“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.