Fort Wayne Chiropractic Care Respects Spinal Extension

Extension of the spine: It is good. It’s bad. So what’s with spinal extension? Both are true: It’s valuable. It is harmful. It’s the job of your Fort Wayne chiropractor to help you establish the role of extension in your Fort Wayne back pain relief plan and Fort Wayne back pain control plan getting past the present episode of back pain. Your Fort Wayne chiropractor at Cox Chiropractic Medicine Inc is well experienced 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 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 pushes on the spinal nerves resulting in pain. Flexion often permits the disc bulge to move off of the nerve. Extension often allows the disc bulge to press on the nerves more. Cox Chiropractic Medicine Inc intends to help reduce painful situations like this!

SPINAL MOTION

75% of the flexion and extension movement in the low back happens 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 happens at these two lower disc levels. Here, degenerative disc disease (minor and more advanced) happens 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 occurs. Fort Wayne chiropractic patients need beneficial extension!

SPINAL EXTENSION

Cox Chiropractic Medicine Inc respects extension and gets how it may benefit and hurt. The extensor muscles in the back weaken and degenerate just like 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 be harmful. Why? In the cervical spine, flexion decreased disc protrusion and maximizes the sagittal diameter of the vertebral canal while extension increased the disc protrusion and narrowed the vertebral canal causing stenosis. (2) In a degenerative lumbar spine with spinal stenosis, flexion opened the vertebral canal and reduced pain while extension worsened the stenosis and caused pain. (3) Cox Chiropractic Medicine Inc knows the key to eliciting the benefits of extension is in knowing when to use extension.

Fort Wayne CHIROPRACTIC USE OF EXTENSION

Fort Wayne chiropractic treatment incorporates extension into the Fort Wayne chiropractic treatment plan for its advantages. Cox® Technic applied to the cervical spine reduced 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 most the transducer could measure). (4) Dropping intradiscal pressures and back pain is what Cox Chiropractic Medicine Inc does for its Fort Wayne back pain patients.

CONTACT Cox Chiropractic Medicine Inc

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 gives her relief as the table is flexed not extended.

Schedule your Fort Wayne chiropractic appointment with Cox Chiropractic Medicine Inc today. Let us discover the role extension might play in your back pain recovery and future back pain control strategy.