Back to the Future
California Spine and Disc Centers
by David Christopher

You have a bad back. It is a fact of life. For it is the wear and tear of everyday life itself - from getting out of bed, to walking down the street, to doing just about anything imaginable - that has taken something of a toll over the years on those 26 vertebrae, 26 discs and the complex tangle of nerves, tendons, cartilage, muscle and ligaments that collectively make up your spine.

Now some of you reading this are fortunate. You will spend a lifetime walking, lifting, and doing the million and one other things that make a life worth living, with little more than a second thought to your back. But remarkably, you are a happy few. Only 20 percent of Americans' backs allow them to live pain free. The other 80 percent will experience significant, debilitating back pain at some point in their lives. It is the kind of back pain that makes it hard, if not impossible not only to work but simply to move and even sleep. At this very moment, 31 million Americans are enduring the kind of significant, incapacitating pain that almost constantly reminds them that their backs are bad backs.

And those numbers only represent those Americans with bad backs. Add onto that the over 28 million people who suffer from significant neck pain and you begin to wonder if the odds are more than stacked against you. Will you simply have to accept the fact that you will either join or remain part of the staggering numbers who live with such insidious, incapacitating back and neck pain? Fortunately, today, the answer for you could very well be a resounding - 'No'.

Science, technology and innovative medical practitioners are banding together against the root causes and the painful consequences of back and neck pain. Together, they are pioneering a new age in back and neck health care that is giving many Americans their first realistic shot at a pain-free life in many years. The epicenter of this next level in health care on the West Coast is Dr. James Hall's California Spine and Disc Centers in Orange County, California.

Dr. Hall is a former college football player who turned his back on a promising engineering career when he literally turned his back on the gridiron and was healed only by the intervention of intelligently planned and applied chiropractic care. Since that day, Hall has been working the kinks out of people's spines (and necks) and seeing firsthand the remarkable advances in the level of care he can provide for his patients. The latest innovations have excited the chiropractor like none he has seen before in his decade and a half of service.

"Certainly, there is no good time to have a bad back," said Dr. Hall. "But for those who do, there has never been a better time to have a bad back. Our technology and procedures are providing remarkable results for patients with disc-related back and neck pain. The kind of results that are allowing people another way to go… people who normally would have no other choice but the surgeon's scalpel - and for most, we are finding it is the better way to go."

Even surgeons will tell you avoiding a surgical suite with all its associated bright lights, drugs, pointy instruments and expense, for as long as possible, is almost always the way to go. And who could blame them with the odds of a successful outcome from surgical intervention only one-in-four? .... That is right. When you undergo back surgery there is only 28 percent probability your symptoms will actually get better - and for those who do not get better, many actually get worse. That said, America does ten times more back surgery than any other industrialized country to the tune of 100 billion dollars annually.

But what of this new, non-surgical alternative to back and neck pain? What is the probability for its success?

"We are seeing a success rate on the order of 86 percent," said Dr. Hall. "Those are the kinds of numbers that make it fun to come to work. I literally come into the California Spine and Disc Centers every morning wondering not if we are going to help today but who are we going to help today."

The centerpiece of the California Spine and Disc Centers' program of non-surgical spinal decompression is a piece of medical equipment that looks like it was procured directly from the flight deck of the space shuttle. The DRX 9000 duplicates the healing effects of ZERO-gravity by gently unloading the pressure on the spine. Its computer control allows painless targeting of specific regions of the back or neck without inducing further damage to the spine. The result is that the DRX 9000 provides the body time to heal itself.

"One of the first things you learn in this line of work is if the body can heal itself… just get out of its way," said Dr. Hall.

While the DRX 9000 is a major component of California Spine and Disc Centers' treatment program, it is far from being the only one. The Center offers a multifaceted approach to back and neck care that includes biomechanical correction techniques as well as the latest state-of-the-art technology. And, before a candidate for spinal decompression can begin the healing process, they must go through California Spine and Disc Centers' pre-qualification. The process begins with a simple phone call or email requesting a free report on California Spine and Disc Centers' healing methodology. Then a follow-up phone call initiated by the potential decompression candidate to answer a few questions.

"Our goal is to help people that can be helped - period," said Dr. Hall. "Pre-qualification is the fastest, least invasive way we can establish if perspective patients can benefit from our treatment protocols."

Those who qualify secure a free initial consult with Dr. Hall himself. During the visit, a thorough history is generated that will help provide the doctors of California Spine and Disc Centers with the background information they need to evaluate and individually tailor a program that will provide the best results in the shortest period of time. Weight bearing X-rays and an MRI are also standard. Only when Hall and his staff of doctors all agree that a perspective patient can benefit, are they approved. At present, 50 percent of the people who enter the doors of California Spine and Disc Centers get placed on the fast track to spinal success. The other half don't leave empty handed.

"If we cannot help, we will provide recommendations, make phone calls and do whatever we can to provide them a course of action that we hope will lead to a better quality of life," said Dr. Hall.

For those fast tracked it is a fast track indeed. Four days a week for five weeks, California Spine and Disc Centers clients experience a medical appointment like few others. It is more like an hour at the spa than an hour in a waiting room with who knows how long before you finally see somebody in a white lab coat.

When a patient is evaluated to have successfully completed the course of decompression (usually about five weeks), Dr. Hall's team tailors a program to stabilize and strengthen the back. The centerpiece of this program is the LPG SpineForce. The only medical equipment proven to actively engage the deep muscles of the spine, the SpineForce provides the most comprehensive, comfortable and quickest path to pure neuromuscular re-tuning. By working the SpineForce two days a week for five weeks, and following the counsel of Dr. Hall and his staff, California Spine and Disc Centers patients can secure and safeguard the results they obtained during decompression.

Remarkably, even after their medical appoints at the California Spine and Disc Centers have run their course, Dr. Hall and his staff get more than their fair share of social walk-ins by content former patients. Sometimes they return to introduce a new perspective patient to the staff. Sometimes they want to double check that they are performing their home exercises correctly. Sometimes they are just in the neighborhood and want to show off new pictures of their children or grandchildren. "We love our patients," said Dr. Hall. "When they walk out the door we want them to be pain free and fully content. Our goal is that they are so satisfied the only reason they will want to come back is to say hello."

Dr. James P. Hall
Engineer of Change

The beginnings of Dr. James Hall's pursuit of a non-surgical solution to acute back and neck pain were anything but altruistic. It came from a need to heal himself after a collision on the gridiron that would have made SportsCenter - had it been around back in 1978.

"I was a 'walk-on' playing football for John Elway's dad Jack at San Jose State, when a guy about the size of an SUV fell on me in a pre-season scrimmage," said Dr. Hall. "My knee and my back got the worst of it. My knee got better. My back did not."

Hall was in and out of hospitals for the next six years. In that time he received a degree (with honors) in engineering and was working for General Electric. But even with the generous health benefits provided by GE, nothing Hall could find in the traditional medical community seemed to provide lasting relief. In a moment of desperation, he turned to a chiropractor, and soon after, to a new calling.

"Here was something different, something as an engineer I could understand - and more importantly it worked" said Dr. Hall. "Where before I had lightning bolts of pain running down my back and leg, now I had relief. I began to be able to participate in everyday activities without fear, and I finally began to get some quality sleep."

The engineer in Hall could not let his remarkable healing go unexplored. He had to understand the mechanisms that provided his relief… and he wanted to share his exceptional experience with others.

"I left the corporate, country club life and went back to school, and I learned how to heal," said Dr. Hall. "Soon into the coursework I realized I was two steps ahead because a human spine - the back, the neck - they were basically structure and if its one thing you learn in engineering, it is structure. Granted, the spine is the most intricate, demanding and beautiful structure I have ever seen, but it is still structure."

After graduating (with honors), Hall began what is now known as California Spine and Disc Centers in Orange County, California, with the goal to seek out and provide the latest innovations in medical care for sufferers of back and neck pain. The hallmarks of his practice were the same then as they are now - an unflagging pursuit of the best possible outcomes for his patients.

"My best days are the days I can tell patients that their back and neck do not need to come back," said Dr. Hall. "When they walk out the doors of the California Spine and Disc Centers pain-free for the first time in perhaps years, I know what they are feeling. I have been there. I love that I can do this for them."

Dr. James Hall, D.C., is a member of the American Chiropractic Association, the California Chiropractic Association and the California Society of Industrial Medicine and Surgery.

California Spine and Disc Centers
South Coast Metro
3801 South Harbor Blvd., Suite B
Santa Ana, CA 92704
714-751-5555
info@CSADC.com
Monday - Thursday 8 am - 7pm

(South Coast Magazine - Winter 2006)