As someone who has spent well over six figures trying to fix my back I want to share my journey on things I have tried, things that have not helped and things that have changed my life.
When I was 18 years old I started having some back problems. Granted I started working out at close to 18 as well. So obviously I was doing some things to cause the damage. I started going to chiropractors and they always helped alleviate the pain. I didn’t change my work out or even think about doing anything different back then. I just wanted to lift heavier and get bigger.
By the time I reached my later twenties my back gradually got worse. It started going out on me to the point where I was curled up like a baby laying on my couch or bed for two or three days. I literally could not walk when this happened and I would have to crawl on my hands and knees to go to the bathroom.
By my early thirties this started happening somewhere around every 3 to 4 months. Lucky for me I am a mortgage broker who worked from home and was able to work on the couch on my laptop when this happened. There where times when it went out while I was at my office and I had to get someone to help me to my car so I could drive home and go lay down.
This began my journey to fix my back. I started trying every thing under the sun that I could. In the beginning I started seeing a variance of chiropractors. They all did things a little different. Some I would purchase a 3 to 6 month program and go in to see them several times a week. They would give me different exercises to do. Some of it helped a little but nothing seemed to permanently stop it from going out on me.
During all this I never stopped working out or living life. It would go out on me and in about a weeks time I would be back at the gym. I would have to start walking on the treadmill to get movement back and then with about two weeks I was pretty much back to normal. I will say by this time there was never a day I didn’t feel some pain and tightness. that would never go away.
Once I tried at least 10 different chiropractor programs and came to the conclusion that none of them were fixing my back. they all would just give me temporary relief. I started researching and asking around and was willing to try anything different.
Through this process once my energy levels were completely annihilated I did discover I had mercury toxicity as well (this is a whole other story in itself). I couldn’t say if this had any play on the back inflammation or not but once I detoxed it all out of my system, my back issues still persisted so who knows.
After the mercury I ended up cleaning up my foods and eating all organic and started working on eating non inflammatory foods helping that would help. I did detoxes 3-4 times a year. I’ve tried mud packing areas, essential oils, physical therapists, acupuncture, cupping, yoga, palates, meditation, Qigong week long seminar, energy healing, spiritual healers, read Dr. Sarno’s book Healing back pain, fasting for 7 days on the lemon and syrup fast, 4 month Candida detox, I even once went to a Chinese witch doctor that did some kind of ritual waving bats or something over me. Needles to say it didn’t help.
Tried Ozone therapy for a few months. Did a round of 7 IV injections. Did this more for the Epstein bar I was diagnosed with a few years back but wanted to add it as a treatment as well. It did fry my veins unfortunately. I let my doctor put it in my left bicep vein and I lost it for good.
Through out this time certain things maybe helped a little but very temporary. I would always implement the physical therapy exercises into my gym routines hoping over time things would change. By the time I reached my early 40’s things got worse. by this time I had snowboard crashes that jacked my hip up, I was dropped out of the sky skydiving somewhere around 15-20 feet high when the winds collapsed my chute. So since I never stopped life things added up and progressively got worse.
Then it happened! My worst fear. My back would go out and not recover. I could not get it to the point where it would relax itself and go back to normal. I would wake up out of bed and I could not stand straight up and one legged was pulled up higher than the other. This went on for at least a year and a half. I still went to the gym and did what I could which I will say was not much.
I kept searching for someone that could help me. between different chiropractors I found a man out in Santa Monica. I would come in once a week he would give me exercises to do which definitely relieved things a bit. I did his program for at least 6 months which made a huge difference. I would wake up in the morning and every day have to spend about an hour on the exercises. Once I did this it was the only thing that would get me standing up somewhat straight. As much as the program helped we both came to the conclusion it just wasn’t enough.
During the last 10 years or so I was researching stem cell therapy. He suggested I give it a shot. So he referred me to a Dr in Santa Monica. They ended up putting me to sleep injecting my discs with Mesenchymal Stem Cells from my bone marrow. Upon waking up I was screaming in pain. I could barley get to my car. I lied in bed for the next 3-4 weeks healing. Week 6 I went back in for PRP booster injections and a week after this is finally when I was able to stand up straight and walk normal again. I went back after another month and received another PRP booster. This all made a huge difference however I was still in a lot of pain and couldn’t sit in a chair for more than 5 min.
I received prolozone from my naturalpathic doctor. Prescribed supplements tried PEMF. didn’t notice much from any of this. He referred me to another two Drs. One I tried for about a year and he used some kind of cupping device that sucked the blood into my damaged areas. Not sure if I got much from it.
The next was decompression. Did a year long process of that and it did help a bit but not as much as I was hopping for. He then offered me another round of Stem Cells with umbilical cord-stem cells mixed with my own bone morrow mesenchymal stem cells. This time I was not put to sleep and they literally hammered my hip bone pulled out the stem cells spun them and injected them in my lower back along with the umbilical cord cells. After this my back did get a little better over some time.
I heard about the knees over toes guy so I started his program after my last round of stem cells. This has truly been a game changer. Starting at the very bottom of his program I have progressed massively.
While doing the Knees over toes I kept researching more. Over the last 15 or so years I developed really bad Tmj. To my understanding this can throw your spine out of alignment and cause back issues as well. So I attacked the TMJ and started working with a Dentist that specialized in this up in Oakland CA. I would fly up there once a month for a couple years. I still have to go about every 4 months as of 2024.
I can’t really say how much fixing the TMJ has supported my back healing however either way it needed to be fixed because it was getting bad.
The most recent thing I added to my routine about 2 years ago was the cold plunge. This has also been a game changer. When my back is a little inflamed I will cold plunge for a few days in a row and the inflammation pretty much goes away.
So there we are today continuing the knees over toes implemented in my weight lifting along with cold plunging several times a week. I do not lift super heavy any more however I do some kind of leg and lower back strengthening flexing, and stretching exercise at least 3 to 4 days a week.
I started doing peptides about about 6 months ago along with TRT approximately 4 months ago and my back has not gone out like it used to in a couple years. Does it ache? absolutely it still does but its really not that bad and it is no longer my number one focus anymore. I do keep building up the strength and my goal is to one day have a healthy pain free back. I do feel like I am getting closer to that goal every day.
In conclusion I can say the biggest game changers I have found have where the stem cells with the boosters, knees over toes exercises, cold plunging. If I was to start over in my twenties I would do functional training mixed in with weight lifting along with the right supplements, cold plunging and a healthy diet.
MRIs:
2003 diagnosed with degernative disc disease. received epidural injections and prescribed to work with physical therapist.
4mm paracentral protrusion in midline at L5-S1
3-5mm at L3-4
2008 L3 to S1 MRI reports 1-2mm sized protrusions. with mild degeneration on facet joints
2018
L2-3: Disc desiccation with moderate disc height loss and minimal anterior endplate osteophytic ridging. 2 mm broad-based central disc protrusion with accompanying posterior to subarticular minimal endplate osteophytic ridging. Resultant mild effacement upon the ventral subaraclmoid space, however no significant central spinal canal or neural foraminal stenos is. Mild bilaterat facet joint fluid and mild right-sided facet ar1faopathy.
L3-4: Disc desiccation with primarily left-sided moderate to advanced disc height loss, circumferential endplate osseous ridging and extensive degenerative endplate marrow signal changes. 3 mm slightly leftward eccentric diffuse disc bulge with accompanying circumferential endplate osseous ridging most pronounced extending into the left neural foramen. Resultant mild effacement upon the ventral subaraclmoid space, left lateral recess and mild left neural foraminal stenos is. No significant central spinal canal or right neural foraminal stenosis. Mild bilateral facet artlu-opathy, primarily right-sided.
L4-5: Disc desiccation, moderate disc height loss, anterior endplate osteophytic ridging and minimal degenerative endplate ma11’ow signal changes. 1 mm diffuse disc bulge with accompanying right greater than moderatelyextensive foraminal endplate osteophytic ridging with accompanying mild bilateral facet arthropathy. Resultant mild bilateral lateral recess stenosis and mild neural foraminal stenosis. No significant central spinal canal stenos is.
L5-S1: Disc desiccation with moderate disc height loss, circumferential enclplate osteophytic ridging and degenerative enclplate marrow signal changes. 2 mm diffuse disc bulge with accompanying circumferential endplate osseous ridging. Resultant mild effacement of both lateral recesses and mild bilateral neural foraminal stenos is given foraminal endplate osteophytic ridging and mild facet artlu·opathy. No significant central spinal canal stenosis. Ivlikl osseous ridging of the anterosuperior sacroiliac joints. There is no atrophy of the spinae erector muscles. The remainder of the visualized prevertebral and paravertebral soft tissues are unremarkable. Several subcentimeter T2 hyperintense structures involving the liver, which may represent cysts versus hemangiomas. Several renal T2 hyperintense lesions are noted in the c01tices bilaterally, statistically likely cysts.
