The brain and the spine. They are connected. They’re connected more deeply than any of us appreciate
as we go about our daily lives. Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office keeps this connection top-of-mind as we treat our Groton back
pain sufferers’ spines and listen to their stories of
pain and ways of coping. Groton chiropractic care at Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office
respects the brain and spine connection and use gentle, safe
chiropractic services including spinal manipulation to reduce
pain affecting both.
BRAIN CHANGES IN Groton BACK PAIN
Pain changes the brain. A person in pain knows
it. Special tests today can reveal it. BOLD (blood oxygen level
dependent) responses were analyzed after stimulating lumbar spinous
processes with manipulation and exhibited activity in the
secondary somatosensory cortex, cerebellum and other parts of the
brain. (1) Motor cortex stimulation triggers a spinal
anti-inflammatory response to reduce pain. (2) Depression,
anxiety, cognitive deficits often come with chronic
constriction of the sciatic nerve due to its effect
on the medial prefrontal cortex. (3)
Spinal manipulation may be a means 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 Groton chiropractor’s head
spinning a little! What a subject! Without having to understand
all these terms and measurements discussed in the study, know that
the study shared that the brain, even the adult brain, is impressionable.
Of course, the young developing brain is most impressionable, but with the proper
input, the older, adult brain can transform. 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
transient, new and different stimulation can trigger
cortical reorganization of the adult brain. Such changes have been seen
in musicians, Braille readers, and persons after spinal manipulation and stroke
rehab. (4) This knowledge of the brain
contributes to the Groton chiropractic treatment
plan!
BRAIN CHANGES WITH CHRONIC PAIN
Just how is the chiropractic treatment plan influenced by such information 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 add to the overall
experience of chronic pain are the primary somatosensory cortex and posterior
insular cortex. (5) The cortex of the brain was discovered to be
thinner in chronic low back pain patients. After treatment, the
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is thicker. To the researchers, this implied
that treating chronic pain can restore normal
brain functions. (6) Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office takes care of Groton back pain patients all day long. It’s amazing to think
that treatment might affect more than the pain response
alone!
CONTACT Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office
Listen to this PODCAST
by Dr. James Cox on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he
explains more plainly the brain and spine and pain
connection, describes in more depth how the cells of the body
are continually remodeling and adjusting to
their always-changing mechanical environment, and how chiropractic may intervene
positively.
Schedule a non-surgical Groton chiropractic care
appointment with Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office for your pain, brain, and spine! The
connection is there between pain and the brain. Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office can get in the center
of those two and help you obtain some Groton pain relief.