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Johnson Chiropractic Sees Disc Disease in Young People

“You’re young! You do not have to worry about back pain.” Not true! New research confirms young and old alike must contend with disc degeneration. Most of us will personally have to deal with disc degeneration’s pain at some point in our lives…or take care of a loved one dealing with its back pain or neck pain complications. Johnson Chiropractic is here for young and old alike when Richmond disc degeneration interferes with your life.

DDD STARTS EARLIER THAN ONCE THOUGHT

It’s hard to believe, but it’s reported in the medical literature. Disc degeneration starts in the late teens!  A study of 18-20 year old healthy air force cadets found that 77% showed disc degeneration or disc herniation. (1) That is a new revelation! It has been written in other studies that disc degeneration starts at age 20. Now it is found to appear in 18 year olds! In this project MRIs were taken of all cadets. None of the cadets reported spine pain. The MRIs revealed that: 30% showed at least one disc’s dehydrating, 13% disc narrowing, 49% disc bulging, 18% disc protruding, 8% disc extruding, 13% with spondylolisthesis, and less than 1% even had asymptomatic vertebral fractures. These results in young, seemingly healthy people are similar to what would be predictable in adults. (1) It’s never too early to start paying attention to the spine! Johnson Chiropractic pays attention to everyone’s spinal issues via spinal manipulation, nutrition and exercise.

WHY?

Researchers (and parents) ask “why?” Why does lumbar spine disc degeneration or cervical spine disc degeneration start so early? It may be genetic. 80% of patients in a recent study had mutations in their collagen-encoding genes. Collagen is vital to disc and joint health. Back pain sufferers with a lumbar disc herniation showed two variants in their gene encoding for aggrecan, a protein that the end plate depends on for load-bearing. Such a mutation affects the nucleus pulposus, annulus fibrosus and end plates. (2) Of course, the whole story of why a disc degenerates isn’t fully known yet. Johnson Chiropractic does have methods to contain and relieve the pain of a Richmond degenerated disc.

INTERRUPTING DISC DEGENERATION, PROMOTING DISC REGENERATION

Researchers described disc degeneration as a cascade of mechanical, biochemical, and structural changes at the cellular level, cells that are in an abnormal mechanical environment. Regeneration of such cells would require very specific conditions and wouldn’t always be possible. However, traction of 2 to 6 weeks was found to be a responsive time for regeneration of a degenerated disc. The researchers propose that this could interrupt the above explained cascade of changes. (3) Johnson Chiropractic uses Cox® Technic to gently produce a positive environment for the healing of degenerated discs by increasing the area of the spinal canal by 28%, increasing the height of the disc by 17%, and decreasing intradiscal pressures to as low as -192mmHg in the low back and dropping pressures in the cervical spine by a mean pressure as much as 1265 mmHg. (4,5) Johnson Chiropractic enhances the Cox® Technic system of spinal pain management by adding spinal nutrition (especially disc nutrition supplementation) and exercise to optimize the relief and clinical outcome for Richmond back pain patients.

CONTACT Johnson Chiropractic

Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Paxton Schofield  on The Back Doctors’ Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson who discussed his care of arthritis and degeneration with Cox® Technic.

Schedule your Richmond chiropractic appointment at Johnson Chiropractic for your spine’s health. You may not be too young for back pain, and you are certainly not too young to look after your spine. A Richmond chiropractic treatment plan of spinal manipulation, nutrition and exercise can benefit all ages of back pain and neck pain sufferers struggling with disc degeneration.

Johnson Chiropractic manages back pain due to disc degeneration in younger people in their teens and 20s.  
 
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"This information and website content is not intended to diagnose, guarantee results, or recommend specific treatment or activity. It is designed to educate and inform only. Please consult your physician for a thorough examination leading to a diagnosis and well-planned treatment strategy. See more details on the DISCLAIMER page. Content is reviewed by Dr. James M. Cox I."