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OrthoIllinois Chiropractic 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. OrthoIllinois Chiropractic keeps this connection in mind as we treat our McHenry back pain sufferers’ spines and pay attention to their stories of pain and ways of coping. McHenry chiropractic care at OrthoIllinois Chiropractic respects the brain and spine connection and use gentle, safe chiropractic services including spinal manipulation to ease pain concerning both.

BRAIN CHANGES IN McHenry 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 analyzed after stimulating lumbar spinous processes with manipulation and demonstrated activity in the secondary somatosensory cortex, cerebellum and other brain areas. (1) Motor cortex stimulation triggers a spinal anti-inflammatory response to decrease pain. (2) Depression, anxiety, cognitive deficits often accompany chronic constriction of the sciatic nerve as a result 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 related 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 McHenry chiropractor’s mind spinning a bit! What a topic! 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 pliable. Sure, the young developing brain 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 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 trigger 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 informs the McHenry chiropractic treatment plan!

BRAIN CHANGES WITH CHRONIC PAIN

Just how is the chiropractic treatment plan affected with such information of the brain? Let us start by looking at the brain with chronic pain. The two brain regions that encode the intensity of painful stimuli and contribute 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 indicated that treating chronic pain may well restore normal brain functions. (6) OrthoIllinois Chiropractic care for McHenry back pain patients all day long. It is amazing to imagine that treatment might affect more than the pain response alone!

CONTACT OrthoIllinois Chiropractic

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

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

 
OrthoIllinois Chiropractic looks 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."