Disc doctor: Dee Cee Labs’ DISC-GARD+ takes manganese to a new level

As a doctor of chiropractic, you see patients all the time who have hurt their backs in one way or another, often with injuries involving their discs, connective tissue or ligaments.

These are sensitive structures heavily composed of collagen, vulnerable to aging as well as to injury. They can take weeks or even months to heal, even with your best chiropractic care.

Manganese is critical to the regeneration of healthy connective tissue, according to a fact sheet at the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University. “Manganese is the preferred cofactor of enzymes called glycosyltransferases; these enzymes are required for the synthesis of proteoglycans that are needed for the formation of healthy cartilage and bone,” the site notes.

Manganese plus

By itself, manganese facilitates the regeneration of connective tissue; but as supplement maker Dee Cee Laboratories has discovered, combining it in a formula with other beneficial compounds creates a synergistic effect that can super-charge healing of a disc or ligament injury.

The company’s product DISC-GARD+ is manganese formulated with calcium, magnesium, potassium, zinc, glucosamine HCL and MSM, as well as vitamins D, C and B6. This combination, which the company calls a high-potency manganese formula, is specifically designed to deliver the ideal dose of ingredients required to rebuild these tissues.

Magnesium

Magnesium alone is super important to supplement your patients with, because almost no one takes in enough magnesium via diet. It is considered a macronutrient needed by the body in large quantities, responsible for facilitating more than 300 enzymatic reactions throughout your system. Some of these reactions are responsible for the regeneration and repair of injured tissue; it also plays a big role in cellular energy generation. (Two of the main symptoms of magnesium deficiency are fatigue and muscle weakness.)

Calcium

Calcium and magnesium work together to build bone, and they play a starring role in the repair of ligaments and discs as well. Calcium is a major component of all connective tissue, for one, so it needs to be present in order for tissue to regenerate. A 2013 National Institutes of Health study, “Serum calcium concentration as an indicator of intervertebral disk degeneration prognosis,” found that the serum calcium concentration in an area was tightly correlated with the degree of disk degeneration found. Healthy connective tissue needs calcium to grow and re-grow.

Zinc

Women’s zinc levels were determined via hair sample and then compared to their connective tissue status in a healthy control group and a group diagnosed with connective tissue dysplasia. An earlier animal study found that zinc-deficient rats had lower concentrations of collagen and its building blocks, suggesting that zinc deficiency is associated with impaired collagen synthesis, which is critical to tissue repair. (Specific research into collagen in this area is somewhat limited, says Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, because most focuses on collagen in relation to skin care rather connective tissue health, and much of the research is funded by companies making collagen supplements and other products.)

Collagen, which is produced during the natural wound healing process, requires the enzyme prolinase to create proline for collagen formation; this enzymatic reaction is facilitated by manganese. Manganese requires the presence of zinc in order to synthesize collagen correctly to heal wounded tissue properly. Working together, manganese and zinc re-weave the collagen web.

Potassium

In one study, researchers analyzed the intervertebral discs of the spines of cadavers who had degenerative disc disease, then compared that analysis to that of people with healthy spinal discs. “This study aimed to analyze the concentrations of copper, iron, manganese, lead, zinc, sodium, potassium, phosphorus, and calcium in the degenerated intervertebral discs of the lumbosacral spine, compared to healthy intervertebral discs,” the study’s authors noted. Statistically significant differences were noted only for zinc versus concentrations of lead, calcium and phosphorus ― but researchers did discover something interesting about potassium and pain levels.

“Statistically significant differences in the concentrations of microelements, depending on the degree of pain intensity, were noted for only potassium,” they wrote. Specifically, potassium levels were higher in healthy discs and lower in those that had degenerated, with higher potassium levels associated with less self-reported back pain.

Vitamins, glucosamine and MSM

Glucosamine helps build and support cartilage while MSM enhances those benefits and has been shown to ease stiffness, swelling and pain in the joints. Vitamin D is known to be critical to the health of connective tissue, while C stimulates collagen production and B6 may help with inflammation.

Dee Cee Labs’ DISC-GARD+: Regenerative synergy

Normal dosage of DISC-GARD+ is one tablet three times daily, with 90 tablets per bottle making a month’s supply taken as directed. Tablets are gluten-free and manufactured in an FDA Registered Facility using Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs).

Recommend DISC-GARD+ to patients you are treating for disc degeneration and injuries, and you offer them another way to help themselves heal faster between appointments with you.