Stuart McGill is a Professor of biomechanics. He has written several texbooks over his career with his latest Back Mechanic which is focused on the individual with back pain. Compared to previous books, this text is written more to the lay person while previous texts have been more to the academic audiences.
As many of you know, I have developed realistic models to help in the better understanding of pain and the solutions that accompany. Dynamic Disc Designs models are gaining more and more interest in the world and recently Stuart McGill used the model in a video.
Here you can see Professor Stuart McGill using my model saying: “over time, the collagen fibres of the disc will slowly delaminate and fatigue. Here is exactly what happens. I am going to flex the model to mimic a round back…..I don’t know how much more evidence you want?”
In my practice, I have the luxury of having all the models at my fingertips to help my patients understand why their problems are there and then I work to craft a strategy to heal the tissue. Stuart McGill has been an important piece of my spine education so I am thrilled to have one of my teachers using the models that I have personally handcrafted for better spine outcomes.
I developed these models to empower the patient with the knowledge to heal.
Let’s take what we have known for quite some time now….that disc height loss is often at the root of back pain. This could be argued but if you look at all the common diagnostic labels out there for back pain (namely: degenerative disc, disc bulge, disc herniation, facet arthrosis, facet arthritis, spinal stenosis, lumbar instability, spondylolisthesis, sciatica, disc herniation, disc protrusion) one common theme emerges when you look carefully. It is disc height loss.
This is one of the reasons that when I work to help my patients, I work to increase disc height loss because if you can improve this geometrical state, there is a very good chance that you can improve the underlying mechanism.
Disc height changes are dynamic and if you can learn to improve the spacing between the vertebra, many low back conditions can be treated. An appreciation of the natural changes over the course of the day and night is first. Second is to work to improve the spacing through proper posture and a conscientious effort to how one moves. The models I create help patients understand this accurately.
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