Dr. Gregory Futrell, DC, Salt Lake City, Discusses Low Back Pain

By Kevin Nimmo -

Dr. Gregory Futrell, DC, Salt Lake City, has practiced as a Board Licensed Chiropractic Physician in Salt Lake City for the last thirteen years. He is a graduate of Palmer College of Chiropractic and owns Canyon View Chiropractic where he specializes in treating athletes, professionals and many others seeking therapy and treatment for their conditions.

Dr. Futrell uses state of the art techniques to treat low back pain, headaches, neck pain, fatigue, sleep disorders and auto accident rehabilitation. Today we are focusing in on chronic low back pain and what therapies and corrective measures are available for rehabilitation and pain relief.

Dr. Futrell believes in the merits of Spinal Decompression Therapy for low back pain. He explains that the technology has been around quite some time but has just recently caught the public's attention with the introduction of some new devices. Therapy on these machines can be cost prohibitive he explains. Dr. Futrell added that he personally believes in the therapy, has successfully used it on many of his patients and believes in making it affordable for those that need it. He goes on to explain that he personally consults with every client to make sure they are an appropriate candidate for therapy.

We took a few minutes out of the doctor's busy schedule to ask him about Spinal Decompression Therapy, how it works and who it can help.

Doctor, what is spinal decompression therapy and how does it help to alleviate pain?

Dr. Futrell: Spinal decompression therapy is really a traction unit with intermittent degrees of pulled force, allowing mobility in the specific area, unlike static traction that has shown to be less effective. It's been found that as you are able to keep more of a pumping type action into the spine and into the joint it allows for the joint to hydrate more, creating more space, and allowing for the muscles to relax better, bringing the bulging disc or the herniated disc or even just the joint itself more space. How it helps alleviate the pain is to create more space in there, it takes pressures off those structures as well as any kind of spasm.

What specific symptoms does this therapy treat?

Dr. Futrell: It can help the low back, neck pain and radiating pain, such as sciatica or symptoms into the shoulder, arm and hand. The symptoms would be more or less the pain, spasms as well as numbness, tingling, pain or even weakness in some cases.

Is this an actual long term solution to the problem of a compressed or out of alignment disc in the patient's spine?

Dr. Futrell: It can be yes, absolutely. It's probably one of the best non-surgical ways of treating a disc or just the low back or joint problems in general. However, it's important to understand that even after the symptoms have been resolved, discs do not heal perfectly and the patient can be vulnerable to reinjuring it, even worse than before. I will council people on how they can maintain a strong and healthy back including recommendations on proper exercise, posture and activity. In many cases, during the treatment with Spinal Decompression I recommend the need to implement other types of therapy, specifically exercise and soft tissue massage

Is it possible to get ongoing treatment and still go about your normal activities?

Yes, that's what quite a few of my patients do.

How many treatments are necessary to see results?

The standard is usually close to about twenty visits but normally people will see some changes within the first couple of treatments. More than likely within the first ten treatments they will start to see a more substantial reduction of their symptoms.

Doctor, what considerations do you think are necessary to make certain you are a good candidate for this kind of therapy?

Dr. Futrell: MRI is always a good way to determine if you are a good candidate or even if they need other types of treatment. In many cases just the fact that they're having some signs of nerve impingement of the low back or up in the cervical spine. Usually the standard way of determining that is through an X-Ray or an MRI.

Is there another therapy that you recommend in conjunction with Spinal Decompression Therapy?

Dr. Futrell: I always recommend some kind of therapies, usually prior to the Spinal Decompression. It could range anywhere from soft tissue manipulation such as massage, far-infrared, some light therapy or physical therapy modalities such as ultra-sound or electrical muscle stimulation as well as adjustments. It could be any combination of these therapies prior to the Spinal Decompression Therapy. Afterwards, it's highly recommended, especially in the initial treatments, to employ ICE, some light range of motion or stretches after the treatment and then later on training them in some therapeutic exercises and stretches so they can maintain and stabilize that area.

Doctor, is there any reason for a patient to believe, once treated, that they will have to come back for more treatments sometime in the future?

Dr. Futrell: It's going to be case by case depending on how severe the bulge or herniation may have been. In most cases the nature of the disc is that it's not vascular, the tissue that is in the disc is very difficult to heal and so if there is any kind of disruption of the structure itself, whether it's stretched or torn, there's always going to be that possibility that it could be weakened. For that reason it's highly recommended that they continue to exercise and maintain that area. They have to really watch it so they don't slip back into a bad situation.

Doctor Futrell, thanks for giving us some background on Spinal Decompression Therapy

Dr. Futrell: You're welcome.

Dr. Gregory Futrell, D.C. Salt Lake City, operates Canyon View Chiropractic which offers a full range of chiropractic services including treatment for auto injuries, arthritis, sports injuries, headaches and migraines, osteoporosis and many other conditions. He can be contacted at 801-944-8700. His business website is canyonviewchiro.com

Kevin Nimmo is an online media strategist and writer. He interviews subject matter experts and educates his readers based on information provided by experts in their respective fields. He is also Executive Editor of The Western Medical Journal.