♪ Bob and Brad the two most famous physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
(claps)
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- We are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our own opinion, of course, Bob.
- Hey, good news.
If you're diagnosed with DDD,
degenerative disc disease, you must know this.
- Absolutely, Bob.
- I'm waiting to hear what you're going to be saying
about this, Brad. - Bob.
- 'Cause, how can that be good news?
- Believe me, if you're diagnosed with it,
you really want to listen up 'cause this is good news.
But,--
- All right, if you're new to our channel,
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Right now we're giving away the RENPHO Massage Pillow.
We're giving away a couple of these.
Really nice device or if you have DDD.
- [Brad] Right, yeah, it's good for the back muscles,
that's for sure. - Yeah, for sure.
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All right, so what it this DDD, Brad?
- Well, Bob, before we get too far into this.
- Disease.
- Well, degenerative disc disease,
a friend of mine 25 years ago,
distinctly remember this, he said he was diagnosed with it.
He was about 25 years old, he's a hunter, fisherman,
physical job and he was very concerned he was gonna--
- Oh I bet you he thought his life was over.
- Well, he figured by the time he was 40,
he was gonna be done with--
- Yeah, in a wheelchair, he probably thought.
- And today he's almost retired.
He's in the upper 50s like us
and he's still working the same job.
He still hunts.
He still fishes and he's planning in retirement,
to do the same thing.
So, what's the big deal?
- Right.
- So, how did this occur?
So, we're gonna tell you,
as a matter of fact, in a sense,
I have degenerative disc disease at one level.
- I probably do too.
- Right.
- I mean-- - Exactly.
- So, the first thing, if you do some research on this,
and you look at it, it's a misnomer, Bob.
It's really not a disease.
It's a condition of natural aging process.
- Right, it's just like gray hair
and wrinkles on the outside,
you're gonna have stuff going on in the inside.
- Exactly, exactly. - It's deteriorating.
- As a matter of fact, there was a study done on people
between the ages of 40 to 59
and one third of those people had some degree of DDD.
And they had, you know, many of them had no symptoms--
- Right.
- Just a matter that the discs, the fluid in the discs
starts to decrease.
Well, let's show them.
- Yeah, let's show them.
- All right, I don't have my pen here.
- So, this is absolutely true with that--
- I'm gonna use your pen, Liz.
(Bob laughs)
- [Liz] All right.
(Bob and Brad laugh)
Okay, so here we've got the spine
and you see the discs between each vertebrae.
They're thick, the vertebrae are thick
and now look at this one.
The red is just so you can see it better.
But this disc is thinner than these,
than the rest of them.
- [Bob] The water has drained out of it.
- Yeah, it comes out over time.
- [Bob] Right.
- [Brad] I'm not gonna get into the story of (mumbles)
how discs work every day,
but the discs slowly decreases in height
and that is degenerative disc disease
and it happens to pretty much everyone as you age.
- [Bob] Right.
- Okay, particularly in the 50s and 60s and so on.
So, the body typically does adjust to it.
- Right, the body is amazing on how it adapts
to these issues.
- Right.
- So-- - And the other part is,
both Bob and I have been reading this book
by a PHD and he's an expert in the low back,
treating low back pain-- - Yeah, He is, he is the guy.
Stuart McGill - Yep, Stuart McGill.
And what he says, he states that often times
the disease is misdiagnosed,
Which I have a feeling may be what happened to my friend.
- Sure.
- But, you know, one way or another, he's doing,
you know quite well.
- Even if you have it,
it may not be that big an issue.
And it may not be causing your pain.
- Right.
- It may be something else and if you,
and you may not have it.
That's the two issues we're going to bring up.
- So, if you do have it, which is a good chance you do
as you get older and it is causing your pain,
which is very possible.
The other good news is it takes care of itself over time
and as you get older things settle and the body adapts.
As a matter of fact, I got proof of that with my back.
I'll show you.
Oh, I've still got your pen, Liz.
Here's x-rays of my back in 2013.
This might be, I'm gonna try to.
Why don't you grab the spine, here.
So, this is looking at me from the side.
- Which way are you (mumbles)
- Facing--
- This way. - Yep.
- Okay.
So the sacrum is here and then the vertebrae are here.
So, here is the sacrum, I got it outlined with black
so you can see it.
The L5 vertebrae, here, and L4,
this is also spinal esthesis,
but if you look at this disc,
it's degenerative to the point
where it does not exist at all.
- [Bob] It's gone.
- [Brad] It's gone.
This disc is about 50% gone.
So, these two discs definitely have DDD,
they have stenosis here and spinal esthesis.
So, this back is not a healthy back.
Again, these are my x-rays from 2013
and at that point, I had these x-rays
when my back was pretty painful.
I had nothing done with it,
with the exception of conservative treatment, my exercises.
- [Bob] Sure.
- [Brad] And now seven years later,
I'm hunting, I'm fishing--
- [Bob] Right.
- [Brad] I'm doing triathlons.
It's still, I still gotta watch what I'm doing.
- [Bob] Right.
- But I'm not--
- And you're, this is an extreme case, here.
- Yeah.
- It gets to the point where they fuse--
- Right.
So, if that gives you any hope, if you are,
if you haven't been diagnosed and you have back pain,
you can improve with it.
- Yeah, generally, I don't remember the exact years,
but you know the painful years are like from 20 to 40,
20 to 45 or something like that.
And things start to work their way out.
- Right.
- Not that you're gonna have pain
throughout those entire years,
but I'm saying, there's a good thing to aging.
(laughs)
- Yeah, the discs actually start to get more rigid.
- Right.
- They're not going to continually degenerate.
- They're not going to bulge on you as much,
and they're not goin to herniate on you as much.
- Right, and that's all good news.
Other thing is surgery is an exception.
There are not people that have surgery
as a result of DDD.
- Okay, so, if that makes you feel better as well,
what are you gonna do?
What are the conservative treatments that you're gonna do?
- So, you're saying, I'm sorry, I didn't follow you on that.
Surgery is not an option?
- No, it's an option but it's not done very often.
- All right, right.
- It's, yeah, it's the exception.
- Yeah. - Yeah, that was--
- It's very rarely done.
- Right.
- Okay, great, gotcha.
- Thanks for--
(Bob mumbles)
- 'Cause I'm sure if you didn't understand it,
a lot of our viewers were thinking the same thing.
- So, these are the things that we try to do with treatment.
- Right.
And we're not gonna go into a lot of detail,
but the big thing is avoid movements
that irritate your back.
So, if bending over to lift things up irritate your back,
you're gonna have to change how you bend, avoid lifting,
avoid bending, but--
- Well, really, the thing is learning to do it correctly.
- Right.
- I mean, 'cause you really want
very little movement in the back.
All the movement is coming from the hips.
- Yep.
- When they tell you to lift with your legs,
it's not just lift with your legs,
it's also not bend your back.
- There you go.
- And, you know, we're gonna have some in depth videos
on these coming up.
- Right.
- But, you know, if you can learn
to lift right without pain,
tighten up your stomach.
You can knock your pain levels down to the point
that they are gone.
- Right, exactly the whole point of this.
The other thing is avoid twisting.
- Yes.
- A lot of twisting and your body is gonna tell you.
If you do movements and it creates pain,
your body is telling you--
- Everybody, they're yelling at us right now, Brad.
I can here them say right now,
well I have to twist sometimes.
No, you don't.
You just move your hips along with it.
So instead of going like this,
you go like this.
- Right.
- You move your entire body.
You learn movement patterns.
- Sure.
- Kind of hard in the car,
but that's why they got video cameras.
- That's why they got video cameras in the car, right.
- And that's, a lot of times your neck,
you can do it--
- Sure. - Not your back.
- Yep. - So.
- So, bending, lifting, all those things,
we're gonna have a lot of videos
on these types of treatments.
- Right.
- The next thing is, if you need a hot pack,
if you respond well to a hot pack,
we're gonna give you some information right now.
- Yeah, we actually like Thermotex Infrared,
because normal heat just penetrates a few millimeters.
- Skin deep basically.
- Yeah, and this Thermotex or infrared heat
actually penetrates 60 millimeters or six centimeters.
- 2.36 inches - Inches, yep.
- According to studies
- So, Brad and I use this on a regular basis.
I mean, I use it as preventative.
It's really nice as things are starting to get cold.
Because I have this in my chair,
I just leave it on.
- Right.
- I used to turn it off.
I leave it on now.
- I did turn mine off this morning
'cause I was a little conscience of it.
But, yeah, this goes in my recliner with my lumbar support
and then this is on top of it.
- It does come with straps.
Are we gonna try this Brad or not?
- Sure, well, yeah.
- It's under pressure.
You want to hold it right there.
So, what's nice about this is you can put
this on and you can actually work with it
'cause it's got a six foot cord
and if you have to go to the bathroom or something,
you just unplug it like this and come back to it later then.
- Right and this works good if you're at a computer station
or if you're working with something
where you don't obviously have to walk more
than six feet away.
- I honestly think this is part of your success too, Brad.
I mean, when you can, you can get some deep heat
some healing, every night.
- Right.
- I think it's just gonna make things a lot better.
- Right.
The heat's gonna increase circulation,
it's gonna relax the muscles, allow things to heal.
'Cause, it's not gonna be a fast process,
but you can accelerate it.
So, and the other thing, and there are some red flags.
- Yep.
- You know, if you are having severe pain,
particularly if you're having pain, numbness, tingling
going down one of your legs.
You need to see the doctor.
- Yeah, there are things we can do, you can try.
- Right.
- And we'll be going over that in the future too.
It's basically nerve flossing and you know,
when you're having radicular signs.
- Right, pain down the leg, so, we've got more answers,
but, again, there's times when you do need
to see the doctor.
And maybe there are some things that need to be done
by professional help.
- Right, yep, exactly.
- Well, remember, Brad and I can fix just about anything.
- Except for--
- A broken back.
- Oh.
- No, a broken heart. - Broken heart, Bob.
Well, we're working on it.
I was talking to somebody today at the Y about it
but we didn't get too far.
- Did you give them relationship advice?
No?
- Well, no, he, there was a,
we don't want to get into it, Bob.
I'm working on it.
- All right, thanks.