Normal Degeneration Linked with Ashburn and Herndon Spinal Stenosis
Normal degeneration of the spine may sound odd when talking about degeneration, but age encounters us all. Age generates degeneration normally. Our Ashburn and Herndon chiropractic practice recognizes and respects age for its effect on the spine and its role in paraspinal muscle and disc degeneration. They go together. Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn treats them gently and successfully, especially when our patients participate fully by keeping appointments, exercising, and following suggestions about supplements that can help. It’s all part of our Ashburn and Herndon chiropractic treatment plan!
NORMAL DEGENERATION: Age
Age. Not a topic we want to talk about, but age doesn’t care. It keeps doing what it does. Age played a considerable role when comparing the fatty infiltration of muscle in normal people to that in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis who were 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, progressing disc degeneration. Weakened paravertebral muscles may weaken lumbar spinal stability. (2) Indeed, the spine and all its muscles are interconnected. Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn looks at them all, to their response to treatment, to their part in the pain.
BACK PAIN AND ITS PALS
Low back pain has friends. It brings with it degeneration, change, fat, imbalance and more. Researchers credited intervertebral disc degeneration as being the main cause of chronic low back pain. It’s a familiar and recurrent 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, 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 noted that lumbar degenerative diseases caused 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 seen to have more fat in them. (4) Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn appreciates 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 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 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 treating back pain. Gentler treatment can go far in reducing pain. That is the motto of the CTFDD treatment plan at Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn: gentle spinal manipulation, gentle exercise, etc.
CONTACT Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn
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.
Schedule your Ashburn and Herndon 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 Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn to set you all on a path to healing.
