Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office Explains Degenerative Disc Disease and How Nutrition Helps
Usual questions we hear from Groton back pain sufferers at Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office sound something like this: “What is Groton degenerative disease?” (Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office can explain what degenerative disc disease at the drop of a hat!) and “Can nutrition help?” (“Yes!”)
WHAT IS DEGENERATIVE DISC DISEASE?
Degenerative disc disease comes often from typical, age-related changes that take place in the discs of the spine that cause pain. The spinal discs function like shock absorbers between the vertebral bones of your spine. As discs degenerate, they do not do their job as well. A discs’ health stems from the health of surrounding structures as much as its own health. The cartilage endplates play a huge role in the health of the disc. Unhealthy endplates do, too, as they may contribute to degenerative disc disease.
HOW CHIROPRACTIC CARE AND NUTRITION HELP DEGENERATIVE DISC DISEASE
Chiropractic care at Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office approaches disc health from both the inside and outside. The disc requires some special nutritional elements to keep it healthy and strong, ready to keep the spine mobile. It requires glucose, glycosaminoglycan, calcium, magnesium, chondroitin sulfate, and more. It obtains these nutrients via the cartilaginous endplates that surround it on top and bottom (70%) and from the sides of the disc (30%). The cartilage endplates of the disc that are adjacent to the vertebral bodies of the spine provide a major path for nutrients to get into the disc. Permeability of the cartilage endplate increases as it ages and degenerates. Degeneration of the cartilage endplate is linked to the start of cell starvation and death of the disc due to poor nutrition. Degeneration of the cartilage endplate may well be to blame for mechanical load-induced dehydration of the disc’s nucleus pulposus and decreased levels of glucose in the nucleus pulposus (inner gel of the disc)-annulus fibrosus (outer bands of the disc) connection area. (Read more about disc nutrition with glucosamine sulfate and chondroitin sulfate.) (1) The endplates are key to the disc’s health. When the endplates are damaged by degenerative changes, they can’t perform their job of transporting nutrients into the disc. One study stresses this issue by describing how severe inhibition in the endplate nutritional pathways likely leads to intervertebral disc disruption. (2) Further, a good night’s rest may be beneficial for more than beauty! Lying down even for a short time allows an increase in the cervical spine and thoracic intervertebral discs’ hydration volume. (3) Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office cares for the disc from the inside with nutrition and the outside with sleep recommendations and spinal manipulation.
Groton CHIROPRACTIC TREATMENT HELPS DEGENERATIVE DISC DISEASE
While resting recumbent unloads the spine, dynamic loading of the spine is beneficial, too. How? It returns to those cartilage endplates once again. Cartilage endplates’ ability to allow flow of nutrients depends on its porosity. The more porous and healthy the endplates are, the more flow of nutrients is permitted. The less porous, less hydrated, more degenerated the endplates are, the less flow of nutrients is allowed. Recent research today describes the benefits of dynamic loading (as opposed to static loading) on nutrient transport into the disc via cartilage endplates. (4) Chiropractic spinal manipulation is dynamic treatment of the spine. The protocols of Cox® Technic focus on individual segments of the spine to increase motion where disc degeneration may exist. It’s gentle, relieving care delivered every day at Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office!
CONTACT Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Sylvia Hrefna from Iceland on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as she presents her relieving care with Cox® Technic of a patient with disc degeneration in her cervical spine, the second of two cases in this podcast.
