Manchester Chiropractic Care Respects Spinal Extension
Extension of the spine: It is good. It’s bad. So what’s with extension for the spine? Both are true: It’s good. It’s bad. It’s the job of your Manchester chiropractor to help you determine the role of extension in your Manchester back pain relief plan and Manchester back pain control plan in the future. Your Manchester chiropractor at Manchester Chiropractic & Sports Injuries is well versed 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 resulting in pain. Flexion often permits the disc bulge to get away from the nerve. Extension often permits the disc bulge to press on the nerves more. Manchester Chiropractic & Sports Injuries sets out to help decrease painful situations like this!
SPINAL MOTION
75% of the flexion and extension movement in the low back happens 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 occurs, and C4-C5 is where most of the extension takes place. Manchester chiropractic patients need beneficial extension!
SPINAL EXTENSION
Manchester Chiropractic & Sports Injuries respects extension and gets how it may benefit and hurt. The extensor muscles in the back weaken and degenerate just as discs do. (1) Extension helps strengthen these muscles to support the spine. Extension is essential for this when the spine is healthy enough to perform extension. Extension to a painful spine may hurt. 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 narrowed the vertebral canal causing stenosis. (2) In a degenerative lumbar spine with spinal stenosis, flexion widened the vertebral canal and reduced pain while extension exacerbated the stenosis and produced pain. (3) Manchester Chiropractic & Sports Injuries knows the key to eliciting the benefits of extension is in knowing when to use extension.
Manchester CHIROPRACTIC USE OF EXTENSION
Manchester chiropractic treatment incorporates extension into the Manchester 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 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 Manchester Chiropractic & Sports Injuries does for its Manchester back pain patients.
CONTACT Manchester Chiropractic & Sports Injuries
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 relieves her pain as the table is flexed not extended.
Schedule your Manchester chiropractic appointment with Manchester Chiropractic & Sports Injuries today. Let us explore the role extension might play in your back pain recovery and future back pain control plan.
