Can Upper Cervical Chiropractic Care Help with Neck Pain due to Spinal Stenosis?
What is Spinal Stenosis?
Spinal stenosis is an abnormal narrowing of the spinal canal that results in pressure on the spinal cord or nerve roots.
What are the symptoms of Spinal Stenosis?
Symptoms of spinal stenosis can include pain, numbness, or weakness in the arms or legs and are typically gradual in onset and improve with bending forward. Spinal stenosis can cause more severe symptoms such as loss of bladder control, loss of bowel control, or sexual dysfunction.
What causes spinal stenosis?
Causes of spinal stenosis may include osteoarthritis (OA), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), spinal tumors, trauma, Paget’s disease, scoliosis, spondylolisthesis, and the genetic condition achondroplasia.
How is spinal stenosis diagnosed?
Spinal stenosis is typically classified by the part of the spine affected: cervical, thoracic, and/or lumbar stenosis. Diagnosis is generally based on the patient’s symptoms and medical imaging, such as a CT Scan or MRI.
How is spinal stenosis treated?
Treatment of spinal stenosis may involve medications, bracing, or surgery. Medications may include non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), acetaminophen (Tylenol), or steroid injections. Stretching and strengthening exercises (such as the ones listed here) may also be useful, as well as limiting certain activities. Surgery is typically only done if other treatments are not effective, with the usual procedure being a decompressive laminectomy.
How common is spinal stenosis?
Spinal stenosis occurs in as many as 8% of people over the age of 50. Men and women are equally affected.
What about chiropractic care?
Nerves can become irritated by misaligned vertebrae, degeneration of discs and spine (such as is seen in spinal stenosis), inflammation, or herniated vertebral discs. Functional changes within these nerve roots often results in debilitating pain and consequently play a significant role in one’s quality of life.
The principle aim of chiropractic care is to adjust vertebral subluxation, which can address the physical decline that arises from pain and decreased physical activity. Adjusting vertebral subluxations can help decrease pain, increase function, and enhance quality of life.
Joint immobility has been shown to induce degenerative changes, which can result in irreversible changes after only two months of fixation. Without chiropractic adjustments, it would be expected that degeneration would continue to progress. This degeneration results in increased nerve irritation and increased symptoms.
Recent research suggests that appropriate chiropractic adjustments can aid in an effective means of helping a patient with back pain move from acute to supportive care. Correcting spinal subluxations may reduce healing time and therefore improve overall health.
Case Study: Resolution of Cervicalgia (neck pain) secondary to spinal stenosis following Upper Cervical Chiropractic Care
The patient reported on in this study was a 55-year-old female suffering with chronic neck pain and spinal degeneration so bad that her spinal canal was stenotic.
She was examined and x-rays were taken at the chiropractic clinic where they found abnormal posture, severe spinal degeneration, spinal canal stenosis, and structural shifts in her upper neck. These structural shifts can lead to obstruction of the nerves, called vertebral subluxations.
The woman underwent chiropractic care and after one month had resolution of all of her complaints.
Proper alignment of the upper cervical spine is absolutely necessary for optimal function of the brain, spinal cord, neck musculature, and blood and nerve flow. In our office, neck pain sufferers show remarkable improvement once their spinal alignment has been corrected. If you suffer from neck pain, get your upper cervical spine checked for balance/imbalance.
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