Fernandina Beach Chiropractic Care Respects Spinal Extension
Extension of the spine: It is good. It’s bad. So what is up with extension for the spine? Both are accurate: It’s valuable. It is harmful. It is the job of your Fernandina Beach chiropractor to help you establish the role of extension for your Fernandina Beach back pain relief plan and Fernandina Beach back pain control plan in the future. Your Fernandina Beach chiropractor at Amelia Chiropractic Clinic 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 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 often permits the disc bulge to move off of the nerve. Extension often allows the disc bulge to press on the nerves more. Amelia Chiropractic Clinic sets out to help lessen painful situations like this!
SPINAL MOTION
75% of the flexion and extension movement in the low back occurs at the L5-S1 level of the lumbar spine. 20% is at the L4-L5 level. Therefore, 95% of flexion and extension of the lumbar spine occurs 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 takes place, and C4-C5 is where most of the extension takes place. Fernandina Beach chiropractic patients need beneficial extension!
SPINAL EXTENSION
Amelia Chiropractic Clinic respects extension and gets how it may help 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 necessary for this when the spine is healthy enough to do extension. Extension to a painful spine may hurt. Why? In the cervical spine, flexion reduced disc protrusion and maximizes the sagittal diameter of the vertebral canal while extension increased the disc protrusion and constricted the vertebral canal causing stenosis. (2) In a degenerative lumbar spine with spinal stenosis, flexion opened the vertebral canal and reduced pain while extension exacerbated the stenosis and triggered pain. (3) Amelia Chiropractic Clinic understands the key to eliciting the benefits of extension is in recognizing when to apply extension.
Fernandina Beach CHIROPRACTIC USE OF EXTENSION
Fernandina Beach chiropractic treatment incorporates extension into the Fernandina Beach 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 escalated pressures in the lumbar spine to 1250 mmHg (the highest amount the transducer could measure). (4) Dropping intradiscal pressures and back pain is what Amelia Chiropractic Clinic does for its Fernandina Beach back pain patients.
CONTACT Amelia Chiropractic Clinic
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. David Atiyeh on the Back Doctor’s Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson. He shares how he cared for a patient whose back pain continues after multiple back surgeries with flexion distraction which relieves her pain as the table is flexed not extended.
Schedule your Fernandina Beach chiropractic appointment with Amelia Chiropractic Clinic today. Let’s discover the role extension might play in your back pain recovery and future back pain control strategy.
