Normal Degeneration Linked with Largo Spinal Stenosis
Normal degeneration of the spine may seem incongruous when discussing degeneration, but age meets us all. Age brings on degeneration normally. Our Largo chiropractic practice recognizes and respects age for its influence on the spine and its role in paraspinal muscle and disc degeneration. They go hand-in-hand. Hollstrom & Associates Inc treats them gently and successfully, particularly when our patients participate fully by keeping appointments, exercising, and following suggestions about supplements that can help. It is all part of the Largo chiropractic treatment plan!
NORMAL DEGENERATION: Age
Age. Not a topic we want to talk about, but age does not care. It keeps doing its thing. Age played a considerable role when comparing the fatty infiltration of muscle in normal people to that in lumbar spinal stenosis patients matched for age, BMI, weight, etc. The paraspinal muscle changes 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) In a radiographic study of degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis patients, age-related risk factors were noted. 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) Truly, the spine and all its muscles are interconnected. Hollstrom & Associates Inc pays attention to 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 credited intervertebral disc degeneration as being the number one cause of chronic low back pain. It is a common and recurrent condition in spine surgery fields. Disc degeneration is linked to disc inflammation which makes sense as 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 transitioned 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 higher 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) Hollstrom & Associates Inc appreciates that aging plays a role in back pain’s development, path, and treatment.
LESS IS MORE: Treating Aged Back Pain
Since researchers documented 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 prudent. 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 noted at surgery. (5) Less is more oftentimes when treating back pain. Gentler treatment can go far in reducing pain. That’s the motto of the CTFDD treatment plan at Hollstrom & Associates Inc: gentle spinal manipulation, gentle exercise, etc.
CONTACT Hollstrom & Associates Inc
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.
Make your Largo 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 Hollstrom & Associates Inc to set you all on a path of healing.
