Kaitlyn Wekerle's blog

The produce isle has a new member in its entourage. Strawberries and Kiwis are making room for cherries in grocery stores this summer. Along with a number of other fruits and vegetables, cherries are a great option that will be sure to excite your anti-inflammatory diet. More than one third of the American population suffers from chronic pain. Medication, physical therapy, and other treatment options aren’t enough to alleviate symptoms. An anti-inflammatory diet is a lifestyle and will help reduce chronic pain and improve other bodily functions.

Southwest Spine and Pain Center treats patients with chronic pain on a daily basis and encourage treatment outside of their facilities. This means encouraging lifestyle choices that promote wellness.

Southwest Spine and Pain Center exists to provide the finest and most effective treatment plans and patient experience for pain conditions. Currently, the clinic has three locations in St. George, Cedar City, and Richfield. Southwest is proud to announce the grand opening of the Logan clinic on July 15, 2013. The company is expanding their care to better serve the patients in northern Utah. Patients can expect the same, expert care with the addition of Dr. Richardson.

Sciatica, pain along the sciatic nerve, can be extremely draining. Patients usually feel weakness and numbness in the leg after an injury or forceful pressure on the sciatic nerve. Chronic pain is no stranger to this condition either. If a person leaves their sciatica untreated, they can expect a slue of painful symptoms. At Southwest Spine and Pain Center, physicians accurately and efficiently diagnose and treat patients who suffer with sciatica. Sciatica pain can be overwhelming at times, and our clinic is here to offer some advice for treating your symptoms at home.

 A lot of times, chronic low back and neck pain goes untreated. People think that their back pain is just the result of sitting in an awkward position or irritated muscles from an intense workout. Because of this disregard, people often live with low back and neck pain for the rest of their life.

At Southwest Spine and Pain Center, the physicians and entire medical staff work effortlessly to ensure all patients get the best treatment for their condition. Cervical disc degeneration is accompanied with chronic low back pain. A physical exam will determine which pain management therapy will effectively improve a patient’s symptoms and reduce pain before introducing surgery as an option.

Treatment options for chronic pain seem to be endless. Because chronic pain comes in so many forms and affects patients differently, physicians typically want to have unlimited options for their patients, especially those who want to avoid surgery. A new form of treatment for chronic pain from nerve damage, called cyroneurolysis, has shown positive short-term results.

Southwest Spine and Pain Center’s medical staff offers nothing but the best options for their patients. In order to do so, the team monitors treatment results that prove to be safe and effective.

Find out what researchers from a Johns Hopkins University study discovered in an effort to find an effective treatment option for osteoarthritis patients.

People will believe almost anything. Whether they read it on the Internet, or they heard it from a friend, or they heard it from a friend of a friend, we are constantly trusting untrustworthy sources. This goes for spine health as well. There are a slue of myths circling around that, frankly, need to be corrected. The North American Spine Society (NASS) heard this problem and came up with a survey to reveal the most talked about falsities from their patients about back and spine pain. Southwest Spine and Pain Center wants to ensure that their patients are receiving the best advise and recommended treatment plan for their pain or injury.

Dr. Vivek Mehta, a pain management physician at Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital, was eager and excited when his patient, Wes Woodworth, took an interest in the Precision Spectra spinal cord stimulator implant this April 2013. In fact, Woodworth would be Dr. Mehta’s first patient to receive the implant. It was after a long battle with chronic back and leg pain that Wes Woodworth finally had enough with pain medications that made him feel like a zombie. This revolutionized device is a great option for patients who suffer from chronic pain and whose conservative treatment plans have not shown improvements. At Southwest Spine and Pain Center, options for chronic pain patients are extensive and effective.

From a social trend, to being outlawed by almost every advertisement industry, cigarettes have had quite a lifeline in the American community. Tobacco, the primary ingredient in the “cancer stick,” is blended with numerous toxic additives that are harmful to almost every part of a person’s health. Smoking tobacco is linked to pain conditions in the back and degenerative disc diseases. The medical team at Southwest Spine and Pain Center continues to educate their patients on what they can do to quit this awful habit. A lifetime of body damage and stress is not worth the momentarily “kick” from a cigarette.

It seems we’ve done all we can do for providing relief for our chronic back pain: stretching every day, eating the right foods, utilizing treatment plans directed by our pain doctor. Research says that 80% of Americans will suffer from some sort of back pain some time in their lives. With the statistic so high, and more Americans falling into this epidemic, investigators are researching alternative treatments to surgery for chronic back pain sufferers. A recent study suggests that 40% of chronic lower back pain can be attributed to a bacterial infection. Furthermore, the infection can be treated by taking an antibiotic.