The brain and the spine. They’re connected. They
are connected more intimately than any of us appreciate
as we go about our daily lives. Minster Chiropractic Center keeps this connection in
mind as we treat our Minster back
pain sufferers’ spines and pay attention to their stories of
pain and ways of coping. Minster chiropractic care at Minster Chiropractic Center
respects the brain and spine connection and use gentle, safe
chiropractic services including spinal manipulation to reduce
pain concerning both.
BRAIN CHANGES IN Minster BACK PAIN
Pain changes the brain. A person in pain knows
it. Special tests today can show it. BOLD (blood oxygen level
dependent) responses were examined after stimulating lumbar spinous
processes with manipulation and demonstrated activity in the
secondary somatosensory cortex, cerebellum and other parts of the
brain. (1) Motor cortex stimulation provokes a spinal
anti-inflammatory response to reduce pain. (2) Depression,
anxiety, cognitive deficits often come with chronic
constriction of the sciatic nerve because 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 associated 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 Minster chiropractor’s head
spinning a bit! What a subject! 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 impressionable.
Certainly, the young brain in
development 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 noticed
a difference. More research should be done, but they did explain
that long term experience establishes cortical organization while
occasional, new and different stimulation can induce
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
contributes to the Minster chiropractic treatment
plan!
BRAIN CHANGES WITH CHRONIC PAIN
Just how is the chiropractic treatment plan influenced by such knowledge of the brain? Let’s start
by looking at the brain with chronic pain. The two brain regions that encode the
intensity of painful stimuli and add 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 implied
that treating chronic pain may well restore normal
brain functions. (6) Minster Chiropractic Center care for Minster back pain patients all day long. It is amazing to imagine
that treatment might modify more than the pain response
alone!
CONTACT Minster Chiropractic Center
Listen to this PODCAST
by Dr. James Cox on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he
defines more clearly the brain and spine and pain
connection, describes in more depth how the cells of the body
are constantly remodeling and adjusting to
their ever-changing mechanical environment, and how chiropractic may help.
Schedule a non-surgical Minster chiropractic care
appointment with Minster Chiropractic Center for your pain, brain, and spine! The
connection is there between pain and the brain. Minster Chiropractic Center can get in the middle
of those two and help you obtain some Minster pain relief.