Murfreesboro Chiropractic Care Respects Spinal Extension
Extension of the spine: It is good. It is bad. So what’s with spinal extension? Both are accurate: It is good. It’s bad. It is the job of your Murfreesboro chiropractor to help you figure out the role of extension for your Murfreesboro back pain relief plan and Murfreesboro back pain control plan in the future. Your Murfreesboro chiropractor at Most Chiropractic Clinic is well experienced in the effects – good and bad – of spinal extension and respects its role in spinal health and mobility.
SPINAL CURVES
Two of the spine’s most noticeable curves – the cervical and lumbar curves – are lordotic curves meaning they curve inwardly. 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 move off of the nerve. Extension often allows the disc bulge to compress the nerves more. Most Chiropractic Clinic wants 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% happens 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) happens most. In the cervical spine, C5-C6 is the spinal level where most of the flexion takes place, and C4-C5 is where most of the extension occurs. Murfreesboro chiropractic patients need healthy extension!
SPINAL EXTENSION
Most Chiropractic Clinic respects extension and understands how it may benefit and harm. 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 do extension. Extension to a painful spine may hurt. Why? In the cervical spine, flexion reduced disc protrusion and enlarges the sagittal diameter of the vertebral canal while extension increased the disc protrusion and narrowed the vertebral canal causing 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 getting the benefits of extension is in recognizing when to apply extension.
Murfreesboro CHIROPRACTIC USE OF EXTENSION
Murfreesboro chiropractic treatment incorporates extension into the Murfreesboro chiropractic treatment plan for its benefits. 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 most the transducer could measure). (4) Reducing intradiscal pressures and back pain is what Most Chiropractic Clinic does 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 persists after multiple back surgeries with flexion distraction which gives her relief as the table is flexed not extended.
Schedule your Murfreesboro chiropractic appointment with Most Chiropractic Clinic today. Let’s explore the role extension might play in your back pain recovery and future back pain control plan.
