Normal Degeneration Linked with Groton Spinal Stenosis

Normal degeneration of the spine may sound odd when talking about degeneration, but age encounters us all. Age brings on degeneration normally. Our Groton chiropractic practice acknowledges and respects age for its effect on the spine and its role in paraspinal muscle and disc degeneration. They go together. Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office treats them gently and effectively, particularly when our patients do their part in coming to appointments, exercising, and taking supplements that can be beneficial. It’s all part of the Groton 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 researchers compared 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) In a radiographic study of degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis patients, age-related risk factors were noted. Researchers wrote that greater intervertebral disc height and more severe vertebral endplate failure may trigger degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis due to the amplified mobility of the segment, furthering disc degeneration. Weakened paravertebral muscles may weaken lumbar spinal stability. (2) Indeed, the spine and all its muscles are connected. Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office 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 is a common and recurrent condition in spine surgery realms. Disc degeneration is related to disc inflammation. As we humans age, researchers pointed out that its bone marrow changes to bone marrow fat, triggering 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 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 seen to have more fat in them. (4) Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office realizes 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 new study wrote that adding fusion to a decompression back surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis increased the risk 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 frequently when managing back pain. Gentler treatment can go far in decreasing pain. That is the motto of the CTFDD treatment plan at Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office: gentle spinal manipulation, gentle exercise, etc.

CONTACT Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office

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.  

Schedule your Groton chiropractic appointment soon. There’s no avoiding age or its accompanying pal, degeneration. If disc degeneration and spinal muscle degeneration are now your pals, trust Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office to set you all on a path to healing. 

 
Groton degenerative spinal changes  
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"This information and website content is not intended to diagnose, guarantee results, or recommend specific treatment or activity. It is designed to educate and inform only. Please consult your physician for a thorough examination leading to a diagnosis and well-planned treatment strategy. See more details on the DISCLAIMER page. Content is reviewed by Dr. James M. Cox I."