sciatica (leg pain) for months as a result of a herniated ('slipped') disc.  At the height of his pain, he was unable to work, sleep or enjoy any family activities.

Physiotherapist Dan Smith with  happy patient ,Scott

After osteopathy and acupuncture failed to help him, a spine consultant suggested surgery - with the usual four month wait for an operation.

Meanwhile, Scott was helped back to health with a programme of IDDTherapy at Sports & Spinal Physio in Brentwood, Essex. The clinic is part of a UK network of  IDD Therapy Spine Centres providing the targeted disc treatment to back and neck pain sufferers.

Since the treatment programme Scott's pain has drastically reduced and he's able to walk, drive and sleep properly again.

"Best of all, I’ve just had a great Easter break with my family and been able to play footie with the boys again.  It’s really not an exaggeration to say that IDD Therapy has changed my life completely. " 
  

Read Scott's story by clicking below:

Sports & Spinal Physio IDD Therapy success story 

The clinic’s Director, physiotherapist Dan Smith is a back and neck pain expert who works closely with local GPs and pain consultants. 

Sports and Spinal Physio is a leading back pain and sports injury clinic in Brentwood, Essex.
You can reach the team at: 01277 219553
www.sportsandspinalphysio.co.uk

Herniated Disc Treatment Helping Back Pain Sufferers in Croydon and Greater London - IDD Therapy

A leading osteopathic clinic in Croydon has been providing a new treatment for back pain and neck pain since the summer of 2013.

IDD Therapy is the non-surgical spinal decompression treatment which provides a targeted treatment to help unresolved conditions, notably where there is a disc-related condition such as a herniated disc (commonly referred to as a ‘slipped disc’) and sciatica. 

The Osteopathic Clinic of Physical Medicine in Croydon is led by clinic director Paul Morrissey.  Paul has pioneered new treatments in the UK and was amongst the first to introduce Shock Wave, as well as establishing a fully equipped pilates centre.

Paul is part of a network of UK IDD Therapy providers and says:

“For several years I watched with great interest the developments in IDD Therapy non-surgical spinal decompression.

After experiencing the treatment for myself and hearing the positive experiences of other UK clinicians and their patients, I was keen to introduce the IDD Therapy programme at our clinic.

IDD Therapy helps patients suffering with persistent back or neck pain who are not making improvement with manual therapy alone. There is no such thing as a cure-all for back pain, but the IDD Therapy treatment programme offers real opportunities for patients who need something more their pain.”

Whether you have simple back pain or a complex condition, with Paul and his dedicated team, patients can be assured of being in safe hands.  For more details visit www.osteopathclinic.co.uk/idd-therapy or to check your suitability for treatment call Croydon 020 8662 1155.

For more information about IDD Therapy treatment in general, visit www.iddtherapy.co.uk .

How do herniated discs occur and what are the best treatment options?

“Ouch….I’ve slipped a disc!” 

Low back pain affects over 80% of the population at some point in their lives and it’s the second most popular reason for visiting the GP after the common cold. It comes in many guises but a herniated or ‘slipped’ disc is one of the easiest things to succumb to and is one of the most difficult types of back pain to relieve. 

This article examines the ways in which herniated discs can occur and explains the treatment options available to help patients get back to their usual daily activities.

Contrary to popular belief, slipped discs are not just common to people who do manual work involving heavy lifting: many office-based workers succumb to disc problems as a result of sitting in one position for too long, putting pressure on the disc walls so that they weaken over time.

The spine is made up of 24 individual bones called vertebrae which are stacked on top of each . Discs are the protective circular pads of connective tissue in between - the ‘padding’ which acts as shock absorbers, protecting the spine when we run or jump.

We cause small weaknesses in our spine all day long with prolonged sitting or standing in certain positions, for example at workstations or hunched over the ironing board.

The intervertebral discs are unlike other parts of the body in the sense that they have a limited nerve supply.

Very often we are not aware of the discs being under strain until the accumulation of months or years of stress has reached a point where small tears form in the outer disc wall. These tears can result in several months of nagging discomfort.

As a defence-mechanism against further damage, the body will often react to this situation with muscle spasm or at the very least, ‘muscle guarding’ which is when the long muscles of the spine tighten up. This causes compression of the discs and a lack of mobility in the spine. 

If this situation prevails, the tears can very often become worse and allow the inner jelly like part of the disc – the nucleus – to herniate outwards. This is referred to as a herniated, bulging or ‘slipped’ disc.

Disc problems can also cause pain in other areas of the body, the most common of which is sciatica, a grinding pain which travels down the length of the leg.  Sciatica can be caused by the bulging part of the disc squashes the nerve root next to the disc or when chemicals from a prolapsed disc irritate the nerve endings.  

Neck pain, headaches or numbness in the foot can also be a sign of a damaged disc. So, what are your options for treatment?

Your first port of call should always be a good osteopath, physiotherapist or chiropractor who will have experience in treating disc-related problems. With this type of manual therapy in most cases you should see a marked improvement in your condition in 6-8 weeks.

At the same time, if you are in so much pain that you can’t sleep then your GP can prescribe you painkillers and/or anti-inflammatory medicines which can be taken alongside physical treatment.

If you see no real sign of improvement after eight weeks of manual therapy, it would be advisable to get an MRI scan of your spine to confirm the possible causes of your pain and the location (level) of the spine affected.

If a disc problem is identified, a programme of treatment including IDD Therapy non-surgical spinal decompression may be recommended.

IDD Therapy is a computer-controlled mechanical treatment used by clinicians to gently and safely relieve pressure on specific discs, alleviate muscle spasm and increase mobility in the spine.
 
As part of the IDD Therapy programme, patients undergo a course of core-strengthening exercise to help them maintain their healthy spine.

In a small number of cases, patients with severe disc damage/degeneration may require invasive treatments including injections and/or surgery. Also, in rare circumstances, the patient may require immediate surgery, for example, when the bowel and bladder function is affected.

There are different types of surgery for a herniated disc, the most common is the microdiscectomy where fragments of the disc may be cut away.

Another common type of spinal surgery is the lumbar fusion where the vertebrae surrounding a disc are fused together.

Thus, there are now several treatment options available to patients with herniated discs and indeed, a wider array of effective non-surgical options allowing more patients to avoid invasive procedures.

Robert Shanks BSc (Hons) Ost
Clinical Director
Spine Plus
Tel: 020 8501 0937
www.SpinePlus.co.uk
Spine Plus is a group of multidisciplinary clinics in London and Essex

For more details about IDD Therapy or to find your nearest IDD clinic, call Steadfast Clinics on 01279 602030 or visit www.SteadfastClinics.co.uk

A Clinician's Experience with IDD Therapy Spinal Decompression for Low Back Pain and Neck Pain

Osteopath Robert Shanks is the co-founding Clinical Director of Spine Plus, a group of multi-disciplinary back pain clinics based in London and Essex. He trained with The British Medical Acupuncture Society and is also a qualified electrotherapist.

Robert’s area of special interest is chronic low back pain and neck pain associated with bulging or herniated discs.  He is an advocate of innovation and technological advances in spinal care and uses IDD Therapy non-surgical spinal decompression to treat his chronic disc patients.

I first became interested in mechanical spinal distraction in 2002 and I started using a home-made cervical traction device based on pioneering osteopath, Alan Stoddard’s model featured in a book from the 1950′s!  Yes, it sounds a bit Wallace & Gromit but it did the job more effectively than using my hands alone.  I then started using portable traction beds which featured a manual pump allowing for intermittent sustained traction.

The object of these devices was of course, to distract the spine in order to take some pressure off the disc(s) and any pinched nerves.  We used it as part of a standard 30 minute treatment session.  

Developments in spinal decompression have come a long way since those primitive traction devices.  Indeed, traction per se created a divide amongst clinicians in its heyday: there were those like myself who found the tool a useful addition to manual therapy and there were others who saw too many shortcomings for it to be fully effective. 

One of the key shortcomings of traditional traction was the imprecise nature in which the treatment was applied, for example, the traction force was aimed non-specifically at the entire vertebrae and not at the particular segment we were trying to treat.  Moreover, as the linear ‘pull’ was unnatural to the body, it could actually cause muscles to spasm, leading to an increase in pressure and pain!  This meant that in order to ensure relative comfort for a patient, the treatment tended to be administered in short bursts of 10 to 15 minutes with a low traction force – which proved ineffective for many chronic conditions.

Around 2008 I began hearing about Intervertebral Differential Dynamics (IDD) Therapy, a non-surgical spinal decompression treatment which appeared to address the failings of traction quite systematically. 

These sophisticated IDD treatment machines were developed in the US in the late Nineties by a team of engineers and clinicians whose aim was to mechanically decompress the disc by improving upon traditional traction methods.

With modifications and revisions along the way and advances in computer technology, the team finally produced an FDA cleared class II decompression machine which, with computer-controlled forces directed at precise angles, was shown to distract targeted segments of the spine, e.g. L4/L5 from between 5 and 7mm – which had significant therapeutic implications. 

The decompression unit also included a unique oscillation feature capable of mobilising the joint at the point of maximum distraction – in much the same way as manual therapists mobilise other joints – but which given the strength of the spine, is difficult to do with the hands alone. 

Moreover, because the device used a gently progressing pulling force (sinusoidal waveform) which mimics the natural contraction mechanism of a muscle, the muscle remained relaxed and lengthened throughout the slow and consistent stretch without going into spasm.  Thus patients could enjoy the necessary higher pulling forces for longer, whilst remaining completely relaxed.

I read all of the clinical research papers on IDD Therapy but I was more interested to see the treatment in action and hear the experiences of clinicians in the UK who were already using it as part of a specialised rehabilitation programme for their herniated disc patients.

The clinicians I spoke to viewed IDD Therapy as a structured programme with patients having a series of regular hourly treatments spread over a number of weeks.  The sessions consisted of some heat therapy to warm up the target area followed by 25 minutes on the IDD machine. 

After the mechanical decompression, patients would have some cold therapy to prevent any temporary soreness caused by the soft tissues being worked in a new way.   Corrective exercise was introduced gradually as the programme progressed to help achieve lasting success.

I tried the treatment for myself on the latest IDD machine (the SDS Spina); I could really feel the differences which I’d heard and read about.  I decided to introduce the treatment at one of my clinics in April 2011.

In the last year the clinic has treated over a hundred patients with IDD Therapy.  These have tended to be patients with herniated or prolapsed discs whose symptoms of chronic back pain, neck pain and sciatica had prevailed despite standard manual treatments.  The clinical outcomes have been impressive: I would say that 70% of these patients have made good to excellent improvement.

A typical patient is 63 year old Rita from Chigwell who achieved an exceptional outcome with IDD Therapy after suffering for four years with an L1/2 disc bulge which surgeons would not operate on.  She had undergone countless manual treatments, facet joint injections and epidural injections without any lasting improvement.

After a series of IDD treatments she became pain and spasm-free and was able to return to work and carry out her daily household chores again.

Another patient had a considerable L4/5 disc bulge; after a programme of IDD Therapy the bulge had shrunk to less than a third of its size.

Although I have used IDD Therapy to treat acute pain, most IDD candidates have been in pain for several months, even years and have tried one or more manual treatments and/or injections without success.

For these patients, a programme of treatments spread over a number of weeks is necessary to achieve long lasting therapeutic changes to chronic conditions which have built up over time.

When patients first come to me, some are in so much pain that they are physically and emotionally exhausted and fearful of making the slightest movement.  Over the course of the IDD programme, we can help to change their outlook and expectations, setting them the realistic goal of becoming pain-free and being able to get back to their normal daily activities. 

We track all patients with research tools such as the Oswestry Disability Index, Visual Analogue Scale and other objective outcomes measures.

IDD Therapy is an invaluable treatment tool to me.  It has finally enabled me to offer something meaningful for disc patients which, in my experience, is preferable to surgery and more therapeutic than epidurals, nerve root blocks and facet joint injections.  

It’s hard to find a negative side to the treatment: an IDD session takes longer than a standard 30 minute manual treatment but we cannot cut elements of the session without having a detrimental effect on our treatment goals.  

By having IDD as a treatment tool to use alongside manual therapy, we are seeing more patients at the clinic and as our experience grows, we are better able to predict how to progress patients who of course, all have individual needs.

Since introducing IDD we have been able to treat several lumbar-surgery candidates; I know of patients who have been booked in for an operation and have tried IDD as a last resort and are now pain-free and active again.

Naturally, there are some patients who do not respond to treatment but generally speaking, my patients have had very good outcomes and from a personal perspective, it’s hugely satisfying to know that I have been able to do more for them.

Robert Shanks BSc (Hons) Ost     
www.SpinePlus.co.uk

For information about IDD Therapy, call Steadfast Clinics on 01279 602030 or visit www.iddtherapy.co.uk

Coventry Physiotherapy Clinic Makes Herniated Disc Treatment Available To Back Pain Sufferers

The physiotherapy department at BMI The Meriden Hospital in Coventry now offers IDD Therapy non-surgical spinal decompression to people with chronic back pain, neck pain and related conditions including sciatica.

BMI has a well earned reputation and the investment in non-surgical treatment options for back pain demonstrates a commitment to providing the best non-invasive solution opportunities for their patients.

Herniated discs are a common cause of back pain and neck pain and IDD Therapy provides a tool to enable clinician to target injured spinal segments.

Physiotherapy Manager David Robinson (right)
with Stephen Small. IDD Therapy

Typical candidates for IDD Therapy spinal decompression treatment are those who have suffered with back pain for more than three months and have failed to respond adequately to standard manual therapy treatment.


The Meriden Hospital in Coventry is part of BMI Healthcare, the UK’s largest private hospital group.

BMI The Meriden Hospital
University Hospital Site
Clifford Bridge Road
Coventry
Warwickshire
CV2 2LQ

To arrange a consultation or to find out more, contact the Physiotherapy Department direct on 024 7664 7080  www.bmihealthcare.co.uk/meriden

To get a detailed information document about IDD Therapy or to watch a video demonstration of treatment, visit www.iddtherapy.eu

Herniated Disc: Treatment options for a herniated disc, sometimes referred to as a ‘slipped’ disc

Are you one of the thousands of people in the UK whose Easter will be blighted by back pain or neck pain caused by a herniated disc ('slipped' disc)?  If so, read on for more details about herniated disc treatment ...

Everyone knows someone who suffers with their back.  After all, back pain is the second most popular reason for visiting the GP after the common cold.  

Back pain comes in many guises but a herniated, prolapsed or ‘slipped disc’ can result in intense pain and when unresolved, can be one of the most difficult types of back pain to relieve.

Slipped discs do not just happen to people who do manual work involving heavy lifting: a disc can become prolapsed simply by bending down to pick up a pen from the floor or by climbing the stairs to bed!

The spine is made up of 24 individual bones called vertebrae which are stacked on top of each other.  Discs are the protective circular pads of connective tissue in between – the ‘shock absorbers' which protect the spine when we run or jump.

We cause small weaknesses in our spine all day long such as prolonged sitting or standing in certain positions, for example at workstations or hunched over the ironing board.  If we then make a slightly awkward movement, it is possible to rupture the outer casing of the disc and the gel inside to bulge outwards – rather like a jam doughnut being squeezed!

Disc problems can also cause pain in other areas of the body, the most common of which is sciatica, a grinding pain which travels down the length of the leg.  Neck pain, headaches or numbness in the foot can also be a sign of a damaged disc.  So, what are your options for treatment?

Your first port of call should always be a good osteopath, chiropractor or physiotherapist who will have experience in disc-related problems.  With this type of manual therapy, you should see a marked improvement in you condition in 6-8 weeks.  At the same time, if you are in so much pain that you can’t sleep then your GP can prescribe you painkillers and/or anti-inflammatory medicines which can be taken alongside treatment.

If you are no better after 8 weeks of manual therapy, it can be advisable to get an MRI scan of your spine to confirm the nature of the injury or damage to the disc.

Before the stage of invasive treatments such as spinal injections, steroids or even surgery, IDD Therapy spinal decompression is used by clinicians of different backgrounds to provide targeted treatment for disc-related problems (as well as other chronic back pain and neck pain conditions).

Developed in the USA to address the shortcomings of traction, IDD Therapy involves the gentle ‘distraction’ (drawing apart) of specific spinal segments where discs are damaged or herniated (bulging).

The treatment uses computerised pulling forces to gently relieve pressure on the discs and any trapped nerves.  Whilst doing so it also works the muscles, helping to get more movement into the joints.  Coupled with rehabilitation exercises, IDD Therapy can offer lasting pain relief.

66 year old June from Sussex suffered for 20 years after injuring her back whilst lifting people in her job as a carer.  She says:

“This time last year I couldn’t do anything at home; gardening, swimming and even household chores such as ironing would cause me terrible pain which also brought on bad headaches.

IDD has been fantastic for me; I’m swimming and gardening again, going for walks with my husband and doing my usual daily chores with ease now.” 

If IDD Therapy is not a suitable option for your condition and your pain is signifcantly impacting on your life then you may need to talk to a surgeon or pain consultant.  Whatever your condition, it is always advisable to obtain a second opinion before you undertake certain procedures. 

For more details about IDD Therapy treatment and to get a patient information leaflet, visit www.IDDTherapy.eu