Williamson Chiropractic Care Respects Spinal Extension
Extension of the spine: It is beneficial. It is harmful. So what is up with spinal extension? Both are accurate: It’s good. It is bad. It is the job of your Williamson chiropractor to help you figure out the role of extension for your Williamson back pain relief plan and Williamson back pain control plan getting past the present episode of back pain. Your Williamson chiropractor at Apple Country Chiropractic 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 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 resulting in pain. Flexion often allows the disc bulge to move off of the nerve. Extension often allows the disc bulge to compress the nerves more. Apple Country Chiropractic wants to help reduce painful situations like this!
SPINAL MOTION
75% of the flexion and extension movement in the low back occurs at the L5-S1 level of the lumbar spine. 20% occurs 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 takes place, and C4-C5 is where most of the extension takes place. Williamson chiropractic patients need beneficial extension!
SPINAL EXTENSION
Apple Country Chiropractic 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 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 made the disc herniation larger and narrowed the vertebral canal producing stenosis. (2) In a degenerative lumbar spine with spinal stenosis, flexion opened the vertebral canal and relieved pain while extension exacerbated the stenosis and triggered pain. (3) Apple Country Chiropractic knows the key to getting the benefits of extension is in knowing when to apply extension.
Williamson CHIROPRACTIC USE OF EXTENSION
Williamson chiropractic treatment incorporates extension into the Williamson 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 Apple Country Chiropractic aims to do for its Williamson back pain patients.
CONTACT Apple Country Chiropractic
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 relieves her pain as the table is flexed not extended.
Schedule your Williamson chiropractic appointment with Apple Country Chiropractic today. Let us discover the role extension might play in your back pain recovery and future back pain control plan.
