Dr Dubroff utilizes a variety of safe and effective treatments to help you live pain free and up to your physical potential, therefore maximizing your quality of life. You will find a brief description of these treatments with in this page. His intention is to provide an array of natural medical systems that can address the route of your pain and immobility quickly, safely and effectively.

A holistic system of medicine in pain management considers all aspects of the problem. Assessment usually means a thorough history, physical examination, diagnostic evaluation when necessary (MRI, X-ray, etc), metabolic assessment if necessary and the appropriate treatment.

Natural management of musculoskeletal pain has many options. Natural medicine always looks first to do no harm. By first exploring the safest, most effective treatments and only recommending more invasive or problematic treatments as these options our exhausted one can be assured of the quality of care. Too often individuals are started on strong medicines and if results are lacking surgical interventions are then recommended. Conventional practices are extremely useful medical applications, though first line therapy should be more conservative, where other options exist.

Nutrition
Musculoskeletal pain can have a very complex nature.  Nutrition has an impact on all aspects of the workings of your body. One aspect of nutrition that is important in pain management is the level of inflammation in your body.  The quality of your nutrition can dictate the general running of your body.  Some foods cause more inflammation then others, which one’s can be identified via a food allergy elimination trial or testing. Many people where told by their doctor that they don’t have food allergies based on skin testing.  This is often wrong in that immune reactions to foods are governed by different immune cells and all these testing aspects must be considered before one gets a clean bill of health concerning such possibilities.When the tissues are irritated by an allergic process or an excessive inflammatory process is present through poor nutrition a painful syndrome can be maintained.

Botanical and Nutritional Supplementation
NSAID use is the 16th leading cause of death in the states.  If these drugs are to be used it is wise to avoid the cause of the harm and use a transdermal application which will avoid the stomach and the irritation from an oral route.  Also there are natural alternatives to NSAIDs that have not been shown to have all the side effects of traditional medical NSAIDs.There are also natural products that could help with nerve pain such as the oil of St John’s Wart.Alternatives to alleviate the symptoms of pain in general such as capsicum ointments.There are many natural alternatives to different kinds of drugs; for instance aspirin was synthesized from willow bark

Homeopathy
Classical homeopathy is a medicine that helps the body to heal by stimulating the system to mobilize its resources and make the appropriate changes necessary to bring about a resolution to what maintains the problem.  This is done through providing very minute safe preparations of a substance that would normally induce the problem and therefore can also cure the problem; Fighting Fire with Fire!While it is possible that some individual medicines “might” bring about relief for a given symptom generally that is not how homeopathy works.  The prescription needs to be custom tailored to the individual’s needs.  Homeopathy is often very useful in resolving pain syndromes.

Movement
It is important to keep up some level of movement that is appropriate considering your diagnosis and individual severity of that diagnosis.  When tissues become stagnant from inactivity they tend to have poor circulation, metabolism and neuromuscular settings (see Osteopathic Soft Tissue).  Muscular conditioning is an extension of this concept.  While general movement is crucial to stay at full health potential one can also increase the flexibility, strength and resilience of one’s body. A body in motion stays in motion and a body stagnant becomes more stagnant. 

Osteopathic manipulative medicine has pioneered many neuromuscular rebalancing treatments, such as strain counter strain (link my article on the subject), muscle energy release and cranial sacral therapy to name just a few. These treatments help to balance the neuromuscular connection. This connection is responsible for monitoring the tension and length of the muscles and therefore skeletal alignment as well. When sensors are set to inappropriate levels of tension and length they set up the body for repetitive sprains and strains and the development of chronic pains syndromes. Osteopathic techniques used in the hands of a natural practitioner are perfect to resolve such disruptive conditions.

Sciatica is a painful irritation of the sciatic nerve. Sciatic blocks can be performed using the pitcher plant (Sarapin-a completely safe and effective medicine) that produces amazing relief without the need for constant pain medication. Many pain docs find these and other trigger point type injections useful in lieu of Corticosteroid shots which are commonly believed to be harmful to the health of the body when repeatedly administered. Trigger point injections are used to break up tight painful muscles and deliver safe plant based anti-inflammatories.

Hydrotherapy is a great home treatment that can be used to transform a painful body into a pain-free body. Using alternating hot and cold water applications to increase circulation and metabolism, detoxify, transport oxygen and nutrients, clean up inflammation and debris we can heal the musculoskeletal system. This therapy stimulates a vital healing reaction within the core metabolism of your body via temperature dynamics. This therapy helps the neuromusculoskelatal system to get the nutrients and reprogramming they need to stabilize and perform movements without painful complications.

Prolotherapy is a very effective and safe procedure for the management of musculoskeletal pain. It involves the injection of dextrose, lidocaine and bacteriostatic water into injured ligaments and tendons. The treatment stimulates the growth of these tissues and therefore increases the stability and strength of the many connections of the musculoskeletal system. Research has shown prolotherapy to be very effective when used by a trained doctor. A look at clinical studies demonstrates the therapy to work where ligaments and tendons are injured.

Natural medicine offers many safe alternatives to conventional anti-inflammatories, muscle relaxants and analgesics. The botanical Papaver somniferum (Opium_poppy), which the powerful pain killer morphine came from, is the perfect example. The plant Willow is the original acetylsalicylic acid used to synthesize aspirin .

With growing concern for the side effects of Non-steroidal_anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), the addictive nature of the class of Analgesic drugs commonly referred to as “pain killers” and Failed_back_syndrome (poor surgical outcomes) it is a wise consumer of health care who seeks out alternatives to conventional methods of managing musculoskeletal pain.