Minster Chiropractic Center Presents the Influence of the Brain/Spine Connection in Back Pain

The brain and the spine. They’re connected. They are connected more intimately than any of us appreciate as we go about our daily lives. Minster Chiropractic Center keeps this connection in mind as we treat our Minster back pain sufferers’ spines and pay attention to their stories of pain and ways of coping. Minster chiropractic care at Minster Chiropractic Center respects the brain and spine connection and use gentle, safe chiropractic services including spinal manipulation to reduce pain concerning both.

BRAIN CHANGES IN Minster BACK PAIN

Pain changes the brain. A person in pain knows it. Special tests today can show it. BOLD (blood oxygen level dependent) responses were examined after stimulating lumbar spinous processes with manipulation and demonstrated activity in the secondary somatosensory cortex, cerebellum and other parts of the brain. (1) Motor cortex stimulation provokes a spinal anti-inflammatory response to reduce pain. (2) Depression, anxiety, cognitive deficits often come with chronic constriction of the sciatic nerve because of its effect on the medial prefrontal cortex. (3) Spinal manipulation may be a way to address the brain changes in chronic pain and its associated issues.

SHORT TERM STIMULATION’S EFFECT ON BRAIN

Stimulating the brain even for a short time may impact the pain experience. A new study on Euclidean distance between cortical sources and temporal dynamics of plastic changes in the somatosensory cortex of the brain had even your Minster chiropractor’s head spinning a bit! What a subject! Without having to understand all these terms and measurements shared in the study, know that the study shared that the brain, even the adult brain, is impressionable. Certainly, the young brain in development is most impressionable, but with the appropriate input, the older, adult brain can change. The researchers in this study took measurements before and after stimulation and compared their size on MRI. They noticed a difference. More research should be done, but they did explain that long term experience establishes cortical organization while occasional, new and different stimulation can induce cortical reorganization of the adult brain. Such changes have been seen in musicians, Braille readers, and persons after spinal manipulation and stroke rehab. (4) This understanding of the brain contributes to the Minster chiropractic treatment plan!

BRAIN CHANGES WITH CHRONIC PAIN

Just how is the chiropractic treatment plan influenced by such knowledge of the brain? Let’s start by looking at the brain with chronic pain. The two brain regions that encode the intensity of painful stimuli and add to the overall experience of chronic pain are the primary somatosensory cortex and posterior insular cortex. (5) The cortex of the brain was shown to be thinner in chronic low back pain patients. After treatment, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is thicker. To the researchers, this implied that treating chronic pain may well restore normal brain functions. (6) Minster Chiropractic Center care for Minster back pain patients all day long. It is amazing to imagine that treatment might modify more than the pain response alone!

CONTACT Minster Chiropractic Center

Listen to this PODCAST by Dr. James Cox on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he defines more clearly the brain and spine and pain connection, describes in more depth how the cells of the body are constantly remodeling and adjusting to their ever-changing mechanical environment, and how chiropractic may help.

Schedule a non-surgical Minster chiropractic care appointment with Minster Chiropractic Center for your pain, brain, and spine! The connection is there between pain and the brain. Minster Chiropractic Center can get in the middle of those two and help you obtain some Minster pain relief.

 
Minster Chiropractic Center looks at the connection between the brain and spine in back pain patients to better help them find pain relief. 
« View All Spine Articles
"This information and website content is not intended to diagnose, guarantee results, or recommend specific treatment or activity. It is designed to educate and inform only. Please consult your physician for a thorough examination leading to a diagnosis and well-planned treatment strategy. See more details on the DISCLAIMER page. Content is reviewed by Dr. James M. Cox I."