Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic Presents the Influence of the Brain/Spine Connection in Back Pain
The brain and the spine. They are connected. They are connected more deeply than any of us appreciate as we go about our daily lives. Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic keeps this connection in mind as we treat our Augusta back pain sufferers’ spines and pay attention to their stories of pain and ways of coping. Augusta chiropractic care at Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic respects the brain and spine connection and use gentle, safe chiropractic services including spinal manipulation to reduce pain affecting both.
BRAIN CHANGES IN Augusta BACK PAIN
Pain changes the brain. A person in pain knows it. Special tests today can reveal it. BOLD (blood oxygen level dependent) responses were analyzed after stimulating lumbar spinous processes with manipulation and exhibited activity in the secondary somatosensory cortex, cerebellum and other brain areas. (1) Motor cortex stimulation provokes a spinal anti-inflammatory response to decrease pain. (2) Depression, anxiety, cognitive deficits often accompany chronic constriction of the sciatic nerve due to its effect on the medial prefrontal cortex. (3) Spinal manipulation may be a way to address the brain changes in chronic pain and its associated issues.
SHORT TERM STIMULATION’S EFFECT ON BRAIN
Stimulating the brain even for a short time may influence the pain experience. A recent study on Euclidean distance between cortical sources and temporal dynamics of plastic changes in the somatosensory cortex of the brain had even your Augusta chiropractor’s head spinning a bit! What a subject! Without having to understand all these terms and measurements shared in the study, know that the study presented that the brain, even the adult brain, is impressionable. Certainly, the young developing brain is most impressionable, but with the appropriate input, the older, adult brain can transform. The researchers in this study took measurements before and after stimulation and compared their size on MRI. They noticed a difference. More research should be done, but they did explain that long term experience establishes cortical organization while transient, new and different stimulation can spark cortical reorganization of the adult brain. Such changes have been noted in musicians, Braille readers, and persons after spinal manipulation and stroke rehab. (4) This knowledge of the brain informs the Augusta chiropractic treatment plan!
BRAIN CHANGES WITH CHRONIC PAIN
Just how is the chiropractic treatment plan influenced by such information of the brain? Let’s start by looking at the brain with chronic pain. The two brain regions that encode the intensity of painful stimuli and add to the overall experience of chronic pain are the primary somatosensory cortex and posterior insular cortex. (5) The cortex of the brain was shown to be thinner in chronic low back pain patients. After treatment, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is thicker. To the researchers, this implied that treating chronic pain can restore normal brain functions. (6) Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic takes care of Augusta back pain patients all day long. It’s amazing to imagine that treatment might alter more than the pain response alone!
CONTACT Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic
Listen to this PODCAST by Dr. James Cox on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he defines more clearly the brain and spine and pain connection, illustrates in more depth how the cells of the body are constantly remodeling and adapting to their ever-changing mechanical environment, and how chiropractic may intervene positively.
Schedule a non-surgical Augusta chiropractic care appointment with Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic for your pain, brain, and spine! The connection is there between pain and the brain. Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic can get in the middle of those two and help you get some Augusta pain relief.
