* Do our loved ones & friends KNOW ?
* Note taken from Health Sciences Institute e-Alert - Jenny Thompson - 4/22/16
Dear Reader,
It’s one of the most dangerous and potentially life-wrecking surgeries around.
But the mainstream would have you believe that it’s as routine as a dental cleaning.
If you or someone you love has been suffering from chronic back pain, there’s a good chance you’re going to hear all about the wonders of spinal fusion surgery.
A surgeon fuses bones in your spine together with grafts, plates, rods, and screws — and they’re meant to stay there for the rest of your life.
But despite all the big promises the mainstream is making, a new study has found that spinal fusions are doing a better job of making surgeons rich than healing backs.
And if you’re not careful, this risky operation could shorten or even end your life — all without doing a thing to relieve your pain.
Watch your back
It looks like when some surgeons examine your spine, all they see are dollar signs.
And lots of them.
A report by CBS News a couple years back found that the number of spinal fusion surgeries had increased by a whopping 70 percent in just 10 years.
And, trust me, it’s not because our backs are getting worse. It’s because a spinal fusion operation can cost upwards of $150,000 — and some surgeons are performing hundreds of them a year.
But while spinal fusions are creating a new round of mainstream millionaires, lots of patients are ending up in more pain and misery than ever before.
Some are even dying.
A new study out of Sweden took a look at just how useless spinal fusion operations often are, and how much damage they’re causing.
Researchers from the Stockholm Spine Center followed nearly 250 patients who were treated for spinal stenosis, a condition where the spinal canal narrows and nerves get pinched.
It’s also a common reason lots of people end up getting spinal fusion.
Patients received either a decompression procedure or decompression combined with fusion. (In decompression surgery a doctor cuts away pieces of bone to relieve the pressure on spinal nerves.)
After five years, the folks who got spinal fusion didn’t fare any better than the people who didn’t. They weren’t walking any better, weren’t in any less pain, and their quality of life didn’t improve one bit.
In other words, the fusion surgery was totally useless. It was $150,000 flushed right down the toilet.
And while spinal fusion didn’t do a thing to relieve patients’ pain, it put lots of them right in harm’s way.
Patients in the fusion group spent almost twice as long in the hospital, which meant lost work, more exposure to hospital-acquired infections and a bigger risk of side effects.
And that’s not all. In spinal fusion, problems like blood clots are common. It can even cause nerve damage that can make you lose sensation in your legs and destroy your bladder and bowel control.
One study found that when fusions are complex, as many as one in 20 of these procedures can lead to complications that could even kill you.
When you’re suffering from chronic back pain, you’ll do anything for relief. And the mainstream will bend over backwards to make you think that spinal fusion is the answer to your prayers.
But the fact is, before you sign on the dotted line for any surgical procedure on your spine — whether it’s decompression, fusion, or anything else — it’s important to be aware of the non-surgical options available.
For example:
- Chiropractic treatments may be able to help open up the space between the vertebrae and relieve some of the pressure on nerves.
- Acupuncture has been found in several studies to be incredibly effective (and safe) when it comes to relieving back pain.
- Lumbar braces or corsets can help give support if you have weak abdominal muscles and help you regain more strength and movement in your back.
Whatever you try, remember that spinal fusion is a risky procedure that may do more to fatten your surgeon’s bottom line than help your back pain.
It’s a last resort, not the first option.
To Your Good Health,
Jenny Thompson
Sources:
“Spinal fusion not always necessary for back pain” NewsMax, April 14, 2016, newsmax.com
“Tapping into controversial back surgeries” Ben Eisler, CBS News, cbsnews.com
Cathy
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Steve
Spinal fusion surgery is just another fad happening in the medical/industrial/pharmaceutical industry. I remember back in the late ’60’s, ’70’s and early ’80’s every women over the age of thirty who had had at least one child had her uterus and ovaries removed at the slightest hint of an ache or pain in her abdomen. This too was just another fad. Sadly this went on for years and years and years until someone started yelling about how unbeneficial it was. By that time most of the damage had been done and the medical profession and doctors had already made their Billions. Again, it never ceases to amaze me how people will rile against the military/industrial complex but leave the medical/industrial/pharma complex alone. Just shows how brainwashed we are into believeing that medicine can do not wrong and by-gosh by-golly we deserve all the medical care we can get. May the Lord have mercy.
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Ma, it’s why I’ve always gone to Bonati Spine Inst. in Florida, because they do minimally invasive, no fusions, no cages, and it’s been wonderful . Dr. Bonati invented this 36 years ago and he’s amazing. They’re opening another Bonati in Vegas for the west coast people.
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