I am happy to report that I am still doing fine and my back is as strong as ever. I am now at a point where I am able to resume regular activities with the kids, and not even worry about it. I tend to be a little more reserved still, I am certainly not going to go water ski-ing again but I will jump on the trampoline or help my husband (carefully) move furniture around the house. If I start to feel any discomfort or pain I immediately rest and ice, rest and ice in that order, which seems to work just fine.

I think its very normal over the course of time to feel some over-tiredness in the back area (not be confused with pain), for instance if I spend the day raking leaves, I know my back will be sore and tired, but ice and rest always resolves the situation. I certainly have not felt the intense back pain that came with the ruptured discs since completing my treatment in 2006.

It’s still truly amazing to me that had I not found the information on the DRX-9000 I would have been going into surgery for my disc problem, but with time and decompression therapy I have recovered completely and I am still 2” taller. It seems that all my reservations regarding the DRX-9000 have been resolved. I was concerned that it was a temporary fix, that my back would not be as strong as it had been or that I would only feel mild relief, I am now completely confident that my recovery is complete and as long as I take care of my back as I should have been all along, I will continue to experience the joy of little or no back pain after a day of shopping or playing with the kids.

Call Dr. Paul or Dr. Susan to discuss whether the DRX-9000 might be the right treatment for you.
Make an adjustment: Stay healthy ~ Be Happy!

Fontana Family Chiropractic Evergreen CO. 303-674-1500 or email office@fontanachiro.com

“For many years I have experienced very specific, sharp, low back pain resulting from an injury which occured over twenty years ago. Although I have maintained my strenght and mobility all these years with regular chiropractic treatments and massage therapy, I was still in constant pain especially while lying down, making it difficult to sleep.

I began the DRX 9000 treatments with Drs. Fontana and followed their specific instructions and treatment plan for my first 11 sessions then left for a week’s vacation. I was pleased to find that my pain was reduced significantly during my trip. Returning from the trip I was again in pain and resumed the DRX treaments and again after several more sessions began enjoying significant relief. I have had a total of 17 (or 18??) sessions and am very pleased that I have experienced approximately 65% to 75% overall improvement and am confident that my imporovement will be even greater by continuing the treatments. I am very excited and grateful to have found a treament that is effective in alleviating that nagging sharp pain and allowing me to heal by utilizing a non-invasive modality without the use of drugs or surgery. Thank you Dr. Paul and Dr. Susan for introducing this therapy to Evergreen. And thanks to you and your staff for making coming in for treatments a very pleasant experience.”

M.E.P. of Evergreen

Thank you

File: Fontana Family Chiropractic Evergreen Colorado

When I first came to Fontana Chiropractic, I had gone through over a month of debilitating pain from sciatica. There had been no car accident, and I didn’t fall, but my L5 had apparently had enough. I could hardly walk, I could not sit or stand for any length of time and I could not sleep due to the pain. Chiropractic alone had given me a small amount of relief, but it became increasingly apparent that it was not bringing about the healing that I needed. I had begun to contemplate a future that included this pain as part of my daily life. I was discouraged.

At this time we began treatment on the DRX. I have to admit I was a mite fearful at first. I didn’t know if the machine would hurt or if it would help. Vut the pain had made me desperate. After about ten treatments, I began to experience some relief and douns that I could sleep better, and could even sit for awhile without increasing my pain level. After twnty treaments, most of the pain was gone. By twnety-two treatments, I am pain-free. I still have to be careful, and I know my body is not finished healing. But the relief from pain has changed my outlook on life and, thankfully, I will enjoy Christmas without pain, something I dared not hope for before this treatment.

My thanks to the Fontana’s and to Peggy for caring for me as if i’m one of the family.

Lisa S…

File: Fontana Family Chiropractic Evergreen Colorado

I first came to Dr. Fontana’s office on Dec. 19th to seek advice on chronic back pain in my L-5 region. After my consult I decided to go with the DRX treatments. My back at first when I came in was painful every day and I had times when I could not move from shooting pain through this area for 1-5 secs. After starting the treaments and following Dr. Fontana’s advice within a few days the shooting pain decreased and lower back pain was not an all day and night ordeal. As i’m aware of my back problem today,  after all my treatments this no longer stops me from everyday activities and things I had given up. My pain level decreased from 7 – 2 on a scale of 1-10 (one being pain free) and I believe that if I continue with Dr. Fontana’s exercise program as well; I can minimize the pain for time to come. Lastly, his staff is one of the best and I couldn’t have asked for better care from them or Dr. Fontana. If you need help or care for this lower back pain I would without a doubt send you to Dr. Fontana and his great staff, they are the best in my book!!

Lonnie R. M…

File: Fontana Family Chiropractic Evergreen Colorado

For years I suffered with pain caused by degnerative disc disease. I would get injections and feel better for a short time, then steadily get worse until I would have to take narcotics and finally receive another injection. In August of 2004 I was yet again taking narcotics to try to manage the pain. A friend told me about the DRX 9000 machine and that one was available at Fontana Chiropractic in Evergreen, CO. After checking information about the procedure and visiting the office, I started treament immediately. After only a few treatments I was able to stop taking all medications. I felt better than I had in over six years. The complete treatment plan offered by the Fontana’s included DRX 9000, chiropractic adjustments, ice and stimulation and massage therapy. I looked forward to going to their office. Now more than a year later I still feel great, still not taking any medications. This was the best thing I ever did for the health of my back.

Diana M V…

File: Fontana Family Chiropractic Evergreen Colorado

Dating to 1997 I have had back trouble that continued to affect me. An MRI in 2003 indicated a bulging / herniated disc. The neurosurgeon suggested surgery. I opted for steroid injections and have had 3 of those. Last year, the injection hit my spinal cord resulting in spinal headaches.

At the end of February, my back pain started again and after 3 weeks of pain medication and not able to work, I came to Dr. Fontana’s office to begin the DRX program.

As of this date, I have no pain and am able to resume all activities including skiing, golfing and softball. The staff and Paul and Susan have been fantastic. I really appreciate the quality and results they have provided.

I highly recommend anyone with back trouble to seek the DRX treament program with Drs. Fontanta.

Thank you Kevin F. H…

File: Fontana Family Chiropractic Evergreen Colorado

Lower left side of my back felt twisted and knotted with a pain down the right leg into the heel of my right foot. Aggrevating and constant nagging pain brought me to the clinic. After sessions of adjustments and stim work I went on to the DRX machine. My lower back and leg pain have been cut in half and I don’t take as many pain medications to get throught the day and night.  Half way through the treatments I feel more spacing in my lower spine area with less stiffness and much more flexibility. My cycles have returned and there is more regularity to all other body functions. I look forward to each session and would suggest this treatment to others suffering from lower back problems. 

File: Fontana Family Chiropractic Evergreen Colorado

By the time I heard about the DRX-9000 (Axiom Worldwide), I had already spent two years in pain. One year of the pain getting slowly worse, and one year trying to find a solution to the back and sciatic pain I was desperately trying to live with.

I had been to my family doctor, who prescribed pain pills, then more pain pills, and then at the third visit when he suggested MORE pain pills, I decided to find a new GP. My new doctor quickly referred me to the local Bone and Joint clinic in Charlotte NC. I had to start back at the beginning, but at least this referral came with a set of X-rays; unfortunately they didn’t show the extent of the damage in my back. My Doctor did his best, including referring me to a neurologist who finally ordered an MRI of my back.

It turned out after seeing the MRI that I had ruptured my L4 and L5 discs, toward the bottom of my spine.  This accounted for the pain I had been getting. During the year that I was with the Bone and Joint clinic, I tried pain medications, steroid injections (these were so painful I could barely walk the day after each shot), Novocain injections, and a long course of physical therapy.  I stretched and gently exercised my back every day, twice a day, trying to repair the damage that had already been done to my discs.  Unfortunately during that time, not one of the therapists suggested I rest my back, or that I ice my back daily, they allowed me to carry on my normal activities which involved lifting my then 2 and 1 year old children, multiple times a day. Basically I was continuing to damage my back as fast as I was trying to heal it.

Finally, after a conversation between my sister and Dr. Paul at Fontana Chiropractic, I heard about the DRX-9000 machine. Dr. Paul had explained how the decompression therapy could help my back heal itself and avoid the ever closer, inevitable surgery. I found a location about 30 miles from my house, it turned out at the time it was the only place in our area with this particular machine.  I made an appointment and went over there with my MRI results. This was by no means a quick fix, or a guaranteed treatment, I had to pass several different criteria with the chiropractor before he would schedule me time on the machine.  He explained that the DRX was very effective at treating certain problems with the back; however it was important to note that it couldn’t be effective to all back pain sufferers.

My treatment consisted of 22 visits all together, 5 the first week, 5 the second, then 3 for two weeks, then 2 and then an additional treatment on a weekly basis until I really felt I no longer needed them.  After about the third of fourth treatment I began to feel much relief from my pain, I went from around a 7 or 8 on the pain scale to a 4 or 5, I was ecstatic; it really seemed as if the treatment was working. However, part way through the treatment I made the mistake of taking my son upstairs to his room, he was angry and fighting with me as we made our way upstairs and it twisted my back awkwardly, I felt like the previous treatments had been a waste of time, thankfully although it did set me back, it only took a couple more treatments before I began to progress again. 

Part of my treatment during the DRX  regime was to have a 20 minute water massage before getting on the DRX, and then I would have 10 minutes of cold laser therapy after each treatment.  I was also ordered to wear an ice pack and back-brace-belt at all times, for the duration of the entire therapy. I hated that belt; it was the most annoying thing in the world for me to wear that belt. However, as every good patient should, every morning I got up, put in the ice pack, and wore the belt all day long, I would ice for 20 minute rotations, and I did it for about an hour in the morning and several hours at night, changing out the ice pack, every 20 minutes.  Even now, if I over-strain my back or have any pain, however slight, I go straight back to the ice and the belt, and the pain is usually gone within hours.

I was instructed to basically put myself on bed rest; in fact if I had not agreed to the complete down-time protocol, the chiropractor would not have started my treatments.  I didn’t literally have to stay in bed, they obviously allowed me to do what I needed to do, however their rule was “think as if you are on bed rest, no vacuuming, no laundry, no carrying heavy shopping.” It was incredibly difficult as the treatments lasted almost three months, and I had two small toddlers.  Prior to beginning the treatment we set the house up for success,  I hired a babysitter to help me a couple of days a week, we got them both sleeping in big kids beds to solve the problem of lifting them in and out, I didn’t even lift them to change them, the most difficult part was car seats, I had to lift them in and out of those, but otherwise I lifted as little as possible to rest my back.

Every morning and every night I did gentle stretching exercises.  By the end of my 22 treatments my pain level was a 1 or 2. This was a huge improvement from where I started and in just three short months. The last two weeks of my treatments were more maintenance and to check my continued progress, the chiropractor had given me an exercise ball and some gentle stretching exercises to strengthen my back, I had started walking with a goal to increase to one mile per day, and I was given a pair of specially fitted insoles for my shoes. 

It has been a full year since I began my treatment, I haven’t needed to go back for any further treatments, but it has taken the rest of that time, being careful and re-building the muscles in my back to now be a  point where I would say I am 98% better. I have also gained almost 2 inches in height. I do know from other people that if I had chosen back surgery the recovery would have been much harder, and much longer.  Now I think before I swing my children up and around the room, I bend my knees when I have to lift something, and I ask for help when something is heavier than I think I should be lifting. Its easy to fall back into bad back practice but when you have been in so much pain its hard to sit or stand for any period of time, you learn to pay better attention to the signals your body gives you.  I truly believe the DRX-9000 saved me from painful, lengthy, expensive, back surgery and the best part was that it was non-invasive; no recovery from an operation, no risky back surgery, all it took was a time and effort, and a solid commitment from me to recover my back to where it was before I ruptured my discs.

Even though we don’t live in Colorado, I am forever grateful to Dr. Paul for talking to my sister about this technology.  Without his input and advice I would have carried on taking pain medication and injections until they no longer worked, and then the next step was going to be surgery. I encourage anyone who has sciatic pain, back pain or herniated discs to speak to their chiropractor regarding alternatives to surgery. The DRX-9000 might not be able to help everyone, but it certainly helped in my case.

To read a PDF report on the DRX-9000

For more information on the DRX-9000 call Dr. Paul or Dr. Susan at (303) 674 1500 to schedule a consultation or email office@fontanachiro.com
 

My family first started to take EFAs in 2005; my son then just over a year old, was not talking. He literally was not attempting any verbal communication whatsoever. Luckily for us our pediatrician, alerted to a possible problem with our son’s development, suggested signing up for an early intervention screening. Early Intervention screening is available at no cost through your local Department of Developmental Services office. She also handed me information for a book she thought would be helpful to read-: “The Late Talker. What to do if your child isn’t Talking Yet” St Martin’s Press May 2003 by Marilyn Agin MD, Lisa Geng, and Malcolm J. Nicholl”

In the book there is some great information and resources for parents to explore to help children who have missed verbal milestones. One of the paragraphs mentioned that people were achieving great success by having their children take Fish oils, or more specifically EFA, DHA and other essential building blocks derived from the fish oils. I was intrigued and hoped it might be the answer I was looking for to help our son. From the book I was directed to the Cherab website in search of further answers. I actually ordered our first bottle of “Nordic Naturals Pro EFAs” that night, thinking, “Oh boy how am I ever going to get him to take this?” and even more perplexing was the question “how on earth will this make him talk?”

The fish oil finally arrived and astonishingly my son took to eating it like candy! We still have to hide the bottle, otherwise he and his little sister will eat far more than they are supposed to have.

After some time on the “Nordic Naturals PRO EFAs” (aka 3-6-9) my son did start to make some great progress in his verbalization. It’s important to note at this point that he was also in speech therapy via Early Intervention and finally diagnosed in June this year with Autism, so he wasn’t just a “late talker”.   However, I truly believe that starting the EFAs was an important step in our journey to improve his communication.  We would also intentionally stop the fish oils periodically, as although at first there was a reduction in language, we would usually get a burst of new speech or sign language once we restarted the oils, usually after a period of a week or so break.  We are not sure why this would happen and eventually it has tapered off the more verbal he becomes.

Regardless of our son’s speech difficulties, the more I researched the fish oil, the more I discovered how vitally important the Omega oils really are to not only development, but also to our overall physical health. This is the reason I have kept both of our kids, myself and my husband on the Nordic Naturals fish oils over the past two years.

What exactly are fish oils? According to Nordic Naturals, one of many companies who produce and market this oil, fish oil is oil derived from the tissues of oily fish; sounds simple right? However, as you are about to read, this product has a far from simple effect on our overall health and cognitive function. This product is recommended for a healthy diet because it contains the omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), precursors to eicosanoids that reduce inflammation throughout the body. Basically Omega-3 and Omega-6 (n-6) fatty acids constitute the two families of Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs). 

EFAs are considered “essential” because they are needed throughout the human life cycle, cannot be produced in the human body, and therefore must be provided through the diet. EFAs aid in the maintenance of cell membrane fluidity and stability, development and function of brain and nerve tissue, oxygen transfer and energy production, immune functions, and conversion into compounds involved in all body functions including local hormones governing inflammatory responses. 

The following is directly from Nordic Naturals website: “EFA’s help with: Heart disease, arthritis, inflammation, asthma, infant development (brain, eyes, immune, nervous system), pregnancy, depression, language and learning, attention and focus, cognition, dementia, aggression and anger, immune function, diabetes, weight management, dry eye syndrome, vision, prostrate health, colon health, osteoporosis, and longevity”.

I have certainly found that when taking the Nordic Naturals 3-6-9 (PRO EFA’s) my fingernails grow long and healthy with no little ridges as they did before, my hair grows about 3/4” a month, my short term memory is far better and my night vision has really improved.  These are the things I notice, not while taking the oils, but more so when I stop, my nails break and become brittle, I have a hard time driving at dusk and I can’t ever remember where I left my keys. I just feel better overall when I take the oils on a consistent basis. For those in dry climates, such as Colorado or Arizona, this supplement can also help the dry skin that can be a side effect from the lack of humidity.

The following is information from the WebMD website: All Omega-3s Are Not Created Equal. You hear a lot of claims about omega-3s today, especially as additives to foods. All three major omega-3 fatty acids listed below are needed by the body, but not equally so. DHA plays the most important role in visual and mental development.

DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) is the most abundant omega-3 fatty acid in the brain and retina. It is an important structural component of the nerve cells in the brain and eyes and a key component of heart tissue. DHA is also a natural component of breast milk.
• Important for healthy brain, eye and nervous system development in infants
• Key component of the heart and one of the omega-3 recommended by the American Heart Association and the USDA  Dietary Guidelines for good cardiovascular health
• Plays a key role in the anti-inflammatory process
• Important at every stage of life
• Original source: microalgae. The DHA-rich oil is extracted for use as an additive in foods, supplements and infant formulas
• Dietary sources: fatty fish and organ meats.

EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) is an omega-3 fatty acid important for human health. However, unlike DHA, EPA is not found in significant levels in the brain or retina and is not considered a significant structural part of the body.
• Plays a role in cardiovascular health and is one of the omega-3 recommended by the American Heart Association and the USDA Dietary Guidelines for good cardiovascular health
• Shown to help reduce chronic inflammation by modifying the immune response
• Dietary sources: fatty fish. DHA can also be converted by the body into EPA.

ALA (alpha-linolenic acid) an essential fatty acid, is an omega-3 that serves as a source of energy and a building block for DHA and EPA.
• Only 5-10% of ALA is converted to EPA and 5% or less to DHA18-25
• No known independent benefits of ALA on the brain or retina
• Dietary sources: flaxseeds, walnuts and soy

The Distinct Benefits of Omega-3s (click to enlarge)

Through word of mouth and my own research I chose the Nordic Natural oils, but there are many companies out there producing an Omega product.  Whichever you choose, remember all fish oil is not created equal, be sure to do your research and look for a balanced formula with guaranteed purity for the best benefits and most success:

The full range of Nordic Natural products are available at Fontana Chiropractic Evergreen Colorado. 

Call Dr. Paul or Dr. Susan at (303) 674 1500 to schedule a consultation or email office@fontanachiro.com

I heard about the DRX9000 and did my homework and found Dr. Fontana had a very reasonable rate. He made it affordable!! I had him do x-rays for my most recent condition which wasn’t looking too promising. I knew it was said that after 10 treatments I should be feeling improvement. I began treatments on April 3, 2006.

I was amazed after the first treatment; the pain in my legs was gone. And a good night’s sleep ever since!! With every treatment things got better and better. My shoulders were back in position. I could stand up straight (I was Taller Again!!) I could walk distances (no more dragging myself behind a shopping cart). I can bend over and get right up again. NO MORE PAIN!!

Now that my body is in a more normal position, I can exercise to support and keep it there. Ok, my knees are still bad, but to be given back a more functioning body in 5 weeks, all those trips to Evergreen were a no brainer!

My thanks. I love feeling like me again.

Susan B., Pine, CO