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.