The brain and the spine. They are connected. They’re connected more deeply than any of us realize
as we go about our daily lives. Amelia Chiropractic Clinic keeps this connection in
mind as we treat our Fernandina Beach back
pain sufferers’ spines and listen to their stories of
pain and ways of coping. Fernandina Beach chiropractic care at Amelia Chiropractic Clinic
respects the brain and spine connection and use gentle, safe
chiropractic services including spinal manipulation to reduce
pain affecting both.
BRAIN CHANGES IN Fernandina Beach BACK PAIN
Pain changes the brain. A person in pain feels
it. Special tests today can reveal it. BOLD (blood oxygen level
dependent) responses were examined after stimulating lumbar spinous
processes with manipulation and exhibited activity in the
secondary somatosensory cortex, cerebellum and other parts of the
brain. (1) Motor cortex stimulation provokes a spinal
anti-inflammatory response to decrease 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 means to deal with the
brain changes in chronic pain and its related issues.
SHORT TERM STIMULATION’S EFFECT ON BRAIN
Stimulating the brain even for a short time may impact
the pain experience. A recent study on Euclidean distance between
cortical sources and temporal dynamics of plastic changes in the somatosensory
cortex of the brain had even your Fernandina Beach chiropractor’s head
spinning a bit! What a topic! Without having to understand
all these terms and measurements discussed in the study, know that
the study shared that the brain, even the adult brain, is malleable.
Certainly, the young brain in
development is most impressionable, but with the proper
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 saw
a difference. More research should be done, but they did describe
that long term experience establishes cortical organization while
transient, new and different stimulation can trigger
cortical reorganization of the adult brain. Such changes have been discovered
in musicians, Braille readers, and persons after spinal manipulation and stroke
rehab. (4) This knowledge of the brain
contributes to the Fernandina Beach chiropractic treatment
plan!
BRAIN CHANGES WITH CHRONIC PAIN
Just how is the chiropractic treatment plan affected
with such information of the brain? Let’s start
by examining the brain with chronic pain. The two brain regions that encode the
intensity of painful stimuli and add to the whole
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 reestablish normal
brain functions. (6) Amelia Chiropractic Clinic treats Fernandina Beach back pain patients all day long. It’s amazing to think
that treatment might modify more than just the pain response!
CONTACT Amelia Chiropractic Clinic
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, illustrates in more depth how the cells of the body
are continually remodeling and adapting to
their always-changing mechanical environment, and how chiropractic may help.
Schedule a non-surgical Fernandina Beach chiropractic care
appointment with Amelia Chiropractic Clinic for your pain, brain, and spine! The
connection is there between pain and the brain. Amelia Chiropractic Clinic can get in the middle
of those two and help you find some Fernandina Beach pain relief.