|
by Dr. Bill Almon, M.D., of Total HealthCare Medical Centers, 5/01/08
Integrative, Regenerative and Manual Medicine (IRM) has been around for some time but only in the last 7 years or so has it gotten widespread attention. IRM typically focuses on injuries or conditions involving ligaments, tendons, muscles, cartilage, and vertebral discs commonly occurring in athletics, repetitive motion syndromes, age related degeneration, and accidents.
Many sufferers of chronic pain who have had disappointing results using strong drugs, cortisone injections and/or surgery are finding not only pain-relief from IRM but even a reversal effect for such problems as cartilage-loss, arthritis, tendonitis and herniated discs. The key difference is IRM’s focus on treating the cause of a condition rather than just the symptoms. Treatment measures may include: bio-therapeudic injectables, physical medicine, chiropractic manipulation, nutrition, neural therapy and other techniques.
“Most patients I see have tried chiropractic, physical therapy or Medications, but almost none have ever tried a multi-disciplinary approach” says Dr. Bill Almon, M.D., of Total HealthCare Medical Centers. “While we can’t help everyone, I have seen some amazing changes in many of the patients that we treat, from partial restoration of lower back disc thickness to accelerated cartilage growth for an arthritic knee”.
The idea behind IRM (Integrative, Regenerative and Manual Medicine) is relatively simple and centers around the fact that the body has a lot of what it needs to begin healing itself but needs a helping hand or a trigger to initiate its own healing mechanisms. For example: when injected into the damaged tissue or area, bio-therapeutic medicines produce a mild but helpful inflammation, thereby “tricking“ the body into thinking another injury has occurred and launches a course of natural repair and healing. Such injections stimulate blood vessel growth into tissues. This increases oxygen, nutrients and growth factor delivery to the areas in the joint structure thereby facilitating healing.
In the case of an arthritic joint or a degenerated joint, bio-therapeutic injections can add synovial fluid (a critical joint lubricant present in most of our joints) or induce the joint itself to start producing the vital lubricant. This alone can greatly slow down or in some cases start reversing the degenerative and insidious affects of arthritis.
“These treatments work because they are combined together and super-charge the body’s healing powers. The patients that I see have often been suffering for years and understand that because these treatments are focused on fixing the cause not just masking the symptoms, it does take time to trigger the body to start regenerating new tissue to start the healing process but these treatments have no downtime for the patients,” according to Dr. Almon.
Happily, most IRM treatments are covered by Medicare and commercial health insurance plans.
Total HealthCare Regenerative & Physical Medicine is located in Norcross and has been helping chronic pain sufferers for 8 years, using the latest IRM practices. To schedule a complimentary consultation, call 770-416-9995.
|