Eugene Chiropractic Care Respects Spinal Extension

Extension of the spine: It’s valuable. It’s harmful. So what is up with extension for the spine? Both are true: It’s good. It’s bad. It is the job of your Eugene chiropractor to help you determine the role of extension in your Eugene back pain relief plan and Eugene back pain control plan in the future. Your Eugene chiropractor at Rethwill Chiropractic Clinic is well versed 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 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 resulting in pain. Flexion usually allows the disc bulge to get away from the nerve. Extension often allows the disc bulge to compress the nerves more. Rethwill Chiropractic Clinic intends to help reduce painful situations like this!

SPINAL MOTION

75% of the flexion and extension movement in the low back is at the L5-S1 level of the lumbar spine. 20% happens at the L4-L5 level. Therefore, 95% of flexion and extension of the lumbar spine occurs 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 takes place, and C4-C5 is where most of the extension takes place. Eugene chiropractic patients need beneficial extension!

SPINAL EXTENSION

Rethwill Chiropractic Clinic respects extension and gets how it may help and hurt. The extensor muscles in the back weaken and degenerate just as discs do. (1) Extension helps strengthen these muscles to support the spine. Extension is essential for this when the spine is healthy enough to perform extension. Extension to a painful spine may hurt. Why? In the cervical spine, flexion reduced disc protrusion and enlarges the sagittal diameter of the vertebral canal while extension increased the disc protrusion and narrowed the vertebral canal producing stenosis. (2) In a degenerative lumbar spine with spinal stenosis, flexion widened the vertebral canal and reduced pain while extension exacerbated the stenosis and triggered pain. (3) Rethwill Chiropractic Clinic understands the key to getting the benefits of extension is in recognizing when to use extension.

Eugene CHIROPRACTIC USE OF EXTENSION

Eugene chiropractic treatment incorporates extension into the Eugene chiropractic treatment plan for its advantages. 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 increased pressures in the lumbar spine to 1250 mmHg (the most the transducer could measure). (4) Reducing intradiscal pressures and back pain is what Rethwill Chiropractic Clinic aims to do for its Eugene back pain patients.

CONTACT Rethwill Chiropractic Clinic

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 relieves her pain as the table is flexed not extended.

Schedule your Eugene chiropractic appointment with Rethwill Chiropractic Clinic today. Let us discover the role extension might play in your back pain recovery and future back pain control plan.