Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka Presents the Influence of the Brain/Spine Connection in Back Pain
The brain and the spine. They’re connected. They’re connected more closely than any of us realize as we go about our daily lives. Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka keeps this connection top-of-mind as we treat our Sitka back pain sufferers’ spines and pay attention to their stories of pain and ways of coping. Sitka chiropractic care at Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka respects the brain and spine connection and use gentle, safe chiropractic services including spinal manipulation to reduce pain affecting both.
BRAIN CHANGES IN Sitka 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 brain areas. (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 due to its effect on the medial prefrontal cortex. (3) Spinal manipulation may be a way 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 impact the pain experience. A recent study on Euclidean distance between cortical sources and temporal dynamics of plastic changes in the somatosensory cortex of the brain had even your Sitka 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 appropriate input, the older, adult brain can change. The researchers in this study measured and compared the brain’s cortical size before and after stimulation and compared them on MRI. They saw a difference. More research needs to be done, but they did describe that long term experience establishes cortical organization while transient, new and different stimulation can spark cortical reorganization of the adult brain. Such changes have been seen in musicians, Braille readers, and persons after spinal manipulation and stroke rehab. (4) This understanding of the brain contributes to the Sitka 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 examining the brain with chronic pain. The two brain regions that encode the intensity of painful stimuli and contribute to the whole 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. Post-treatment, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is thicker. To the researchers, this indicated that treating chronic pain may well restore normal brain functions. (6) Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka takes care of Sitka back pain patients all day long. It is amazing to imagine that treatment might alter more than the pain response alone!
CONTACT Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka
Listen to this PODCAST by Dr. James Cox on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he defines more plainly the brain and spine and pain connection, illustrates in more depth how the cells of the body are constantly remodeling and adapting to their ever-changing mechanical environment, and how chiropractic may intervene positively.
Schedule a non-surgical Sitka chiropractic care appointment with Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka for your pain, brain, and spine! The connection is there between pain and the brain. Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka can get in the center of those two and help you get some Sitka pain relief.
