Baton Rouge Cervical Spine Motion, Osteophytes, and Agings Effect
Aging gets blamed for a lot of ills…including neck motion changes. You’re not alone if you realize that you do not rotate your head quite as effortlessly or as far as you used to or that you don’t flex or extend it in the same way as you once did. Degenerative discs and vertebrae and companion osteophytes contribute to limiting movement. Medical Spine and Sports Injury and Rehab Centers is here to help your neck movements with gentle chiropractic treatment!
CERVICAL SPINE MOTION
Physiological motion of the spine sounds like something good, does it not? It does! In the cervical spine, researchers have described how a consistent sequence of cervical segmental contributions function when the neck moves. This sequence is common in 80-90% of young healthy persons. But what about the motions in aging spines of older folks? Decreased motion has been connected to aging. A recent study by some inquisitive researchers set out to see if such consistent neck motions in asymptomatic young people were the same in elderly asymptomatic persons. They didn’t. They concluded that aging - as demonstrated by the motion patterns seen in elderly asymptomatic persons - was linked to a loss of consistent motion patterns as seen in young asymptomatic persons. For example, the consistent pattern in young asymptomatic persons was found in only 10% of the older persons at T1 and 0% at T2. (1) As our Baton Rouge chiropractic friends and family age along with us, we’re not alone in feeling motion changes. Medical Spine and Sports Injury and Rehab Centers offers gentle Cox® Technic treatment in order to allow as much movement to spinal segments as they’ll allow. If you notice limitations in your neck motions, let us know! We can examine you to find the usual sources that may be the cause.
WHAT COMES WITH AGING THAT LIMITS NECK MOTION: Osteophytes
Osteophytes are frequently seen in elderly folks’ vertebrae of the lumbar and cervical spines. Anterior osteophytes keep developing and eventually produce neck pain or back pain. Since osteophytes are so common and produce such pain, researchers found a way to predict the mean time to onset of pain and the path of degeneration that happens in these vertebrae based on data from following patients’ osteophytes for 9 years. (2) We know our Baton Rouge chiropractic patients with osteophytes aren’t as curious as to how long ago their osteophytes started, but rather how our chiropractic care can help! Here’s an interesting case involving osteophytes and relieving chiropractic care: Osteophytes may cause the development of dysphagia (aka difficulty with swallowing). A case report detailed the presentation of a 53-year-old woman with a sore throat, difficulty swallowing solid foods, and acid reflux. Her imaging showed anterior osteophytes as well as kyphosis (abnormal curvature) of her cervical spine and thoracolumbar scoliosis, any of which could contribute to her dysphagia. Six months of chiropractic care resolved her issues. (3) Chiropractic care works!
CONTACT Medical Spine and Sports Injury and Rehab Centers
Listen to the PODCAST with Dr. Shay Corbin on the Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he shares the effectiveness and gentleness of the Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management for his musician patient experiencing neck and back pain.
Schedule your next Baton Rouge chiropractic appointment with Medical Spine and Sports Injury and Rehab Centers. Bring your aging spine, your less-than-mobile cervical spine, your stiff neck to our clinic. We can work toward better mobility!
