Spine & Sports Rehab Center Presents the Influence of the Brain/Spine Connection in Back Pain

The brain and the spine. They’re connected. They’re connected more deeply than any of us realize as we go about our daily lives. Spine & Sports Rehab Center keeps this connection in mind as we take care of our Baton Rouge back pain sufferers’ spines and listen to their stories of pain and ways of coping. Baton Rouge chiropractic care at Spine & Sports Rehab Center respects the brain and spine connection and implement gentle, safe chiropractic services incorporating spinal manipulation to ease pain concerning both.

BRAIN CHANGES IN Baton Rouge BACK PAIN

Pain changes the brain. A person in pain feels it. Special tests today can show it. BOLD (blood oxygen level dependent) responses were analyzed after stimulating lumbar spinous processes with manipulation and demonstrated activity in the secondary somatosensory cortex, cerebellum and other parts of the brain. (1) Motor cortex stimulation triggers a spinal anti-inflammatory response to decrease pain. (2) Depression, anxiety, cognitive deficits often accompany chronic constriction of the sciatic nerve as a result of its effect on the medial prefrontal cortex. (3) Spinal manipulation may be a means to deal with the brain changes in chronic pain and its associated issues.

SHORT TERM STIMULATION’S EFFECT ON BRAIN

Stimulating the brain even for a short time may influence 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 Baton Rouge chiropractor’s mind spinning a little! What a topic! Without having to grasp all these terms and measurements shared in the study, know that the study shared that the brain, even the adult brain, is pliable. Of course, the young brain in development is most impressionable, but with the proper input, the older, adult brain can change. The researchers in this study took measurements before and after stimulation and compared them on MRI. They noticed a difference. More research should be done, but they did describe that long term experience establishes cortical organization while transient, new and different stimulation can induce cortical reorganization of the adult brain. Such changes have been noted in musicians, Braille readers, and persons after spinal manipulation and stroke rehab. (4) This knowledge of the brain informs the Baton Rouge 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 looking at 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 suggested that treating chronic pain may well reestablish normal brain functions. (6) Spine & Sports Rehab Center takes care of Baton Rouge back pain patients all day long. It is amazing to imagine that treatment might modify more than the pain response alone!

CONTACT Spine & Sports Rehab Center

Listen to this PODCAST by Dr. James Cox on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he defines more clearly the brain and spine and pain connection, describes in more depth how the cells of the body are constantly remodeling and adjusting to their ever-changing mechanical environment, and how chiropractic may intervene positively.

Schedule a non-surgical Baton Rouge chiropractic care appointment with Spine & Sports Rehab Center for your pain, brain, and spine! The connection is there between pain and the brain. Spine & Sports Rehab Center can get in the middle of those two and help you get some Baton Rouge pain relief.

 
Spine & Sports Rehab Center looks at the connection between the brain and spine in back pain patients to better help them find pain relief. 
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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."