McHenry Chiropractic Care Respects Spinal Extension
Extension of the spine: It is good. It is bad. So what’s with spinal extension? Both are true: It’s good. It is bad. It’s the job of your McHenry chiropractor to help you figure out the role of extension in your McHenry back pain relief plan and McHenry back pain control plan in the future. Your McHenry chiropractor at OrthoIllinois Chiropractic is well trained 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 noticeable curves – the cervical and lumbar curves – are lordotic curves meaning they curve inwardly. Flexion flattens these curves. Extension magnifies them. When a disc herniates or bulges, it does so into the concavity of the curve and potentially presses on the spinal nerves causing pain. Flexion often allows the disc bulge to get away from the nerve. Extension often permits the disc bulge to press on the nerves more. OrthoIllinois Chiropractic sets out to help reduce 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 happens 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. McHenry chiropractic patients need healthy extension!
SPINAL EXTENSION
OrthoIllinois Chiropractic respects extension and understands how it may benefit and harm. The extensor muscles in the back weaken and degenerate just as discs degenerate. (1) Extension helps strengthen these muscles to support the spine. Extension is necessary for this when the spine is healthy enough to perform extension. Extension to a painful spine may be harmful. Why? In the cervical spine, flexion decreased disc protrusion and maximizes the sagittal diameter of the vertebral canal while extension made the disc herniation larger and narrowed the vertebral canal causing stenosis. (2) In a degenerative lumbar spine with spinal stenosis, flexion widened the vertebral canal and relieved pain while extension worsened the stenosis and produced pain. (3) OrthoIllinois Chiropractic understands the key to getting the benefits of extension is in recognizing when to apply extension.
McHenry CHIROPRACTIC USE OF EXTENSION
McHenry chiropractic treatment integrates extension into the McHenry chiropractic treatment plan for its benefits. Cox® Technic used with 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 OrthoIllinois Chiropractic does for its McHenry back pain patients.
CONTACT OrthoIllinois Chiropractic
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 McHenry chiropractic appointment with OrthoIllinois Chiropractic today. Let’s explore the role extension might play in your back pain recovery and future back pain control strategy.
