Extension of the spine: It is valuable. It is harmful.
So what is up with spinal extension?
Both are true: It’s good. It is
bad. It
is the job of your Lynchburg chiropractor to help you determine the role of extension for your Lynchburg
back pain relief plan and Lynchburg back pain control plan moving
past the existing episode of back pain.
Your Lynchburg chiropractor at Palmer Chiropractic Center is well experienced
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 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. Palmer Chiropractic Center wants to help decrease
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% occurs 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. Lynchburg chiropractic
patients need beneficial extension!
SPINAL EXTENSION
Palmer 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 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 reduced pain while extension exacerbated
the stenosis and produced pain. (3) Palmer Chiropractic Center understands
the key to getting the benefits of extension is in recognizing
when to apply extension.
Lynchburg CHIROPRACTIC USE OF EXTENSION
Lynchburg chiropractic treatment integrates
extension into the Lynchburg chiropractic treatment plan for its advantages.
Cox® Technic applied to 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) Dropping intradiscal pressures and back pain is what
Palmer Chiropractic Center does for its Lynchburg back pain
patients.
CONTACT Palmer Chiropractic Center
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 Lynchburg chiropractic appointment
with Palmer Chiropractic Center today. Let us figure out
the role extension might have in your back pain recovery and future
back pain control plan.