Groton Cervical Spine Motion, Osteophytes, and Agings Effect
Aging gets blamed for a lot of ills…including limited neck movements. You are not alone if you find that you do not turn your head quite as easily or as far as you once did or that you don’t flex or extend it like you once could. Degenerative discs and vertebrae and associated osteophytes contribute to limiting movement. Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office is ready to help your neck motions with gentle chiropractic treatment!
CERVICAL SPINE MOTION
Physiological motion of the spine has a nice ring to it, does it not? It does! In the cervical spine, researchers have described how a consistent sequence of cervical segmental contributions function when the neck moves. This sequence is common in 80-90% of young healthy persons. But what about the motions in aging spines of older folks? Decreased movement has been linked to aging. A newer study by some curious researchers designed a study to see if such consistent neck motions in asymptomatic young people were the same in elderly asymptomatic persons. They didn’t. They concluded that aging - as demonstrated by the motion patterns seen in elderly asymptomatic persons - was linked to a loss of consistent motion patterns that were seen in young asymptomatic persons. For example, the consistent pattern in young asymptomatic persons was found in only 10% of the older persons at T1 and 0% at T2. (1) As our Groton chiropractic friends and family age along with us, we’re not alone in seeing motion changes. Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office offers gentle Cox® Technic treatment in order to bring as much movement to spinal segments as they’ll allow. If you see limitations in your neck motions, let us know! We can look for the usual culprits that may be the cause.
WHAT COMES WITH AGING THAT LIMITS NECK MOTION: Osteophytes
Osteophytes are commonly seen in elderly folks’ vertebrae of the lumbar and cervical spines. Anterior osteophytes keep growing and eventually produce neck pain or back pain. Since osteophytes are so usual and result in such pain, researchers found a way to predict the mean time to onset of pain and the path of degeneration that happens in these vertebrae based on data from following patients’ osteophytes for 9 years. (2) We know our Groton chiropractic patients with osteophytes are not as curious as to how long ago their osteophytes started, but rather how our chiropractic care can help! Here is an interesting case involving osteophytes and relieving chiropractic care: Osteophytes may contribute to patients’ developing dysphagia (aka difficulty with swallowing). A case report presented a 53-year-old woman with a sore throat, difficulty swallowing solid foods, and acid reflux. Her imaging revealed anterior osteophytes as well as kyphosis (abnormal curvature) of her cervical spine and thoracolumbar scoliosis, any of which could impact her dysphagia. Six months of chiropractic care relieved her issues. (3) Chiropractic care works!
CONTACT Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office
Listen to the PODCAST with Dr. Shay Corbin on the Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he describes the effectiveness and gentleness of the Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management for his musician patient experiencing neck and back pain.
Make your next Groton chiropractic appointment with Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office. Bring your aging spine, your less-than-flexible cervical spine, your stiff neck to our clinic. We can work toward better mobility!
