Normal Degeneration Linked with Vancouver Spinal Stenosis
Normal degeneration of the spine may seem incongruous when talking about degeneration, but age meets us all. Age brings on degeneration normally. Our Vancouver chiropractic practice acknowledges and respects age for its influence on the spine and its role in disc degeneration and paraspinal muscle degeneration. They go hand-in-hand. Vancouver Disc Centers treats them gently and successfully, especially when our patients participate fully by keeping appointments, exercising, and taking supplements that can be beneficial. It’s all part of the Vancouver chiropractic treatment plan!
NORMAL DEGENERATION: Age
Age. Not a topic we enjoy talking about, but age does not care. It keeps doing its thing. Age contributed much 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 comparable. Degeneration of these muscles related to age was more obvious in lumbar spinal stenosis patients particularly 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 stimulate degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis because of the intensified mobility of the segment, progressing disc degeneration. Weakened paravertebral muscles may weaken lumbar spinal stability. (2) Indeed, the spine and all its muscles are interconnected. Vancouver Disc Centers looks at them all, to their response to treatment, to their contribution in the pain.
BACK PAIN AND ITS PALS
Low back pain has associates. It brings with it degeneration, change, fat, imbalance and more. Researchers adknowledged intervertebral disc degeneration as being the number one cause of chronic low back pain. It is a familiar and recuring condition in spine surgery realms. Disc degeneration is linked to disc inflammation which makes sense since it is avascular tissue. As we humans age, researchers explained that its bone marrow changes to bone marrow fat, activating an inflammatory response in the disc and paraspinal muscles which play a role in 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 caused paravertebral muscle degeneration with higher levels of intramuscular fat infiltration. Women’s paraspinal muscles were significantly reduced. The erector spinae muscle and multifidus muscle in older aged patients were noted to have more fat in them. (4) Vancouver Disc Centers realizes that aging plays a role in 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 performed would be wise. A new study wrote that the addition of fusion to a decompression back surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis raised 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 seen at surgery. (5) Less is more oftentimes when managing back pain. Gentler treatment can go far in reducing pain. That’s the motto of the CTFDD treatment plan at Vancouver Disc Centers: gentle spinal manipulation, gentle exercise, etc.
CONTACT Vancouver Disc Centers
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 Vancouver 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 Vancouver Disc Centers to set you all on a path to healing.
