Movement is essentially how we keep discs healthy. 80% of stimulation in the brain comes from movement of the spine. When your spine moves, it literally stimulates your brain. When the joint moves through an adjustment, it creates movement within the disc which creates osmosis where the disc gets full of fluid and that keeps the joint moving well. Limited joint function can increase stress and tension in the joint complex which breaks down the disc.
When you are pinned behind a desk, you’re not moving, those posture muscles pick up on movement. Your neck flexors are going to get weak and lazy. Your shoulder muscles are going to round. Next thing you know, you’ve got that kind of corporate posture that’s going to increase stress and tension. So, through a rehab program supplemented with adjustments and traction, you can objectively improve and change the shape of your posture.
Spinal alignment is critically important. Chiropractors can evaluate the subluxations, misalignments in the spine, and they can adjust them. They are going to get the joint moving in alignment. This is going to stimulate the nervous system, the brain and the disc, literally hydrate it, and keep it hydrated. Chiropractors can evaluate postural misalignments via X-ray or postural analysis and can objectively change the shape of your spine through technical chiropractic biophysics, the most researched form of chiropractic. It’s all evidence-based, it takes engineering and mathematical principles applied to the spine and they can objectively change the shape of your spine.
There are two images that are essentially the gold standard for evaluating the health of the spine. So, X-rays are the gold standard for bone and you always want to be determining if the bone is healthy. MRIs are the gold standard for soft tissue, so muscles that are linked to tendons and discs. Chiropractors are typically using X-ray analysis. So, when they evaluate the X-rays, they should be able to see clean spaces between the vertebrae throughout the spine and even spaces from the front of the disc to the back of the disc. The bones above and below it should be block-like and essentially be smooth in their edges. And then they should see a nice space for the intervertebral foramen which is where the nerves come out.
However, if a Chiropractor sees that joint space decrease, we know they’ve got dysfunction. This would show up on an MRI and show some form of disc pathology. Then once you start seeing that degenerative change to those bones, those edges start to get rough, the bones start to change shape and we start to see those bone spurs, then that’s obviously a degenerative change. In the neck we call it cervical disc degeneration and/or in the lower back the lumbar disc degeneration or degenerative disc disease. You can pick that up on X-ray. You don’t necessarily need an MRI to confirm that. However, MRIs are the gold standard for discs. If you get an MRI, the MRI is going to be showing if you’ve got disc degeneration from X-ray, you’re going to see pathology within the disc. It could be anywhere from a bulge to a herniation to a dissection to a prolapse. They’re basically just degree severity of changes to health within the disc.
Once those discs start becoming damaged and/or degenerative, that’s when we start leading into pain and dysfunction. On the mild end, we’re going to see limited range of motion. We’re going to see increased stress and tension within the muscles and joints, which over time is going to create compensation and pain. Then as we progress into degenerative disc disease, then you’re going to start seeing symptoms. So, the health of your disc is paramount in how we feel, how we function, and essentially how we age or how quickly we age.
So as a chiropractor, I’m obviously biased, but everybody on the planet should be getting chiropractic care and getting adjusted. Adjustments are going to keep the disc hydrated, which are going to slow down the aging process, which is going to allow you to live a longer, more fulfilled life. It’s also going to de-stress the nervous system. It’s going to allow you to feel and function better.
There are things that chiropractors recommend you do at home. The first is just basic spinal mobility. So just get that joint moving through its intended range of motion, bending forwards, backwards, side to side and rotating. Then we recommend some static isometric stretching of all the muscles that are going to create stress and tension within the joint complex. And then we encourage some form of exercise because as we just discussed, when we’re moving, it stimulates the disc and stimulates the nervous system in the brain, and it’s going to slow down that degeneration process.
We recommend doing some strengthening work at home too. When you are actively doing strengthening work, it increases pressure within the joint complex so the disc and the bone have increased osteoblastic activity, which keeps the bone and the disc and the joint healthy. You’ll see your primary care physician, “Oh, you’re aging, get off your feet, do some chair yoga and water aerobics.” No, absolutely not. You should be loading the joint, including the disc through movement and exercise, and by having good range of motion, balanced muscle strength, and then actively stressing the joint, your discs and joints are going to age much slower at a healthier rate than someone who’s inactive and sedentary and not doing those things.
Chiropractic plays a role in preserving disc health and slowing down the degeneration process, aka the aging process. With the help of a chiropractor and by living an active lifestyle with movement and strengthening exercises, you can maintain the health of your spine for years to come.
