Murfreesboro Chiropractic Care Respects Spinal Extension

Extension of the spine: It is beneficial. It is harmful. So what’s with spinal extension? Both are true: It is valuable. It’s harmful. It’s the job of your Murfreesboro chiropractor to help you figure out the role of extension in your Murfreesboro back pain relief plan and Murfreesboro back pain control plan in the future. Your Murfreesboro chiropractor at Most Chiropractic Clinic is well trained in the effects – good and bad – of spinal extension and respects its role in spinal health and motion.

SPINAL CURVES

Two of the spine’s most prominent curves – the cervical and lumbar curves – are lordotic curves meaning they curve concavely. Flexion flattens these curves. Extension magnifies them. When a disc herniates or bulges, it does so into the concavity of the curve and potentially pushes on the spinal nerves causing pain. Flexion usually permits the disc bulge to get away from the nerve. Extension often allows the disc bulge to compress the nerves more. Most Chiropractic Clinic intends to help reduce painful situations like this!

SPINAL MOTION

75% of the flexion and extension movement in the low back is at the L5-S1 level of the lumbar spine. 20% is at the L4-L5 level. Therefore, 95% of flexion and extension of the lumbar spine happens at these two lower disc levels. Here, degenerative disc disease (minor and more advanced) occurs most. In the cervical spine, C5-C6 is the spinal level where most of the flexion occurs, and C4-C5 is where most of the extension occurs. Murfreesboro chiropractic patients need beneficial extension!

SPINAL EXTENSION

Most Chiropractic Clinic respects extension and gets how it may help and hurt. The extensor muscles in the back weaken and degenerate just as discs do. (1) Extension helps strengthen these muscles to support the spine. Extension is necessary for this when the spine is healthy enough to perform extension. Extension to a painful spine may be harmful. Why? In the cervical spine, flexion decreased disc protrusion and enlarges the sagittal diameter of the vertebral canal while extension increased the disc protrusion and constricted the vertebral canal producing stenosis. (2) In a degenerative lumbar spine with spinal stenosis, flexion widened the vertebral canal and reduced pain while extension exacerbated the stenosis and caused pain. (3) Most Chiropractic Clinic knows the key to eliciting the benefits of extension is in recognizing when to use extension.

Murfreesboro CHIROPRACTIC USE OF EXTENSION

Murfreesboro chiropractic treatment integrates extension into the Murfreesboro chiropractic treatment plan for its advantages. Cox® Technic used with the cervical spine dropped intradiscal pressures to as low as 502 mmHg (4) and to as low as -192 mmHg in the lumbar spine. (5) Extension escalated pressures in the lumbar spine to 1250 mmHg (the highest amount the transducer could measure). (4) Reducing intradiscal pressures and back pain is what Most Chiropractic Clinic aims to do for its Murfreesboro back pain patients.

CONTACT Most Chiropractic Clinic

Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. David Atiyeh on the Back Doctor’s Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson. He shares how he helped a patient whose back pain continues after multiple back surgeries with flexion distraction which relieves her pain as the table is flexed not extended.

Schedule your Murfreesboro chiropractic appointment with Most Chiropractic Clinic today. Let’s figure out the role extension might play in your back pain recovery and future back pain control plan.