Normal Degeneration Linked with Fort Wayne Spinal Stenosis

January 10, 2023

Normal degeneration of the spine may seem incongruous when discussing degeneration, but age encounters us all. Age generates degeneration normally. Our Fort Wayne chiropractic practice acknowledges and respects age for its influence on the spine and its role in disc degeneration and paraspinal muscle degeneration. They go hand-in-hand. Aaron Chiropractic Clinic treats them gently and effectively, especially when our patients do their part in coming to appointments, exercising, and following suggestions about supplements that can be beneficial. It’s all part of the Fort Wayne chiropractic treatment plan!

NORMAL DEGENERATION: Age

Age. Not a topic we want to talk about, but age does not care. It keeps doing its thing. Age contributed much when comparing the fatty infiltration of muscle in normal people to that in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis who were 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 especially 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 due to the amplified mobility of the segment, furthering disc degeneration. Weakened paravertebral muscles may weaken lumbar spinal stability. (2) Truly, the spine and all its muscles are connected. Aaron Chiropractic Clinic looks at them all, to their response to treatment, to their part in the pain.

BACK PAIN AND ITS PALS

Low back pain has associates. It brings with it degeneration, change, fat, imbalance and more. Researchers adknowledged intervertebral disc degeneration as being the main cause of chronic low back pain. It is a common and recuring condition in spine surgery fields. Disc degeneration is associated with disc inflammation which makes sense since 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 have a role in spine stability. As the muscles fill with fat, low back pain changed to chronic. (3) In a study of patients with lumbar spinal stenosis and sciatica/leg pain, researchers saw 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) Aaron Chiropractic Clinic realizes that aging plays a role in back pain’s development, path, and treatment.

LESS IS MORE: Treating Aged Back Pain

Since researchers noticed 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 performed would be prudent. A new study wrote that adding fusion to a decompression back surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis raised the odds 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 oftentimes when treating back pain. Gentler treatment can go far in decreasing pain. That’s the motto of the CTFDD treatment plan at Aaron Chiropractic Clinic: gentle spinal manipulation, gentle exercise, etc.

CONTACT Aaron Chiropractic Clinic

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

Make your Fort Wayne chiropractic appointment soon. There’s no escaping age or its accompanying pal, degeneration. If disc degeneration and spinal muscle degeneration are now your pals, trust Aaron Chiropractic Clinic to get you all on a path to healing. 

Fort Wayne degenerative spinal changes