Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn Presents the Influence of the Brain/Spine Connection in Back Pain
The brain and the spine. They are connected. They’re connected more intimately than any of us appreciate as we go about our daily lives. Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn keeps this connection top-of-mind as we treat our Ashburn and Herndon back pain sufferers’ spines and pay attention to their stories of pain and ways of coping. Ashburn and Herndon chiropractic care at Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn respects the brain and spine connection and use gentle, safe chiropractic services including spinal manipulation to reduce pain concerning both.
BRAIN CHANGES IN Ashburn and Herndon BACK PAIN
Pain changes the brain. A person in pain feels it. Special tests today can show it. BOLD (blood oxygen level dependent) responses were analyzed after stimulating lumbar spinous processes with manipulation and demonstrated activity in the secondary somatosensory cortex, cerebellum and other parts of the brain. (1) Motor cortex stimulation provokes a spinal anti-inflammatory response to decrease pain. (2) Depression, anxiety, cognitive deficits often come with chronic constriction of the sciatic nerve because of its effect on the medial prefrontal cortex. (3) Spinal manipulation may be a way to address the brain changes in chronic pain and its related issues.
SHORT TERM STIMULATION’S EFFECT ON BRAIN
Stimulating the brain even for a short time may impact the pain experience. A new study on Euclidean distance between cortical sources and temporal dynamics of plastic changes in the somatosensory cortex of the brain had even your Ashburn and Herndon chiropractor’s head spinning a little! What a subject! Without having to grasp all these terms and measurements shared in the study, know that the study presented that the brain, even the adult brain, is pliable. Certainly, the young brain in development is most impressionable, but with the proper input, the older, adult brain can change. The researchers in this study took measurements before and after stimulation and compared them on MRI. They saw a difference. More research needs to be done, but they did explain that long term experience establishes cortical organization while occasional, new and different stimulation can spark cortical reorganization of the adult brain. Such changes have been discovered in musicians, Braille readers, and persons after spinal manipulation and stroke rehab. (4) This understanding of the brain contributes to the Ashburn and Herndon chiropractic treatment plan!
BRAIN CHANGES WITH CHRONIC PAIN
Just how is the chiropractic treatment plan influenced by such knowledge of the brain? Let’s start by examining the brain with chronic pain. The two brain regions that encode the intensity of painful stimuli and contribute to the whole 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 suggested that treating chronic pain may well restore normal brain functions. (6) Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn care for Ashburn and Herndon back pain patients all day long. It is amazing to imagine that treatment might modify more than the pain response alone!
CONTACT Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn
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 Ashburn and Herndon chiropractic care appointment with Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn for your pain, brain, and spine! The connection is there between pain and the brain. Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn can get in the middle of those two and help you obtain some Ashburn and Herndon pain relief.
