SOHMA Integrative Medicine

We offer the best of Eastern & Western medicine without using drugs or surgery

Back Pain

Is Laser Therapy Beneficial for Back Pain

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Laser Therapy is Beneficial for Back Pain

The thought of using lasers to help reduce back pain seems like something straight out of a sci-fi movie. This isn’t fiction though, and many people have found pain relief through laser therapy. Every year an average of 65 million Americans suffer from back pain. Though back pain can sometimes be managed with proper rest, stretching and exercise, there are 16 million adults who’s chronic back pain causes limitations on basic everyday activities. 

Luckily there are a few ways to manage back pain without resorting to invasive surgeries or pain pills that only hide the symptoms of pain and never get to the root cause of it. Chiropractic care, medical massages, spinal decompression therapy and acupuncture have shown to help many patients suffering from back pain get a handle on their condition. 

Today we’re going to go over what causes back pain and how laser therapy can be beneficial for patients who have to endure back pain.

What Causes Back Pain?

As previously stated, there are millions of Americans affected by back pain making it a relatively common condition. This means there are many causes of both acute and chronic back pain, including:

  • Herniated/Bulging Disc
  • Fibromyalgia
  • Muscle Strains/Sprain
  • Injury
  • Poor Posture
  • Lifestyle Choices
  • Aging

Many people ignore back pain assuming it was caused by sleeping awkwardly and don’t do anything about it. Oftentimes it’s not really a cause for concern, but why take the risk? If left ignored, even a minor pain can develop into debilitating chronic back pain.

What is Laser Therapy?

As futuristic sounding as it is, lasers are being used to help patients manage their back pain. This new therapy is now offered at SOHMA Integrative Medicine of Long Beach. We use Erchonia’s FX 635 laser which has resulted in a 72% success rate in their clinical trial. In May of 2018 the FDA cleared this medical device for use in helping patience reduce pain and accelerate the natural healing abilities of the body.

When treated with laser therapy, the skin is exposed to light particles. Which are absorbed by the cell’s mitochondria triggering the production of a natural occurring chemical called adenosine triphosphate. Adenosine triphosphate is in charge of fueling the body’s cellular processes. By increasing production of adenosine triphosphate the body’s blood circulation may improve and speed up our natural healing abilities. The cells exposed to the lasers remain unharmed throughout the therapy, and return to their normal processes afterwards.

While a new form of alternative pain relief, laser therapy is considered a viable treatment option for people who are looking to manage their back pain while avoiding drugs and surgeries. 

Why Choose Laser Therapy?

The majority of health experts would agree that non-invasive treatments are often preferable to surgery whenever available. Other common forms of pain management includes over-the- counter NSAIDs like aspirin or ibuprofen which only reduce pain temporarily, and come with their own side effects. While prescribed painkillers can significantly reduce pain, many of them have a high addiction risk.

Laser therapy can provide effective pain relief at an affordable cost, without the risks involved with surgeries and pharmaceuticals. Typical side effects include soreness or swelling which lasts for only a few hours, and in rare cases some patients report some bruising which fades away after a few days. Compared to surgeries which can take months to recover from laser therapy effectively has no down time.

Take the Next Step In Improving Your Health by Contacting SOHMA Integrative Medicine

Our goal is to help you improve your health. You can reach out to us and ask us about the Myers Cocktail, IV Therapy, Chiropractic care, or how our other health service lines can help you with your journey to improved health. 

Located in Long Beach, CA we help individuals from the surrounding cities.

We look forward to helping you take the next step in your journey to better health.

5 Benefits of Spinal Decompression Therapy

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Spinal Decompression Therapy Can Be A Non-Surgical Option for Back Pain

Millions of Americans deal with back pain every year. Typically your spine can become compressed after injury, improper posture, age or lifestyle choices. Many of these issues can be dealt with by properly resting, stretching or using heating pads in the affected area. Though if left ignored, the pain can lead to bulging discs, chronic back pain, and nerve issues. 

Non-surgical spinal decompression therapy is an alternative treatment for many different causes of back pains and is now offered at SOHMA Integrated Medicine in Long Beach. There are many different benefits of treating your back pain with non-surgical spinal decompression therapy and today we’ll be going over 5 of them. 

Benefit #1 Reduce Back Pain

People suffering from back pain tend to ignore it or they may say something like “I must have slept wrong” and assume the pain will be gone by the next day. Sometimes this does happen however, in some cases they can be making the problem worse. Back pain can be caused by a number of reasons including:

  • Bulging disc
  • Muscle sprain/strain
  • Fracture
  • Tumors
  • Age
  • Lack of Exercise
  • Smoking
  • Injury

Back pain is not limited to just one reason, and can usually be made worse when you continue doing whatever triggered the pain in the first place.

Non-surgical spinal decompression has been used to treat symptoms and conditions including:

  • Neck and Back Pain
  • Herniated Disc
  • Degenerative Disc Disease
  • Injuries
  • Sciatica

The firm yet gentle stretching of your spine during decompression therapy helps to remove tension, re-aline discs, and reduce pressure on the nerves. This results in less back pain in patients.

Benefit #2 Retract Herniated Discs

Bulging discs often occur when the spine is under too much pressure and the soft center of a spinal disc is pushed through a crack in the outer casing. Patients have stated they sometimes hear a popping sound followed by pain or weakness in their arms or legs, while others have no symptoms. 

Although not every herniated disc requires treatment if you have noticed symptoms of a herniated disc, non-surgical spinal decompression therapy is a great alternative to relieving pain compared to invasive surgeries, or addictive pharmaceuticals.

Benefit #3 Relieve Nerve Pressure

Nerve pain can be some of the worst pain some people can experience. Nerve pain is often described as feeling like shooting, burning, stabbing or shocking pain sometimes without stimulation. Nerve pain can sometimes be temporary, it can be caused by injury, trauma or infection and occasionally it may develop into peripheral neuropathy.

Non surgical spinal decompression therapy stretches the spine and muscles allowing them to relax, reducing tension and pressure from nearby nerves. This encourages nutrient and oxygen rich blood to flow to the affected area to promote healing.

Benefit #4 Can Help Prevent Surgery

Spinal surgery can be dangerous, expensive and a time consuming procedure. Recovery from surgeries usually can take anywhere from a couple of days to months to recover. Many times as part of surgery recovery, you may also be prescribed powerful pain suppressants that have their own negative side effects.

Depending on your condition, non-surgical spinal decompression can be a viable option instead of surgery. Many conditions that would previously require surgery can now be treated with spinal decompression therapy, such as bulging and herniated discs, and degenerative disc disease just to name a few.

Benefit #5 Virtually No Recovery Time

As previously stated, spinal surgery can take months to make a full recovery. Oftentimes recovery included pain pills and physical therapy. Spinal decompression therapy requires virtually no down time after a treatment session. Most patients don’t have pain or negative experiences during spinal decompression therapy, in fact some find it relaxing and even fall asleep while on the spinal traction table.

Take the Next Step In Improving Your Health by Contacting SOHMA Integrative Medicine

Our goal is to help you improve your health. You can reach out to us and ask us about the Myers Cocktail, IV Therapy, Chiropractic care, or how our other health service lines can help you with your journey to improved health. 

Located in Long Beach, CA we help individuals from the surrounding cities.

We look forward to helping you take the next step in your journey to better health.

What is Laser Therapy for Back Pain?

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Laser therapy is a modern and proven treatment to help with back pain

Back pain is a problem nearly 65 million Americans suffer with every year. While about 16 million adults suffer from chronic back pain that forces limitations for some everyday activities. Due to back pain being such a common problem, there is a wide variety of causes including some of the following conditions:

  • Herniated disk
  • Fibromyalgia
  • Muscle strains
  • Muscle sprains
  • Injury
  • Poor posture

Fortunately there are many ways to help ease chronic back pains without resorting to surgery or prescription pharmaceuticals that only temporarily reduce pain and rarely treat the underlying problem.

Treatments like chiropractic adjustments, medical massages, acupuncture, and non-surgical spinal decompression are great alternative options to treat back pain.

However, today we’re going to be exploring laser therapy, and how it can help with back pain.

What is Cold Laser Therapy?

When a patient is treated with laser therapy, the skin is exposed to the particles of lights which are then absorbed by the mitochondria of the cells triggering the production of adenosine triphosphate. Adenosine triphosphate is a natural occurring chemical responsible for fueling the body’s cellular processes. Exposure to the light from the laser may improve blood circulation and speed up the process of healing. Afterward, the cells exposed to the lasers are completely unharmed and return to their normal processes.

SOHMA Integrative Medicine of Long Beach CA is excited to offer Cold Laser Therapy. This FDA cleared medical device is used to help reduce pain and accelerate the body’s natural healing.

Using Erchonia’s FX 635 laser resulted in a 72% success rate in their clinical trial, which received market clearance by the FDA in May of 2018. Laser therapy treatment of lower back pain has been shown to be a safer, more effective option that may result in patients going back to their day-to-day life in no time. Low level lasers can be used to effectively reduce and eliminate chronic pain in the back, neck and shoulders.

Is Laser Therapy for Me?

Absolutely, laser therapy is extremely safe. For the majority of people, there is very little to no sensation during treatment. They may feel a mild warmth as the laser is being used but there is no pain. Patients claim laser therapy is calming and relaxing, with some patients falling asleep during the therapy.

In some cases some patients report soreness or swelling though this lasts for only a few hours. In extreme cases some bruising may appear, but this is typically harmless and will fade away after a few days.

There are some people who should consider other forms of relief for their back pain like the aforementioned acupuncture, chiropractic, or medical massages. For patients with suspected cancerous lesions or carcinoma as the laser can have a negative reaction to the skin. Due to not enough research being done on how the laser may affect an unborn child, pregnant women are not recommended to undergo this procedure.

Laser therapy is an exciting new practice that feels like it’s straight out of science fiction. It unlocks some of the natural healing power our bodies have, which is incredibly powerful. While new, it is still considered a viable alternative treatment option for those seeking to relieve back pain without taking addictive opioids or risking expensive and invasive surgeries. Laser therapy is great as a standalone treatment or as a complementary treatment with chiropractic or acupuncture, ask the helpful staff at SOHMA if you have any further questions about laser therapy.

Take the Next Step In Improving Your Health by Contacting SOHMA Integrative Medicine

Our goal is to help you improve your health. You can reach out to us and ask us about the Myers Cocktail, IV Therapy, Chiropractic care, or how our other health service lines can help you with your journey to improved health. 

Located in Long Beach, CA we help individuals from the surrounding cities.

We look forward to helping you take the next step in your journey to better health.

Benefits of Spinal Decompression

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Doctor showing spinal section

Let’s get one important item out of the way. Back pain is difficult. Whether it’s lower back pain, pain from discs or pain in your legs because of issues with your back it can have an extremely negative impact on your quality of life.

Spinal decompression is an alternative treatment. It’s a treatment method designed to help alleviate the pain in your back.

One of the reasons we like recommending spinal decompression is because it is a non-surgical alternative.

We aren’t against surgery however if surgery can be avoided and you can avoid going “under the knife” so to speak we believe it’s worth looking at all of your options.

What is Spinal Decompression?

Spinal decompression is a process where your spine is gently stretched. This is a process that is done with a doctor who is trained, a very specific table, and a computer.

We perform this type of therapy at our Long Beach, CA facility to help those within the community who are looking for alternatives to surgery. 

We have had patients look at the table or have seen pictures and say it looks like a modern version of something they read about in medieval history class. Rest assured this is a very expensive piece of equipment that is designed to help those with very specific issues.

A few of the physical ailments we use to the spinal decompression table for are:

  • Bulging discs
  • Sciatica
  • Worn spinal joints
  • Leg pain where the pain is caused by issues in alignment with the spine

We could go into more detail however we hope you get the idea that spinal decompression is pretty cool, advanced, and may help you avoid surgery. 

Let’s look at some specific benefits. At any time you can call our office to see if it’s right for you.

Benefit #1: Provides Pain Relief

When muscles are tight, spasming, or injured it can be extremely painful. We have yet to meet someone who wanted more pain in their lives. One of the benefits of spinal decompression is that it can provide pain relief. We can guide the equipment to provide relief to your muscles. The gentle stretching provides relief and can help stimulate the nervous system.

Benefit #2: Helps to restore spinal disc and joint alignment

A body out of alignment is a body that is not functioning at full capacity. Think of it like your car. When a car is out of alignment everything is affected. Tires wear unevenly, suspension takes on additional wear and tear, and the car is difficult to drive. 

The same type of thing happens to your body when it is out of alignment. Spinal decompression is a treatment method where we can gently guide your body back into alignment. You then end up with less wear and tear and pain.

Benefit #3: Relieves pressure on spinal nerves

Pressure can be a good thing when you are trying to achieve your best in an athletic event. Pressure is not good when it is applied to your spinal nerves. Spinal nerves can get pinched and when they do the pain will radiate and you will be in nearly constant discomfort.

We have seen nerves pinched in discs and bones. Using spinal decompression we were able to guide the body to heal without surgery. Patients ended up in less pain and an improved quality of life.

Take the Next Step In Improving Your Health by Contacting SOHMA Integrative Medicine

Our goal is to help you improve your health. You can reach out to us and ask us if we are right for you. Located in Long Beach, CA we help individuals from Long Beach and the surrounding cities.

We look forward to helping you take the next step in your journey to better health.