Normal Degeneration Linked with Nashua Spinal Stenosis

Normal degeneration of the spine may seem strange when discussing degeneration, but age meets us all. Age brings on degeneration normally. Our Nashua chiropractic practice acknowledges and respects age for its influence on the spine and its role in paraspinal muscle and disc degeneration. They go hand-in-hand. Moriarty Chiropractic treats them gently and effectively, particularly when our patients do their part in coming to appointments, exercising, and taking supplements that can be beneficial. It is all part of the Nashua chiropractic treatment plan!

NORMAL DEGENERATION: Age

Age. Not a topic we enjoy talking about, but age does not care. It keeps doing what it does. Age contributed much when researchers compared the fatty infiltration of muscle in normal people to that in lumbar spinal stenosis patients matched for age, BMI, weight, etc. The paraspinal muscle changes in lumbar spinal stenosis patients and normal people were similar. Degeneration of these muscles related to age was more obvious in lumbar spinal stenosis patients particularly in the multifidus muscles. (1) A radiographic study of degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis found age-related risk factors. Researchers wrote that greater intervertebral disc height and more severe vertebral endplate failure may trigger degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis because of the increased mobility of the segment, progressing disc degeneration. Weakened paravertebral muscles may weaken lumbar spinal stability. (2) Indeed, the spine and all its muscles are connected. Moriarty Chiropractic looks at them all, to their response to treatment, to their role in the pain.

BACK PAIN AND ITS PALS

Low back pain has associates. It brings with it degeneration, change, fat, imbalance and more. Researchers credited intervertebral disc degeneration as being the main cause of chronic low back pain. It’s a common and recuring condition in spine surgery fields. Disc degeneration is related to disc inflammation which makes sense as it is avascular tissue. As we humans age, researchers explained that its bone marrow changes to bone marrow fat, starting an inflammatory response in the disc and paraspinal muscles which influence spine stability. As the muscles fill with fat, low back pain transitioned to chronic. (3) In a study of patients with lumbar spinal stenosis and sciatica/leg pain, researchers described that lumbar degenerative diseases prompted paravertebral muscle degeneration with higher levels of intramuscular fat infiltration. Women’s paraspinal muscles were significantly reduced. The erector spinae muscle and multifidus muscle in older aged patients were noted to have more fat in them. (4) Moriarty Chiropractic appreciates that aging plays a role in back pain’s development, path, and treatment.

LESS IS MORE: Treating Aged Back Pain

Since researchers documented that with age comes fatty infiltration of paraspinal muscles and inflammatory responses in the disc, it is logical that doing less if back surgery is done would be sensible. A new study wrote that the addition of fusion to a decompression back surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis raised the risk of new stenosis on an MRI two years later at the operated level or at an adjacent spinal level even when spondylolisthesis (a condition that one vertebra slipped on another one) was noted at surgery. (5) Less is more frequently when treating back pain. Gentler treatment can go far in decreasing pain. That’s the motto of the CTFDD treatment plan at Moriarty Chiropractic: gentle spinal manipulation, gentle exercise, etc.

CONTACT Moriarty Chiropractic

Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Joseph Beissel on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he describes the relief with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management for a patient with chronic low back pain.  

Make your Nashua chiropractic appointment now. There’s no avoiding age or its accompanying pal, degeneration. If disc degeneration and spinal muscle degeneration are now your pals, trust Moriarty Chiropractic to set you all on a path to healing.