West Des Moines Chiropractic Care Respects Spinal Extension
Extension of the spine: It is beneficial. It is harmful. So what is up with extension for the spine? Both are true: It’s beneficial. It is harmful. It is the job of your West Des Moines chiropractor to help you figure out the role of extension in your West Des Moines back pain relief plan and West Des Moines back pain control plan in the future. Your West Des Moines chiropractor at Executive Chiropractic of Iowa 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 prominent 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 causing pain. Flexion usually allows the disc bulge to get away from the nerve. Extension often permits the disc bulge to compress the nerves more. Executive Chiropractic of Iowa intends to help reduce 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 happens 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. West Des Moines chiropractic patients need beneficial extension!
SPINAL EXTENSION
Executive Chiropractic of Iowa respects extension and gets how it may help and hurt. The extensor muscles in the back weaken and degenerate just as discs degenerate. (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 enlarges the sagittal diameter of the vertebral canal while extension increased the disc protrusion and constricted the vertebral canal producing stenosis. (2) In a degenerative lumbar spine with spinal stenosis, flexion opened the vertebral canal and reduced pain while extension worsened the stenosis and produced pain. (3) Executive Chiropractic of Iowa knows the key to eliciting the benefits of extension is in recognizing when to use extension.
West Des Moines CHIROPRACTIC USE OF EXTENSION
West Des Moines chiropractic treatment integrates extension into the West Des Moines 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 increased pressures in the lumbar spine to 1250 mmHg (the highest amount the transducer could measure). (4) Dropping intradiscal pressures and back pain is what Executive Chiropractic of Iowa does for its West Des Moines back pain patients.
CONTACT Executive Chiropractic of Iowa
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 continues after multiple back surgeries with flexion distraction which gives her relief as the table is flexed not extended.
Schedule your West Des Moines chiropractic appointment with Executive Chiropractic of Iowa today. Let us discover the role extension might play in your back pain recovery and future back pain control strategy.
