Vyacheslav Kiryukhin is a Kazach German by origin. He studied classical medicine and has practiced his occupation for eleven years. Currently he lives in Prague and works at the Vertebral Centre. He started his career with spinal treatment; later on he added treatment of scoliosis and arthritis to his work. In future he would like to specialize in the field of joints and open his own medical facility.

Over the years of intensive work with spinal disorders he has managed to gather invaluable experience. Years back, when he started treating scoliosis, everyone told him it was not possible. He proved them wrong. Everyone has a chance to get rid of scoliosis; only the time needed for that varies individually. You can compare it to sports: someone exercises for a month and has muscles as someone else after a whole year of the same exercise. But he didn’t stand still after this success and went even further. After ten years of practicing, he came to the treatment of arthritis on the basis of his patients’ problems.

Sometimes he works until late in the evenings if an acute state of one of the patients requires it. To help someone gives him new energy and an impulse for further work and progress.

 The spine is a complex, very resilient organ with many different joints, cartilages, blood vessels, nerves etc. It is linked to parts of the locomotive apparatus and especially to a great number of larger and smaller muscles and tendons which keep the spine upright and flexible. Then there are nerves which direct the movement of these muscles and blood vessels which bring nutrients to the tissue.

 But we live in hectic times and a large part of the population has problems with the locomotive apparatus. Spinal problems occur in every age, although they are more frequent in old age. The edges of vertebrae start to grow together and put pressure on everything around them. This part sometimes swells, which only aggravates the difficulties with spinal mobility and the metabolism of the necessary nutrients. This is caused to a great extent by a sedentary lifestyle and lack of exercise. People with a static lifestyle (and stress) have bad metabolism and cause a permanent burden to their discs, which leads to other problems. Spinal discs need a lot of nutrients and sufficient exercise to stay in the norm. The greatest problem is a disc prolapsing into the spinal canal. In this case, only an orthopedist may help and surgery may be inevitable. Problems may also occur if previously inactive people take up a physically-demanding sport such as tennis, golf, cycling, skating, skiing etc. They forget that it is crucial to prepare the body for such heavy exercise first.

 Unfortunately, many people do not realize that only a healthy body is able to deal with a considerable strain without problems. And the same applies to prevention. It should be emphasized that prevention is only suitable for a healthy back, which is a fact a lot of people tend to forget. If your spine is damaged and you take up a reconditioning exercise or sport, the result may be a greater damage to your spine and a decrease of its mobility to a minimum.

If you feel discomfort when exercising (e.g. aches in joints or spine during swimming, cycling, golf, tennis, weightlifting) in a hot bath, after sitting in a car or in front of a computer for a long time, if you get up in the mornings only with difficulty or are woken up by pain during the night (e.g. in your shoulders, knees or hips), you should stop and start looking for the cause.

 We recommend having your spine checked in a neurological surgery by magnetic resonance imaging or x-ray. If you have a prolapsed disc by more than 4 mm or a spondylolistesis of more than 4 mm and a narrowing spinal canal you should consult a neurosurgeon. However, if doctors tell you that the disc is prolapsed by less than 4 mm and that you are basically healthy, only that you have arthritis and you have to live with that, then you should know that something can be done with that. You may be cured completely and it’s not only about money. First of all, it’s hard work and a considerable deal of self-denial.

Everyone can get well, but the problem is that not everyone really wants to.

 Years of practice have shown us that some people literally revel in being depressed and feeling sorry for themselves. In reality, they don’t want to change anything. And if they had a truly bad experience with classical medicine in the past, they don’t want to have anything to do with doctors again and they a priori reject what they are told. This negative approach needs to be changed.

 It is definitely worth it to have a healthy back!