Old Mill Chiropractic Presents the Influence of the Brain/Spine Connection in Back Pain
The brain and the spine. They’re connected. They’re connected more intimately than any of us appreciate as we go about our daily lives. Old Mill Chiropractic keeps this connection in mind as we treat our St Peters back pain sufferers’ spines and pay attention to their stories of pain and ways of coping. St Peters chiropractic care at Old Mill Chiropractic respects the brain and spine connection and use gentle, safe chiropractic services including spinal manipulation to ease pain concerning both.
BRAIN CHANGES IN St Peters BACK PAIN
Pain changes the brain. A person in pain knows it. Special tests today can reveal it. BOLD (blood oxygen level dependent) responses were analyzed 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 accompany chronic constriction of the sciatic nerve due to its effect on the medial prefrontal cortex. (3) Spinal manipulation may be a means to deal with the brain changes in chronic pain and its related 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 St Peters chiropractor’s mind spinning a little! What a topic! Without having to grasp all these terms and measurements discussed in the study, know that the study shared that the brain, even the adult brain, is malleable. Sure, 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 explain that long term experience establishes cortical organization while transient, new and different stimulation can trigger 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 St Peters 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 add to the overall experience of chronic pain are the primary somatosensory cortex and posterior insular cortex. (5) The cortex of the brain was shown to be thinner in chronic low back pain patients. Post-treatment, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is thicker. To the researchers, this indicated that treating chronic pain can restore normal brain functions. (6) Old Mill Chiropractic treats St Peters back pain patients all day long. It’s amazing to think that treatment might affect more than just the pain response!
CONTACT Old Mill Chiropractic
Listen to this PODCAST by Dr. James Cox on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he defines more plainly the brain and spine and pain connection, describes in more depth how the cells of the body are constantly remodeling and adjusting to their ever-changing mechanical environment, and how chiropractic may help.
Schedule a non-surgical St Peters chiropractic care appointment with Old Mill Chiropractic for your pain, brain, and spine! The connection is there between pain and the brain. Old Mill Chiropractic can get in the center of those two and help you get some St Peters pain relief.
