Dr. Robert Goldman, MD, PhD, DO, FAASP
Top celebrity entertainers and the rich and famous all agree that Dr. Stoxen has “magic in his hands.”
Many consider him a wizard, and others say it is as if he has extrasensory perception (ESP) in the way he is able to predict where problems lie, even before the first sign of pain. Well, he doesn’t have ESP, he’s not really a wizard, and he can’t pull a rabbit out of a hat.
The secret to why he is the top requested doctor on the international lecture circuit at medical conferences, and why he zigzags the globe treating A-list actors, top recording artists, elite athletes, and the rich and famous of the world, is the new approach you are about to learn from this book.
In 2002, I sustained a severe back injury during a workout. What scared me was that I started developing herniated disc symptoms. I later found out I had a severe lumbar herniated disc that was so severe it led to a severely pinched sciatic nerve in my lower back, causing severe lower back pain, numbness, and sciatic nerve pain in my leg. I couldn’t sleep for days. The combination of no sleep, a herniated disc, a pinched nerve, constant numbness, and severe sciatica pain made me think surgery might help.
What was worse was that this bulging disc was pinching the deeper, motor portion of the nerve. I developed a form of foot paralysis called foot drop, or drop foot paralysis. A drop foot gait is an abnormal walking pattern, also called a foot-slapping gait, in which a person’s foot drags because of severe damage to the sciatic nerve and/or peroneal nerve of the leg.
Normally, there is no foot drop treatment. Usually, an individual is rushed into spine surgery.
The dilemma was that even with surgery, my drop foot paralysis usually don not recover, and I could still be left with a permanent drop foot gait requiring a drop foot brace on my ankle for the rest of my life. Limping to the podium with a foot drop gait and visible drop foot paralysis is not exactly how you want to appear when you are about to address thousands of doctors, physicians, and scientists at a major international medical conference.
On top of the severe lower back condition, I had extreme neck and shoulder pain. I started to feel tingling and numbness in my right arm and a cold hand. The tingling sensation kept me up at night and shaking hands with a cold hand was not good for my image. When I looked in the mirror, I noticed a general decrease in muscle mass, particularly muscle atrophy in my shoulder and chest area. I had a severe case of thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS).
As both a physician and a patient, I found myself asking six questions that anyone considering thoracic outlet syndrome surgery should ask.
Do I have multiple choke points and would first rib resection and scalenectomy decompress all three thoracic outlet choke points?
I learned that thoracic outlet syndrome can involve three primary compression sites, or choke points. These include the interscalene triangle, where the brachial plexus and subclavian artery can be compressed; the costoclavicular space, where the nerves and blood vessels pass between the clavicle and first rib; and the subpectoral space, where the neurovascular structures pass beneath the pectoralis minor muscle. Understanding these three thoracic outlet choke points made me question whether surgery directed at only one or two compression sites would address all of the potential sources of my thoracic outlet syndrome symptoms.
Would thoracic outlet syndrome surgery actually work—and would the results last?
This was an invasive and irreversible operation, yet there was no guarantee that all of my thoracic outlet syndrome symptoms would permanently resolve. I was concerned about persistent TOS symptoms, recurrent thoracic outlet syndrome, and the possibility that I could go through major surgery and still require additional treatment or another operation later.
Could I still develop another blood clot after thoracic outlet syndrome surgery?
One of my greatest concerns was learning that even after first rib resection and thoracic outlet decompression surgery, the risk of recurrent blood clots was not eliminated. Before I made my decision I reviewed the published research an learned reported postoperative recurrent thrombosis rates of 13% to 21%, and other research reported blood clot rates exceeding 20% in patients treated for Paget-Schroetter syndrome and venous thoracic outlet syndrome.
As a physician, I had to ask myself a difficult question: Why would I undergo an invasive, irreversible surgery if I could still be left with the very complication—the compression of the subclavian vein and potentially life-threatening blood clots—that I was trying to prevent?
Could thoracic outlet surgery leave me with new nerve damage, blood vessel complications, or chronic pain?
The brachial plexus, subclavian artery, subclavian vein, and pleura are all located within or near the surgical field. I was concerned about the possibility of brachial plexus nerve injury, vascular injury, bleeding, pneumothorax, postoperative pain, and chronic pain after thoracic outlet syndrome surgery. I did not want an operation intended to relieve my thoracic outlet syndrome to potentially leave me with another painful or disabling condition that I might have to deal with for the rest of my life.
What permanent consequences would I have to live with after first rib resection and scalenectomy?
A first rib resection and scalenectomy permanently alter the anatomy of the thoracic outlet. I was concerned about permanent surgical scarring, postoperative scar tissue, altered anatomy, recovery, persistent thoracic outlet syndrome symptoms, and the TOS coming back. Once portions of my first rib and scalene muscles were removed, those anatomical changes could not simply be reversed if the operation did not produce the outcome I hoped for.
What would a permanent first rib resection surgical scar communicate to my medical colleagues?
As a physician who addressed thousands of leading doctors and scientists at major medical conferences, with a key focus on sports medicine, progressive prevention and anti-aging medicine, I was also concerned about being left with a large, visible, permanent surgical scar above or below my collarbone. Such a scar would naturally raise questions about what had happened to me, why I had required invasive thoracic outlet syndrome surgery, and whether my condition could have been prevented.
As a leader in the medical community advocating progressive prevention, I did not want a highly visible surgical scar to distract from or dilute the prevention message I was delivering to doctors and scientists around the world.
Those were not small questions for me. I was facing an irreversible thoracic outlet syndrome surgical decision, and I wanted to know whether there was another way—a non-surgical treatment approach for thoracic outlet syndrome.
I had heard that Dr. Stoxen made several trips to the former Soviet Union to study the work of famed sports scientist Yuri Verkhoshansky, the father of modern plyometrics. Doctors and scientists told me he had developed a new model based on Verkhoshansky’s research that was reversing severely herniated discs and thoracic outlet syndromes, so I went to see him.
For more than 30 years, we have been teaching doctors that the human body is designed to move through a series of levers. We examine patients by asking them to bend and twist while checking the range of motion in the injured area.
Then, in 2014, at the World Congress of Sports and Exercise Medicine, before an audience of 600 leading physicians and surgeons from 35 countries, Dr. Stoxen made the bold statement that, according to the laws of physics and nature, it is impossible for the human body to move solely as a series of levers. In doing so, he challenged the traditional inverted pendulum model of human biomechanics that doctors and scientists had relied upon for over 300 years to study human movement and guide the examination and treatment of the human body.
He demonstrated to the medical community that the way the body moves, protects itself from impacts, recycles energy, and, most importantly, opens spaces and tunnels for the safe passage of blood vessels and nerves can only be accomplished through spring engineering. In a sense, the human body is engineered as both a lever system and a spring. A later lecture he presented proof that the thoracic outlet is maintained patent because it is designed with spring biomechanics.
The physicians and scientists in attendance could not simply dismiss his argument because his presentation demonstrated the Integrated Spring-Mass Model and the method of examining, treating and maintaining the body, the Human Spring Model through the laws of physics and biomechanics.
The significance of his work was formally recognized the following year. In 2015, Dr. Stoxen was awarded top award that could be given to a doctor, an Honorary Fellowship, FSSEMM (hon), at the opening ceremonies of the World Congress of Sports and Exercise Medicine in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Honorary Fellowship was presented to him by a member of the Malaysian Royal Family, the Sultan of Pahang, recognizing his contributions to the field of sports and exercise medicine.
Yuri Verkhoshansky’s plyometric approach to training involves exposing the body to impacts and strengthening its spring mechanisms. This approach has become a game changer. Dr. Stoxen’s model of studying, examining, and treating the human body as a spring, based on Yuri Verkhoshansky’s research, has also become a game changer in medicine.
When nerves are pinched in your lower back and blood vessels and nerves are compressed in your thoracic outlet, you hope that his theory and treatment approach will work. You hope for a miracle because you are not expected to recover from foot drop paralysis or from the degree of upper-body blood vessel and nerve compression caused by thoracic outlet syndrome.
The result? In less than four weeks, his Human Spring Approach completely reversed both the herniated disc signs and symptoms in my lower back and leg, and my thoracic outlet syndrome. My back pain, leg paralysis, neck pain, upper back pain, shoulder pain, and thoracic outlet syndrome were all gone. I have trained using the exercises listed in this book for the past years without any exacerbations.
I am one of Dr. Stoxen’s many thoracic outlet syndrome recovery stories and one of the only foot drop recovery stories I have heard of during my 40 years in medicine. It changed my life.
You probably expect that medical doctors and chiropractors do not see eye to eye. The fact that Dr. Stoxen is a chiropractic physician addressing the world’s medical elite at major teaching institutions, hospitals, and associations is truly unique. Dr. Stoxen’s approach to understanding how the human body moves and protects itself is revolutionary.
Regardless of where doctors earned their degrees, doctors and patients are coming to realize that the integrated spring-mass model, also known as the human spring model, is the most advanced model of human mechanics in the world today. This extraordinary approach to examining and treating the human body as a spring, rather than solely as a lever, has spurred breakthroughs in medicine, fitness, and overall health.
This new model and approach have made Dr. Stoxen one of the most sought-after speakers in the medical world today being invited to speak at over 500 medical conferences, worldwide. With every lecture, he puts this model and approach to the test before live audiences of medical doctors from every specialty, including neurosurgeons, orthopedic surgeons, and other spine specialists.
Once doctors and patients understand the integrated spring-mass model and the human spring model and the information presented in this book, no one will look at the early detection, treatment, and prevention of thoracic outlet syndrome in the same way again.
I am confident that by understanding how your body works through the human spring model and the Human Spring treatment approach, is your best option to reverse your thoracic outlet syndrome.
Robert M. Goldman MD, PhD, DO, FAASP
President Emeritus-National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM)
Co-Founder & Chairman of the Board-American Academy of Anti-aging Medicine (A4M)
Founder & Chairman-International Sports Hall of Fame (ISHOF)