Spinal degeneration is a condition suffered by many people. When your spine is neglected the joints, discs and supporting soft tissues start to decay. Throughout life your body is experiencing stresses. When you are first born the doctor pulls on your head and neck to deliver you. When you first start to learn how to walk how many times do you think you fell? Do you think sitting at the desks in school for what seems like years on end in bad postures has an effect on your spine? What about sports injuries, car accidents, slips and falls, bad sleep positions, your neck tilted while texting, sitting at a computer at work all day and many other stresses to your body?
All these stresses have an accumulative effect of misaligning the bones in your spine. This causes pressure on the discs and joints. Wear and tear occurs causing spinal degeneration. The discs start to lose their shock absorption due to loss of fluid. This can lead to bulging and ruptured discs.
Other factors too can increase spinal degeneration: Dehydration, smoking, lack of exercise, sedentary lifestyles, poor nutrition.
Medically, doctors say spinal degeneration is normal wear and tear and is part of aging but read the following analogy.
Think of your teeth for a second. If you neglect your teeth you will get tooth decay. If the day you first had teeth you just ate foods, drank acidic and sugary products. Over the years, your teeth would start to decay or degenerate. One could say it’s part of normal wear and tear or part of aging but you were taught from a young age that if you brush your teeth, floss and see the dentist on a regular basis we can prevent cavities and keep your teeth in good shape for many years to come.
The nice thing with your teeth is they can always be replaced. If you get spinal degeneration it’s much more serious. Your spine cannot be replaced AND it protects the most important system of your body, the nervous system.
When you get spinal degeneration it typical results in pain and many times osteoarthritis and spinal stenosis. Eventually the nerves start to get affected leading to numbness, tinglings and reduces the function of your entire body.
Now a study from the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation shows chiropractic can improve the condition of spinal degeneration. 40 men from 30 to 40 years old with degenerative lumbar disease at L5-S1 were split into 2 groups. One received the spinal manipulation while the other received a placebo.
Patients were assessed for height, perceived low back pain, neural mechanosensitivity and spinal mobility in flexion. Immediate improvements, even after just one treatment, were seen in the group that got the adjustments in all test categories.
Chiropractic provides relief for patients suffering with spinal degeneration. We have seen the same results in our office. Freehold Chiropractor, Dr. Russell Brokstein has been helping patients with spinal decay for the last 16 years. We recommend not waiting to get to this point. Simple chiropractic maintenance with home stretching and exercise can prevent these conditions from occurring in the first place, just like brushing your teeth and seeing a dentist protects your teeth. For more information about Dr. Brokstein click here.