Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka Sees Disc Disease in Young People

August 13, 2019

“You’re young! You don’t have to worry about back pain.” Not true! New research shows that young and old alike must contend with disc degeneration. Most of us will personally have to face disc degeneration’s pain at some point in our lives…or help a loved one coping with its back pain or neck pain effects. Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka is here for young and old alike when Sitka disc degeneration disrupts your quality of life.

DDD STARTS EARLIER THAN ONCE THOUGHT

It’s hard to believe, but it’s documented in the medical literature. Disc degeneration begins in the late teens!  A study of 18-20 year old healthy air force cadets found that 77% had13 disc degeneration or disc herniation. (1) That’s a new revelation! It has been recorded elsewhere that disc degeneration begins at age 20. Now it’s found to appear in 18 year olds! In this study MRIs were done on all cadets. None of the cadets reported spine pain. The MRIs revealed that: 30% showed at least one disc was dehydrating, 13% disc narrowing, 49% disc bulging, 18% disc protruding, 8% disc extruding, 13% with spondylolisthesis, and less than 1% even showed asymptomatic vertebral fractures. These results in young, seemingly healthy people are similar to what would be predictable in adults. (1) It’s never too early to take care of the spine! Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka takes care of spines at all ages via spinal manipulation, nutrition and exercise.

WHY?

Researchers (and parents) wonder “why?” Why does lumbar spine disc degeneration or cervical spine disc degeneration start so young? It may be genetic. 80% of patients in a recent study had mutations in their collagen-encoding genes. Collagen is important to disc and joint health. Lumbar disc herniation patients had two variants in their gene encoding for aggrecan, a protein that the end plate depends on for load-bearing. Such a mutation influences the nucleus pulposus, annulus fibrosus and end plates. (2) Certainly, the whole reason about why a disc degenerates isn’t fully defined yet. Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka does have methods to contain and relieve the pain of a Sitka degenerated disc.

INTERRUPTING DISC DEGENERATION, PROMOTING DISC REGENERATION

Researchers explained disc degeneration as a cascade of mechanical, biochemical, and structural alterations at the cellular level, cells that exist in an abnormal mechanical environment. Regeneration of such cells would demand very specific conditions and would not always be possible. However, traction of 2 to 6 weeks was found to be a sensitive time for regeneration of a degenerated disc. The researchers suggest that this could interrupt the above described cascade of changes. (3) Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka uses Cox® Technic to gently create a positive environment for the healing of degenerated discs by increasing the area of the spinal canal by 28%, increasing the height of the disc by 17%, and decreasing intradiscal pressures to as low as -192mmHg in the low back and dropping pressures in the cervical spine by a mean pressure as much as 1265 mmHg. (4,5) Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka bolsters the Cox® Technic system of spinal pain management by adding spinal nutrition (particularly disc nutrition supplementation) and exercise to boost the relief and clinical outcome for Sitka back pain patients.

CONTACT Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka

Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Paxton Schofield  on The Back Doctors’ Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson who presented his care of arthritis and degeneration with Cox® Technic.

Schedule your Sitka chiropractic appointment at Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka for your spine’s health. You may not be too young for back pain, and you are undoubtedly not too young to take care of your spine. A Sitka chiropractic treatment plan of spinal manipulation, nutrition and exercise can be good for all ages of back pain and neck pain sufferers due to disc degeneration.

Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka relieves back pain due to disc degeneration in younger people in their teens and 20s.