Normal Degeneration Linked with Auburn Spinal Stenosis
Normal degeneration of the spine may sound odd when talking about degeneration, but age encounters us all. Age generates degeneration normally. Our Auburn chiropractic practice recognizes and respects age for its influence on the spine and its role in disc degeneration and paraspinal muscle degeneration. They go together. Dr. Le's Chiropractic & Wellness, L.L.C. treats them gently and effectively, particularly when our patients participate fully by keeping appointments, exercising, and following suggestions about supplements that can be beneficial. It is all part of our Auburn chiropractic treatment plan!
NORMAL DEGENERATION: Age
Age. Not a topic we enjoy talking about, but age doesn’t care. It keeps doing what it does. Age played a considerable role when researchers compared 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 similar. Degeneration of these muscles related to age was more obvious in lumbar spinal stenosis patients especially in the multifidus muscles. (1) A radiographic study of degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis found age-related risk factors. 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, promoting disc degeneration. Weakened paravertebral muscles may weaken lumbar spinal stability. (2) Indeed, the spine and all its muscles are connected. Dr. Le's Chiropractic & Wellness, L.L.C. looks at them all, to their response to treatment, to their role in the pain.
BACK PAIN AND ITS PALS
Low back pain has friends. It brings with it degeneration, change, fat, imbalance and more. Researchers adknowledged intervertebral disc degeneration as being the main 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, starting 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 greater levels of intramuscular fat infiltration. Women’s paraspinal muscles were significantly smaller. The erector spinae muscle and multifidus muscle in older aged patients were described as having more fat in them. (4) Dr. Le's Chiropractic & Wellness, L.L.C. realizes that aging contributes to back pain’s development, path, and treatment.
LESS IS MORE: Treating Aged Back Pain
Since researchers noticed that with age comes fatty infiltration of paraspinal muscles and inflammatory responses in the disc, it makes sense that doing less if back surgery is done would be sensible. A new study wrote that the addition of fusion to a decompression back surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis heightened the risk 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 seen at surgery. (5) Less is more oftentimes when managing back pain. Gentler treatment can go far in reducing pain. That is the motto of the CTFDD treatment plan at Dr. Le's Chiropractic & Wellness, L.L.C.: gentle spinal manipulation, gentle exercise, etc.
CONTACT Dr. Le's Chiropractic & Wellness, L.L.C.
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Joseph Beissel on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he illustrates the relief with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management for a patient with chronic low back pain.
Make your Auburn chiropractic appointment now. There’s no escaping age or its accompanying pal, degeneration. If disc degeneration and spinal muscle degeneration are now your pals, trust Dr. Le's Chiropractic & Wellness, L.L.C. to get you all on a path to healing.
