Normal Condition of Your Spine

Dr. Powers here. One of my primary
goals in chiropractic care is to help
your spine to age as well as it possibly
can. Uh this model represents healthy
vertebrae, healthy discs, lots of space
for the nerves to exit the spine. This
is a young, healthy, textbook normal
spine.
When there’s been an injury to the
spine, a lot of times there’s damage to
the fibers of the disc.
And those that damage will start to
cause dehydration of the disc, which
will allow that disc to start to shrink
down ever so slightly. And sometimes
it’ll allow
that disc to bulge in a way that it
starts to narrow the the opening for the
nerve root. This is the beginning of a
pinched nerve. If this isn’t addressed
and left long enough, the body will
start to stabilize around that damaged
disc by building bony bridges or bone
spurs. And so this is the early
to moderate phase of degenerative
changes in the spine. Obviously, this
disc is not going to function as well
as one of these. If we ignore that long
enough, that disc will degenerate to the
point of being all but gone. The
vertebrae will try to grow together as
the body says, “If this isn’t going to
work properly, let’s just fuse it up.”
One of the things we know is that
chiropractic adjustments delivered
consistently over time can restore a lot
of health and motion to the vertebrae in
this state. And if we can accomplish
that, we can dramatically reduce this
pathway toward further degeneration of
the spine. But it requires consistent
care and requires some diligence and it
requires some commitment to looking down
the road and not just at the pain we
have today, but at at how is that spine
going to age over time. My goal is to
never get down the road 20 years with
you and wish that we had done the right
thing to protect and preserve the health
of your spine. It’s the only one you’ve
ever got. I’m glad there are surgeons
that can do surgery when necessary, but
the truth is you don’t want spine
surgery. Chiropractic is a great great
way to help your spine to age better
than maybe your mom and dad’s did, maybe
grandma and grandpas did. You don’t need
to have the kind of pain that they have
had. And it starts with a chiropractic
consultation and some chiropractic care
to identify those areas where your spine
has issues. If we can restore normal
function, normal range of motion, and do
it long enough, you’re going to do much,
much better, and you’ll be glad you did.