Peter G. Hanson M.D.

Sports injuries are of dramatic concern to the professional athlete, whose season and even career depend upon prompt healing and minimal side-effects.  But the amateur ”weekend warrior” can have even more problems, often because the patient is not as fit or as young as the professional athlete.  What we are learning about treating professionals is now filtering into the mainstream to give better results to the general public when they have aches, sprains, tears, or fractures.

With the professional, we have long recognized the value of a diverse approach.  An oft quoted maxim applies here: “There is no such thing as expertise, just different areas of ignorance“ !  In the locker rooms of professional teams everywhere this means the treatment team will include orthopedic surgeons, internal medicine specialists, as well as chiropractic treatments done by the trainer.  Additional experts provide  massage, physical therapies, and stretching and weight training expertise to get the player back on form.  In addition, a new use for an old treatment is being seen with Medical Acupuncture. 

Dr. Peter G. Hanson is an M.D. with three decades of experience treating professional athletes.  Starting in Canada, he was the youngest team doctor in North America at the age of 24, with the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League.  His patients included quarterback Joe Theismann.  Since then he has looked after many Olympians from Canada, the US, and even from Russia.  His first patient in Denver was Bronco quarterback John Elway, whose throwing arm was repaired in time to rejoin the last two games of his 1992 season.  Since then, he has been in the locker rooms treating many NHL teams, including the Colorado Avalanche, as well as the Los Angeles Kings. 

His treatments are unique, in that they incorporate modern computerized stimulation of needles, along with a three-dimentional approach to their placement around the injured anatomy.

This expertise is invaluable to the amateur athlete as well.  Whether the child injuries in a soccer game, or a skiing injury in an octagenarian, medical acupuncture serves them well.  Free from any side effects, it facilitates a powerful pain relief, as well as treating the underlying inflammation and other injury issues that cause the pain. 

Because Dr. Hanson is used to working with the other modalities, he is pleased to communicate with the principle doctor, or other referring therapists as indicated.

For more information, visit www.peterhansonmd.com.

Western medicine is actually very good at dealing with acute problems.  Infections respond to antibiotics; lacerations are fixed with sutures; and an inflamed appendix responds to surgery.  But when we get into chronic pain management, doctors are usually stumped.  In most patients, by the time they have become chronic, they have already tried every category of drugs on the list.  Even if some help for a while, the body builds up resistance to them, and soon they are seeking yet another new drug, until there are none left untried. 

The side effects of these drugs, while reasonable in short term doses, become much more dangerous with long-term use.  Opiates, like Vicodin or Oxycontin, can easily become addictive.  Anti-inflammatories also have their side effects in the long term: NSAID’s like advil lead to kidney complications, tylenol harms the liver, and most others also damage the stomach.  The most powerful antiinflammatory drug is Prednisone, usually given by mouth.  Again, in the short term, for a five day pack, the risks are minimized.  But in chronic pain, the side effects fill a google page. 

In spite of all these problems, the litany of western drugs usually fails to improve even half the patients.    By definition, then, chronic pain is one of the most challenging adversaries a doctor will encounter.

Now, there is a new use for an old treatment; ACUPUNCTURE.  When given by an M.D. it follows the known anatomy of the problem area, takes into account the underlying pathology and physiology of the disease that is causing the pain.  With the precise placement of sterile needles, the doctor can also generate the patient’s own pituitary gland to restart its production of the natural painkiller, endorphine.  It also gets the adrenal glands to resume normal production of cortisone, in order to fight off inflammation that is the underlying cause of the chronic pain. 

While chronic pain usually shows less than a 50% response to medications, acupuncture usually shows an 80% response to treatment.  In many cases the need for medications will disappear, in other cases patients can downgrade away from prescriptives to simpler medications like aspirin. 

Acupuncture treatments are comfortable, affordable, and often covered by insurance. 

For more information, contact www.peterhansonmd.com.