Kendall doc's got your back

Dr. Elliott Grusky treats professional race car drivers and athletes in his Kendall chiropractic practice. He is also the team chiropractor for the University of Miami Athletic Department, where he helps young athletes stay in shape without injuring themselves.

Looking for a way to help patients with lumbar arthritis and disk herniations exercise without injury, he collaborated on the design of BackSafer recumbent bicycles.

Grusky, 56, has been practicing in South Florida for 31 years. We spoke to him about how middle-age people can maintain a healthy back and stay in shape. His responses have been edited for space and clarity.

Q: What could the average middle-aged person learn about keeping a healthy back from the University of Miami Hurricanes?

A: There are three big things. The pelvic mechanism, the position of the hip bones, has a lot to do with the support of the spinal column. If the pelvic alignment mechanism is off in any way it's going to cause a distortion in the function of the muscles. Two, core strength, the strength of the abdominals, quadriceps, gluteal muscles and the hamstrings. The third thing is flexibility.

Q: How do we achieve and maintain structural alignment, core strength and flexibility?

A: For alignment you need to see a structural specialist.

Core strength is a matter of exercise. People have to do the proper exercises: squats and dead lifts and leg extensions and leg curls and lunges, plus sit-ups and hyperextensions for the lower back. Flexibility is really important. If you bend forward, 50 percent of that motion comes from the hamstrings. People sit a lot and the hamstring has a tendency to get tight. They'll bend over the sink and their back will hurt. Usually that's a result of tight hamstrings. You have to do stretching exercise for the hamstrings. If people would just do some core exercises, maintain decent alignment and keep themselves fairly flexible, most wouldn't have back pain.

Q: Are there situations where people with back problems need surgery?

A: Yes. When a disk herniation is larger than one-third of the diameter of the neural canal, the spinal canal that comes down from your neck to a tailbone, you're going to need surgery. In a year, if I see 200 patients, I might have six who need surgery.

Q: People think of chiropractic care as spinal adjustments. What else does it include?

A: Chiropractors are trained as primary care providers. Chiropractors do diagnostic workups. We also do natural wellness care. We read blood tests, get people off bad diets, we use supplementation. Chiropractic is really natural health care.

Q: Can you give us an example?

A: A lot of people, instead of dealing with their blood pressure or high cholesterol with diet, exercise and lifestyle changes, tend to just take the easy route and take the drugs. But the side effects of the drugs over a long period of time are pretty detrimental. Look at a patient taking a statin drug for high cholesterol. We get them on a high-fiber diet, high levels of fish oil and a supplement that's been shown to reduce the levels of LDL. Then we get them off red meat and sugar. You change a patient's diet like that, put them on some exercise, and you'll see the shift in their cholesterol levels and their triglyceride levels within 90 days.

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