Normal Degeneration Linked with Baton Rouge Spinal Stenosis
Normal degeneration of the spine may seem incongruous when discussing degeneration, but age encounters us all. Age generates degeneration normally. Our Baton Rouge chiropractic practice recognizes and respects age for its influence on the spine and its role in disc degeneration and paraspinal muscle degeneration. They go together. Medical Spine and Sports Injury and Rehab Centers treats them gently and successfully, particularly when our patients do their part in keeping appointments, exercising, and taking supplements that can help. It’s all part of the Baton Rouge chiropractic treatment plan!
NORMAL DEGENERATION: Age
Age. Not a topic we enjoy talking about, but age doesn’t mind. It keeps doing what it does. 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 noticeable in lumbar spinal stenosis patients particularly 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 stimulate degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis due to the amplified mobility of the segment, furthering disc degeneration. Weakened paravertebral muscles may weaken lumbar spinal stability. (2) Truly, the spine and all its muscles are interconnected. Medical Spine and Sports Injury and Rehab Centers looks at them all, to their response to treatment, to their part in the pain.
BACK PAIN AND ITS PALS
Low back pain has associates. It brings with it degeneration, change, fat, imbalance and more. Researchers adknowledged 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 which makes sense since 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 play a role in 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 saw that lumbar degenerative diseases caused paravertebral muscle degeneration with higher levels of intramuscular fat infiltration. Women’s paraspinal muscles were significantly reduced. The erector spinae muscle and multifidus muscle in older aged patients were noted to have more fat in them. (4) Medical Spine and Sports Injury and Rehab Centers realizes that aging plays a role in back pain’s development, path, and treatment.
LESS IS MORE: Treating Aged Back Pain
Since researchers noticed that with age comes fatty infiltration of paraspinal muscles and inflammatory responses in the disc, it makes sense that doing less if back surgery is performed would be prudent. A new study wrote that the addition of fusion to a decompression back surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis heightened 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 noted at surgery. (5) Less is more oftentimes when managing back pain. Gentler treatment can go far in decreasing pain. That is the motto of the CTFDD treatment plan at Medical Spine and Sports Injury and Rehab Centers: gentle spinal manipulation, gentle exercise, etc.
CONTACT Medical Spine and Sports Injury and Rehab Centers
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.
Make your Baton Rouge chiropractic appointment soon. There’s no escaping age or its accompanying pal, degeneration. If disc degeneration and spinal muscle degeneration are now your pals, trust Medical Spine and Sports Injury and Rehab Centers to get you all on a path of healing.
