228: Back Pain: Surgery or No Surgery?

Back pain affects an estimated 80% of the population at some point in life, and yet most conditions are undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. To complicate matters, most people have hard line ideas about treatment of their mysterious conditions, so it's no surprise that chronic pain, recurring problems, and frustration abound.

On the Yoga Talk Show, we tend toward natural, non-medical healing modalities; but there is a time and a place for allopathic medicine, and yes, even surgery. For every 10 students I know who healed their own spine, I know at least one for whom surgery was a life saver. Rather than look at the issue as black or white, it's important to consider all options and understand the best treatments.

Enter: Dr. Tony Mork. Board certified orthopedic surgeon and pioneer of endoscopic surgery. He breaks down surgical options in an incredibly simple and insightful way and makes a very convincing case for why spinal fusion, the most common surgery, should be avoided if at all possible.
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Listen & Learn:

• Why most people with back pain have no accurate diagnosis of their problem
• Why X-Ray, CT or MRI doesn't tell the whole story
• How "spinal mapping" can find the real source of the pain
• How many conditions pass on their own in 8-12 weeks
• Why a discogram can be helpful in some cases
• The 3 types of surgery: vertebral fusion, decompressive surgery, rhizotomy (sever nerve roots)
• Why fusions are the most common and yet should be a last resort
• Why only 2% of spinal surgeries are endoscopic in the USA

Links & Resources:

• Dr. Tony Mork's Site
• Dr. Mork's Youtube Channel

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Dr. Mork is a board certified orthopedic surgeon has personally performed more than 8,000 endoscopic spinal surgeries. He designed many of the specialized tools used in laser spinal surgery and is constantly pursuing the improvement of spinal care.

Dr. Mork has been instrumental in developing most of the current endoscopic spinal surgery techniques. He is one of the originators and wrote the original peer reviewed articles on most of the endoscopic spine surgery techniques used today. He was the co-founder of Microspine and founder of the Endoscopic Spinal Academy.

Nutritional Tip:

• Frozen Foods

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