Manahawkin Chiropractic Care Respects Spinal Extension
Extension of the spine: It’s good. It is bad. So what is up with spinal extension? Both are true: It’s beneficial. It is harmful. It is the job of your Manahawkin chiropractor to help you establish the role of extension in your Manahawkin back pain relief plan and Manahawkin back pain control plan getting past the current episode of back pain. Your Manahawkin chiropractor at Manahawkin Chiropractic Center is well versed 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 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 presses on the spinal nerves resulting in pain. Flexion often allows the disc bulge to get away from the nerve. Extension often permits the disc bulge to compress the nerves more. Manahawkin Chiropractic Center sets out to help decrease painful situations like this!
SPINAL MOTION
75% of the flexion and extension movement in the low back happens 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 occurs, and C4-C5 is where most of the extension takes place. Manahawkin chiropractic patients need healthy extension!
SPINAL EXTENSION
Manahawkin Chiropractic Center 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 essential for this when the spine is healthy enough to perform extension. Extension to a painful spine may hurt. Why? In the cervical spine, flexion decreased disc protrusion and maximizes the sagittal diameter of the vertebral canal while extension made the disc herniation larger and constricted the vertebral canal causing stenosis. (2) In a degenerative lumbar spine with spinal stenosis, flexion opened the vertebral canal and reduced pain while extension exacerbated the stenosis and caused pain. (3) Manahawkin Chiropractic Center knows the key to getting the benefits of extension is in recognizing when to apply extension.
Manahawkin CHIROPRACTIC USE OF EXTENSION
Manahawkin chiropractic treatment incorporates extension into the Manahawkin 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 increased pressures in the lumbar spine to 1250 mmHg (the highest amount the transducer could measure). (4) Dropping intradiscal pressures and back pain is what Manahawkin Chiropractic Center aims to do for its Manahawkin back pain patients.
CONTACT Manahawkin Chiropractic Center
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. David Atiyeh on the Back Doctor’s Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson. He shares how he cared for 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 Manahawkin chiropractic appointment with Manahawkin Chiropractic Center today. Let’s explore the role extension might have in your back pain recovery and future back pain control plan.
