New York City Chiropractic Care Respects Spinal Extension
Extension of the spine: It is good. It is bad. So what is up with extension for the spine? Both are true: It’s good. It’s bad. It is the job of your New York City chiropractor to help you determine the role of extension for your New York City back pain relief plan and New York City back pain control plan in the future. Your New York City chiropractor at Rosenberg Wellness Center is well experienced in the effects – good and bad – of spinal extension and respects its role in spinal health and mobility.
SPINAL CURVES
Two of the spine’s most prominent curves – the cervical and lumbar curves – are lordotic curves meaning they curve concavely. Flexion flattens these curves. Extension magnifies them. When a disc herniates or bulges, it does so into the concavity of the curve and potentially pushes on the spinal nerves causing pain. Flexion usually permits the disc bulge to get away from the nerve. Extension often allows the disc bulge to press on the nerves more. Rosenberg Wellness Center intends to help lessen painful situations like this!
SPINAL MOTION
75% of the flexion and extension movement in the low back happens 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) happens 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 occurs. New York City chiropractic patients need healthy extension!
SPINAL EXTENSION
Rosenberg Wellness Center respects extension and understands how it may help and hurt. 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 do extension. Extension to a painful spine may hurt. Why? In the cervical spine, flexion reduced disc protrusion and maximizes the sagittal diameter of the vertebral canal while extension made the disc herniation larger and constricted the vertebral canal producing 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) Rosenberg Wellness Center knows the key to getting the benefits of extension is in knowing when to apply extension.
New York City CHIROPRACTIC USE OF EXTENSION
New York City chiropractic treatment integrates extension into the New York City chiropractic treatment plan for its advantages. Cox® Technic applied to the cervical spine dropped intradiscal pressures to as low as 502 mmHg (4) and to as low as -192 mmHg in the lumbar spine. (5) Extension increased pressures in the lumbar spine to 1250 mmHg (the most the transducer could measure). (4) Dropping intradiscal pressures and back pain is what Rosenberg Wellness Center aims to do for its New York City back pain patients.
CONTACT Rosenberg Wellness Center
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 persists after multiple back surgeries with flexion distraction which gives her relief as the table is flexed not extended.
Schedule your New York City chiropractic appointment with Rosenberg Wellness Center today. Let’s explore the role extension might have in your back pain recovery and future back pain control plan.
