Juneau Chiropractic Care Respects Spinal Extension
Extension of the spine: It is valuable. It is harmful. So what’s with spinal extension? Both are accurate: It is good. It’s bad. It’s the job of your Juneau chiropractor to help you figure out the role of extension in your Juneau back pain relief plan and Juneau back pain control plan getting past the current episode of back pain. Your Juneau chiropractor at Aurora 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 prominent 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 pushes on the spinal nerves causing pain. Flexion often allows the disc bulge to move off of the nerve. Extension often permits the disc bulge to press on the nerves more. Aurora Chiropractic Center sets out to help reduce painful situations like this!
SPINAL MOTION
75% of the flexion and extension movement in the low back is 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 occurs 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 occurs, and C4-C5 is where most of the extension takes place. Juneau chiropractic patients need beneficial extension!
SPINAL EXTENSION
Aurora Chiropractic Center 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 essential for this when the spine is healthy enough to perform extension. Extension to a painful spine may be harmful. Why? In the cervical spine, flexion reduced disc protrusion and enlarges the sagittal diameter of the vertebral canal while extension increased the disc protrusion and narrowed the vertebral canal producing stenosis. (2) In a degenerative lumbar spine with spinal stenosis, flexion widened the vertebral canal and relieved pain while extension exacerbated the stenosis and produced pain. (3) Aurora Chiropractic Center understands the key to eliciting the benefits of extension is in recognizing when to apply extension.
Juneau CHIROPRACTIC USE OF EXTENSION
Juneau chiropractic treatment incorporates extension into the Juneau 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) Reducing intradiscal pressures and back pain is what Aurora Chiropractic Center aims to do for its Juneau back pain patients.
CONTACT Aurora 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 continues after multiple back surgeries with flexion distraction which gives her relief as the table is flexed not extended.
Schedule your Juneau chiropractic appointment with Aurora Chiropractic Center today. Let’s discover the role extension might play in your back pain recovery and future back pain control plan.
