Normal Degeneration Linked with Augusta Spinal Stenosis
Normal degeneration of the spine may sound incongruous when talking about degeneration, but age encounters us all. Age generates degeneration normally. Our Augusta chiropractic practice acknowledges and respects age for its effect on the spine and its role in paraspinal muscle and disc degeneration. They go together. Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic treats them gently and successfully, especially when our patients participate fully by coming to appointments, exercising, and taking supplements that can be beneficial. It’s all part of the Augusta chiropractic treatment plan!
NORMAL DEGENERATION: Age
Age. Not a topic we enjoy talking about, but age doesn’t mind. It keeps doing what it does. Age contributed much when comparing the fatty infiltration of muscle in normal people to that in lumbar spinal stenosis patients matched for age, BMI, weight, etc. The paraspinal muscle alterations in lumbar spinal stenosis patients and normal people were comparable. Degeneration of these muscles related to age was more noticeable in lumbar spinal stenosis patients especially in the multifidus muscles. (1) In a radiographic study of degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis patients, age-related risk factors were noted. Researchers wrote that larger intervertebral disc height and more severe vertebral endplate failure may trigger degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis because of the amplified mobility of the segment, furthering disc degeneration. Weakened paravertebral muscles may weaken lumbar spinal stability. (2) Indeed, the spine and all its muscles are interconnected. Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic looks at them all, to their response to treatment, to their role in the pain.
BACK PAIN AND ITS PALS
Low back pain has associates. It brings with it degeneration, change, fat, imbalance and more. Researchers credited intervertebral disc degeneration as being the number one cause of chronic low back pain. It is a common and recuring condition in spine surgery fields. Disc degeneration is associated with disc inflammation which makes sense since it is avascular tissue. As we humans age, researchers pointed out that its bone marrow changes to bone marrow fat, initiating an inflammatory response in the disc and paraspinal muscles which influence spine stability. As the muscles fill with fat, low back pain changed to chronic. (3) In a study of patients with lumbar spinal stenosis and sciatica/leg pain, researchers saw that lumbar degenerative diseases prompted paravertebral muscle degeneration with higher levels of intramuscular fat infiltration. Women’s paraspinal muscles were significantly smaller. The erector spinae muscle and multifidus muscle in older aged patients were noted to have more fat in them. (4) Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic realizes that aging contributes to back pain’s development, path, and treatment.
LESS IS MORE: Treating Aged Back Pain
Since researchers observed that with age comes fatty infiltration of paraspinal muscles and inflammatory responses in the disc, it is logical that doing less if back surgery is done would be sensible. A recent study wrote that the addition of fusion to a decompression back surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis increased the odds of new stenosis on an MRI two years later at the operated level or at an adjacent spinal level even when spondylolisthesis (a condition that one vertebra slipped on another one) was noted at surgery. (5) Less is more oftentimes when treating back pain. Gentler treatment can go far in reducing pain. That is the motto of the CTFDD treatment plan at Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic: gentle spinal manipulation, gentle exercise, etc.
CONTACT Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Joseph Beissel on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he describes the relief with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management for a patient with chronic low back pain.
Make your Augusta chiropractic appointment today. There’s no escaping age or its accompanying pal, degeneration. If disc degeneration and spinal muscle degeneration are now your pals, trust Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic to set you all on a path of healing.
