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Two Houston-area men lose pain and pounds thanks to their chiropractor
Two Houston-area men discuss how their chiropractor enhanced their quality of life in unexpected ways.
HOUSTON - There’s a second generation of chiropractors who are using high-tech tools to quickly treat the root of the problem. We caught up with two local men who still can’t believe how their chiropractor enhanced their quality of life in unexpected ways.
Keith Otto was feeling down on his luck in the health department. In a last-ditch effort, he sought help at Sandstone Health.
"When I first went to Sandstone, I was on heavy medication because I was extremely inflamed and having to get injections just to function. I couldn’t walk, couldn't even get on the adjustment table," exclaims Keith.
He was trying to recover from back surgery.
"It went downhill pretty quickly and it was like I was going backwards again, having major flare-ups over the simplest things," Keith explains.
He didn't even know he had neck problems until he was diagnosed at Sandstone. They realized it was triggering his back problems, so he started spinal decompression, which involves traction that gently stretches the spine and takes pressure off the disks. He also started looking at his nutrition and feeding his body the right supplements to heal from the inside-out.
"Over time, I was able to transition off of all (prescription) medications, and move over to Curcumin and different stuff for inflammation and they helped me through how to watch certain foods because they cause inflammation," says Keith.
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Once everything was aligned, he says he started healing quickly and cherished being pain-free. He could move again and lost 80 pounds!
"Long story short, I'm actually running, and I was told I would never run in my life again. When you're in a lot of pain and can't function, you just feed yourself, and that's what I did and just got heavier and heavier and obviously that makes the back and neck issue worse," says Keith.
Matt Carmona can relate. He lost 20 pounds, after seeking help at Sandstone and overcoming his painful situation.
"I wasn’t even walking, I was hunched over. We had our second baby daughter on the way and I could barely crawl to go to the bathroom. It was a terrible time in my life. I was very depressed," reflects Matt.
Many people recognize Matt as an American Ninja Warrior. His active and athletic lifestyle caught up with him.
"It was multiple things! I did a lot of basketball in high school and that's when I herniated my first disc. I joined a dance company with my wife, a semi-professional dance company, and there's a certain move where the girls do backflips off our shoulders and we did that about 500 times, and that herniated my second disk, and that's when it got really bad," explains Matt.
Matt tried quite a few therapies that didn’t help, before finding his way to Sandstone Health. He says pulsed electromagnetic field therapy or PEMF took him to the next level of recovery.
"That spot that's hurting it'll target it, it'll recharge it, and I could feel the muscles loosening, and I almost feel them like re-growing after all that atrophy and after all that lack of movement, and it's just an amazing therapy. I just don't know where I'd be without it," exclaims Matt.
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Dr. Tony DeRamus with Sandstone says most people haven't even heard about PEMF, even though it was created decades ago.
"It's been around since the 70's - the FDA approved it for post-surgical pain and edema and in 2003, they approved it for depression, so it has a wide range of benefits," explains Dr. DeRamus.
Matt also tried cutting-edge MLS laser therapy.
"I was very skeptical about it! I'm like - you put a light on my body and that seemed somehow very skeptical, but they convinced me to try it, and I want to say, after a really hard work-out and training for American Ninja Warrior, I am super sore and they focus that laser on where I'm sore and it cuts my recovery time down in half. It takes the inflammation away," smiles Matt.
"You can't really feel anything but mild heat coming off of the laser, but this laser light is penetrating into the body about five to six centimeters and so essentially what we're doing is attacking the part of the body that creates the energy within the cell called the mitochondria, and we're seeing a lot of therapies go toward that now. It can help the body heal 3-4 times faster," states Dr. DeRamus.
"Within a month I was walking again, walking straight. I thought I would never walk normally again, if I never did sports again, but because of their therapy, with PEMF, adjustments, laser, and decompression, I was able to start being active again," says Matt.
Now he can be a true American Ninja Warrior!
"With all the mind games that it plays on you, your body has to be 100%, and there's just no way you're going to be able to do it without having your body being at optimal performance levels," says Matt.
All of these therapies are known as second generation chiropractic.
"Chiropractic has always been about treating the body. The body is self-healing and can manage these things on its own, as well as remove all the interferences from this, but this has given us a new tool to use that start paths that are so much bigger than just the adjustment that we do every day, although that will hopefully continue to be a big part of what we do," says Dr. DeRamus.
It definitely played a huge role in getting these two men back on track.
Sandstone Health has four locations and will open a fifth one in March. For more information: https://sandstonehealth.com