Dr. Hoang's Chiropractic Clinic Presents the Influence of the Brain/Spine Connection in Back Pain
The brain and the spine. They’re connected. They are connected more deeply than any of us realize as we go about our daily lives. Dr. Hoang's Chiropractic Clinic keeps this connection in mind as we treat our Montreal back pain sufferers’ spines and pay attention to their stories of pain and ways of coping. Montreal chiropractic care at Dr. Hoang's Chiropractic Clinic respects the brain and spine connection and implement gentle, safe chiropractic services including spinal manipulation to ease pain concerning both.
BRAIN CHANGES IN Montreal BACK PAIN
Pain changes the brain. A person in pain feels it. Special tests today can show it. BOLD (blood oxygen level dependent) responses were examined after stimulating lumbar spinous processes with manipulation and demonstrated activity in the secondary somatosensory cortex, cerebellum and other brain areas. (1) Motor cortex stimulation provokes a spinal anti-inflammatory response to reduce pain. (2) Depression, anxiety, cognitive deficits often accompany chronic constriction of the sciatic nerve as a result of its effect on the medial prefrontal cortex. (3) Spinal manipulation may be a way to address the brain changes in chronic pain and its associated issues.
SHORT TERM STIMULATION’S EFFECT ON BRAIN
Stimulating the brain even for a short time may influence 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 Montreal chiropractor’s mind spinning a little! What a subject! Without having to grasp all these terms and measurements shared in the study, know that the study shared that the brain, even the adult brain, is impressionable. Of course, the young brain in development is most impressionable, but with the appropriate input, the older, adult brain can transform. The researchers in this study measured and compared the brain’s cortical size before and after stimulation and compared them on MRI. They noticed 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 induce cortical reorganization of the adult brain. Such changes have been seen in musicians, Braille readers, and persons after spinal manipulation and stroke rehab. (4) This understanding of the brain contributes to the Montreal chiropractic treatment plan!
BRAIN CHANGES WITH CHRONIC PAIN
Just how is the chiropractic treatment plan affected with such knowledge of the brain? Let us start by examining the brain with chronic pain. The two brain regions that encode the intensity of painful stimuli and contribute to the overall 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 suggested that treating chronic pain may well reestablish normal brain functions. (6) Dr. Hoang's Chiropractic Clinic takes care of Montreal back pain patients all day long. It is amazing to think that treatment might alter more than the pain response alone!
CONTACT Dr. Hoang's Chiropractic Clinic
Listen to this PODCAST by Dr. James Cox on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he explains more plainly the brain and spine and pain connection, describes in more depth how the cells of the body are constantly remodeling and adjusting to their always-changing mechanical environment, and how chiropractic may intervene positively.
Schedule a non-surgical Montreal chiropractic care appointment with Dr. Hoang's Chiropractic Clinic for your pain, brain, and spine! The connection is there between pain and the brain. Dr. Hoang's Chiropractic Clinic can get in the center of those two and help you find some Montreal pain relief.
