Spine Seminar

I am excited to tell you all about a very interesting seminar I had the opportunity to attend this weekend.  The University of Washington held their 11^th Annual Spine Summit in Seattle with a focus on “The Intervertebral Disc – An Unsolved Challenge”   This conference is geared towards professionals treating the spine.

The majority of the attendees were medical providers with specialties such as physiatry, neurosurgury, orthopedic surgury, anesthesiologists as well as physical therapists. 

The in-depth lectures offered a broad range of topics including surgical treatment options, genetic factors, biomedical engineering, and non-surgical discussions.  I was thoroughly impressed by the discussion that occurred throughout the seminar.  It was a great presentation with open question forums. 

The lectures illustrated that some treatment options like surgery may reverse some “sciatica” symptoms, but may not reverse chronic back pain associated with disc injuries. For people with advancing neurological symptoms surgery may be necessary but for non-progressive cases non-invasive options may be a better choice.  The lectures reaffirmed that discs have no blood supply.  In order to get nutrients, discs need to have movement.  Therefore, reducing restrictive forces such as muscle spasms and then supplementing damaged discs with motion to improve the flow of nutrients into and out of the discs is a beneficial non-invasive treatment for disc bulges. 

The information presented included some of the most advanced research on the physiology of discs and the potential sources of pain.  I feel that it is my duty as a Chiropractor to provide the best care for my patients.  An important component of this is to stay on top of the most current literature in order to continue to develop my knowledge base as well as develop working relationships with other health providers.  This seminar exceeded all of these goals.

Chiropractor Introduction

Welcome to my blog.  My goal in writing a blog is two fold: firstly, I wanted to introduce myself and let people know about me.  Secondly, I would like to provide tidbits of information about health topics I find important and hopefully useful to the readers.

I am a North Seattle chiropractor Dr. Cory Hultman who practices in the Lake City neighborhood.  I have been in practice for over 15 years and have advanced post-graduate training in sports as well as motor vehicle collisions.  I earned my Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Logan College of Chiropractic in Chesterfield, MO a suburb of St. Louis.  After graduating in 1997 I practiced in Missouri as well as Illinois.  We moved out to the Seattle area in the fall of 2010 with the goal of taking advantage of all that the Northwest has to offer.  My wife (Monica) and my two dogs Baxter and Lobo have already enjoyed our time here and look forward to our adventures of exploring the region.

I grew up in Canada and spend a lot of my youth participating in sports and I became a chiropractor because of my experience with chiropractic care as an athlete.  As a high school and college wrestler I had the misfortune of sustaining strain/sprain injuries and was treated successfully by local chiropractors.  It was during this time that I made my choice to pursue this career path.  Chiropractors have been helping athletes for decades, and with the London Olympic games just finishing many of you may not realize that chiropractors are part of the healthcare team who provide care for these athletes. 

I have had the opportunity to talk with some of these chiropractors, and they indicate they are always in high demand either at the Colorado training center, as well as at the games themselves. This is because athletes understand that their bodies have to function at their best in order to compete at their best. This is why most professional teams have a chiropractor on staff who works closely with the other providers including the trainers, physical therapists, and orthopedic surgeons. I can confidently tell you to pick any athletic activity and you will find athletes who have benefited from chiropractic care. This type of care is at times geared toward providing relief from injuries, but more frequently it is directed at loosening up restrictions in the joint complexes in order to enhance performance. Athletes are aware of even subtle differences in their performance.

Recreational athletes are just like professional athletes in that we always want to perform better or at the least to be able to continue to participate well in our endeavors. For example, if you are a golfer and you want to improve your drive you may not even realize that you have a joint restriction in your spine that is limiting your ability to rotate and follow through in your swing. Perhaps you are a bicyclist who doesn’t compete but cycles to work everyday and has started driving your car more because you have been experiencing increased discomfort after cycling. This increased discomfort can also be due to a joint restriction and it may be a simple correction to getting you back on the bike.  

Remember whether you are a professional athlete or weekend warrior you still need to be functioning at your best. To be evaluated and treated call our North Seattle Chiropractor Dr. Cory Hultman at (206) 367-5090 or visit the website www.myseattlechiropractor.com for further information.