We all have the miracle of engineering but a nightmare when something goes wrong. Yes, we all have a spine and thus back pain at times. There are new great treatments available so lets go sign up. Ugh! My aching back. If the highly addictive pain killer pills don’t ruin your life there is always the Frankenstein operations you can get in the past where they literally put in some screws and bolts around your spine. By the way, you just might get paralyzed along the way. UGH! There has to be a better way to elevate back pain!

Look at the human spine that makes ballerinas graceful, gymnasts able and you to be able to bend and stretch. Notice I do not have great expectations for us. The spine has 24 vertebrae that are cushioned by gelatinous disks and the little facet joints that help make your back flexible. All the ligaments and muscles and nerves are surrounded by the spine’s complexities and is a miracle of engineering. Or, it can be a curse when something goes wrong.

Eight out of ten Americans will experience awful back pain sometime in their lives. The most common cause is the invertible disc that is sometimes herniated or just worn or non lubricated. The bones press on nerve and in essence the lubricants get squeezed out. So, like a dry squeaky door, it will hurt when you move. Ironically, 90% of injures heal themselves after a few weeks especially with physical therapy. But waiting it out can be torture and not everyone heals.

So, then surgery comes in. Nearly 1.2 million Americans go through spinal surgery each year. The number is staggering because it is triple the number of heart related coronary bypasses at 415,000 and nearly 4 times the number of hip replacements at 327,000 each year. Approximately 300,000 of those back surgeries were a thing called spinal fusions where the vertebrae are joined surgically so they can’t move. They are often held in place permanently by metal screws or rods. Yes, just like Frankenstein.

For many people, surgery is the only answer and still a nightmare. But now there is Doctor Kevin Pauser who is the founder of the Texas Spine & Joint Hospital in Tyler, Texas. He believes that this Frankenstein fusion is the wrong answer. Since the spine should be able to bend with every movement that we make, immobilizing it with nuts and bolts is not the answer. So, imagine a procedure that repairs and grows discs. It is minimally effasive outpatient surgery.

His inspiration came when he thought of how an ordinary cut heals. It is 2 products that are in everyone’s body. Stuff called Thrombin and Fibrinolysis Inhibitors. These two components come together and magically eventually your cut will heal. Together they make a substance called Fibrin. This Doctor takes this stuff in a concentrated form and injects it directly into your disc and the glue like substance travels through all tears and around the disc like a lubricant causing less stress and NO PAIN.

Over time the substance acts like a sealant and eventually allows the disc to regrow. The actual procedure takes about 5 minutes. There is no incision, no nuts and bolts. Just a goopy natural healing substance taken from a human body to heal a human body. It sure makes more sense to me than what the mad scientists have been doing to us lately, filling our bodies with metal and plastics and making us ingest addictive harmful pain killer pills that work very temporally.

In about 7 weeks the healing process is complete. He doesn’t have Food and Drug Administration approval yet . Phase 3 clinical trials are going on now and results are expected by 2015. He successfully has treated thousands of his patients in this way with a 86% success rate even though he only has a private practice that has been in existence for 6 years. There are many testimonies from people who were bed ridden or who suffered from serious car accidents who claim their lives are better with this new procedure.

The North American Spine Society has just published a paper called “Spine Line” on the latest experimental therapies involving disc restoration. The article was titled “Biologic Treatments for Discogenic Low Back Pain.” Soon, this is the future for back pain treatment for all. So, get your loved ones out of their pain doldrums and investigate this or stem cell, or protein growth substances to get them erect and well so you can get back into those positions you loved to be in years ago that stimulated your relationships.