Minster Chiropractic Center Presents the Influence of the Brain/Spine Connection in Back Pain
The brain and the spine. They are connected. They are connected more intimately than any of us appreciate as we go about our daily lives. Minster Chiropractic Center keeps this connection top-of-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 implement gentle, safe chiropractic services including spinal manipulation to reduce pain affecting 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 analyzed 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 triggers a spinal anti-inflammatory response to reduce pain. (2) Depression, anxiety, cognitive deficits often accompany chronic constriction of the sciatic nerve because of its effect on the medial prefrontal cortex. (3) Spinal manipulation may be a means to deal with 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 influence 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 little! What a subject! Without having to understand all these terms and measurements discussed in the study, know that the study shared that the brain, even the adult brain, is impressionable. Certainly, the young developing brain is most impressionable, but with the appropriate input, the older, adult brain can change. The researchers in this study measured and compared the brain’s cortical size before and after stimulation and compared their size on MRI. They saw a difference. More research needs to be done, but they did describe that long term experience establishes cortical organization while transient, 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 affected with such information 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 contribute to the whole 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 indicated that treating chronic pain can restore normal brain functions. (6) Minster Chiropractic Center care for Minster back pain patients all day long. It is amazing to think that treatment might modify more than just the pain response!
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 continually remodeling and adapting to their always-changing mechanical environment, and how chiropractic may intervene positively.
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 center of those two and help you find some Minster pain relief.
