Manahawkin Chiropractic Center Presents the Influence of the Brain/Spine Connection in Back Pain
The brain and the spine. They are connected. They’re connected more deeply than any of us realize as we go about our daily lives. Manahawkin Chiropractic Center keeps this connection in mind as we treat our Manahawkin back pain sufferers’ spines and pay attention to their stories of pain and ways of coping. Manahawkin chiropractic care at Manahawkin Chiropractic Center respects the brain and spine connection and implement gentle, safe chiropractic services incorporating spinal manipulation to reduce pain affecting both.
BRAIN CHANGES IN Manahawkin BACK PAIN
Pain changes the brain. A person in pain knows it. Special tests today can show it. BOLD (blood oxygen level dependent) responses were examined after stimulating lumbar spinous processes with manipulation and demonstrated activity in the secondary somatosensory cortex, cerebellum and other parts of the brain. (1) Motor cortex stimulation triggers a spinal anti-inflammatory response to reduce pain. (2) Depression, anxiety, cognitive deficits often come with chronic constriction of the sciatic nerve because of its effect on the medial prefrontal cortex. (3) Spinal manipulation may be a way to address 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 Manahawkin chiropractor’s mind spinning a bit! What a topic! Without having to understand all these terms and measurements discussed 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 occasional, new and different stimulation can spark cortical reorganization of the adult brain. Such changes have been noted in musicians, Braille readers, and persons after spinal manipulation and stroke rehab. (4) This knowledge of the brain contributes to the Manahawkin chiropractic treatment plan!
BRAIN CHANGES WITH CHRONIC PAIN
Just how is the chiropractic treatment plan influenced by such knowledge of the brain? Let us start by examining the brain with chronic pain. The two brain regions that encode the intensity of pain 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 suggested that treating chronic pain may well restore normal brain functions. (6) Manahawkin Chiropractic Center care for Manahawkin back pain patients all day long. It’s amazing to think that treatment might alter more than the pain response alone!
CONTACT Manahawkin Chiropractic Center
Listen to this PODCAST by Dr. James Cox on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he defines more clearly the brain and spine and pain connection, describes in more depth how the cells of the body are continually remodeling and adapting to their ever-changing mechanical environment, and how chiropractic may intervene positively.
Schedule a non-surgical Manahawkin chiropractic care appointment with Manahawkin Chiropractic Center for your pain, brain, and spine! The connection is there between pain and the brain. Manahawkin Chiropractic Center can get in the middle of those two and help you find some Manahawkin pain relief.
