Amelia Chiropractic Clinic Presents the Influence of the Brain/Spine Connection in Back Pain

The brain and the spine. They are connected. They’re connected more deeply than any of us realize as we go about our daily lives. Amelia Chiropractic Clinic keeps this connection in mind as we treat our Fernandina Beach back pain sufferers’ spines and listen to their stories of pain and ways of coping. Fernandina Beach chiropractic care at Amelia Chiropractic Clinic respects the brain and spine connection and use gentle, safe chiropractic services including spinal manipulation to reduce pain affecting both.

BRAIN CHANGES IN Fernandina Beach BACK PAIN

Pain changes the brain. A person in pain feels it. Special tests today can reveal it. BOLD (blood oxygen level dependent) responses were examined after stimulating lumbar spinous processes with manipulation and exhibited activity in the secondary somatosensory cortex, cerebellum and other parts of the brain. (1) Motor cortex stimulation provokes a spinal anti-inflammatory response to decrease 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 means to deal with the brain changes in chronic pain and its related issues.

SHORT TERM STIMULATION’S EFFECT ON BRAIN

Stimulating the brain even for a short time may impact the pain experience. A recent study on Euclidean distance between cortical sources and temporal dynamics of plastic changes in the somatosensory cortex of the brain had even your Fernandina Beach chiropractor’s head spinning a bit! What a topic! 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 malleable. Certainly, the young brain in development is most impressionable, but with the proper 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 saw a difference. More research should be done, but they did describe that long term experience establishes cortical organization while transient, new and different stimulation can trigger cortical reorganization of the adult brain. Such changes have been discovered in musicians, Braille readers, and persons after spinal manipulation and stroke rehab. (4) This knowledge of the brain contributes to the Fernandina Beach 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 examining the brain with chronic pain. The two brain regions that encode the intensity of painful stimuli and add 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 implied that treating chronic pain may well reestablish normal brain functions. (6) Amelia Chiropractic Clinic treats Fernandina Beach back pain patients all day long. It’s amazing to think that treatment might modify more than just the pain response!

CONTACT Amelia Chiropractic Clinic

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, illustrates in more depth how the cells of the body are continually remodeling and adapting to their always-changing mechanical environment, and how chiropractic may help.

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

 
Amelia Chiropractic Clinic shares at the connection between the brain and spine in back pain patients to better help them find pain relief. 
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"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."