A majority of Americans will suffer from back pain at some point in their lives. Anyone who has dealt with acute or chronic back pain can attest to how it can affect nearly every aspect of your daily life. Whether it’s limiting movement, impacting sleep, or altering your ability to perform basic tasks, back pain can be an all-consuming issue that can take you out of commission.
Back pain can be impactful because of the many roles the spine plays in the body—this is why it’s important to prevent back pain by maintaining good spinal health. Spinal health extends beyond dealing with back pain. As we age, the muscles, cartilage, and ligaments in our body naturally wear down. However, this process can be expedited in those with poor spinal health.
Luckily, corrective chiropractic care offers more than simple pain relief—it is an avenue to aging gracefully so that you can stay in control of your life.
Why is Spinal Health So Important?
The spine plays many crucial roles in the body’s operations. Because the spine is the central component of your body’s core, it provides structure and stability to the entire body. Beyond that, it affects just about every aspect of your body.
| The Major Functions of the Spine | ||
| It’s the core of the central nervous system. It contains the spinal cord, the core component of the central nervous system. All neurophysiological functions—sensory input and all motor reactions from the brain—are influenced by spinal structure. |
It’s the body’s main support structure. The spine is designed to withstand the forces of gravity and activity throughout a lifetime. This strength is derived from the balance of its three curvatures: cervical, thoracic, and lumbar. Sitting on top of the solid pelvis, it is also the anchor point for your extremities. |
It‘s the body’s power and mobility. All balance, power, and movement are rooted in the spine and its alignment. It is the main attachment point for the muscles and ligaments that stabilize you and give you great balance. The spine is a spring shaped to absorb and transmit forces into the energy of motion. |
In short, the spine is essential to great overall health and maintaining a good quality of life.
The spine is also complimented by a complex array of muscles, ligaments, cartilage, and tendons. This network of tissue keeps the spine in place and maintains its natural curvature. This natural curvature is unique to every individual and pivotal in allowing the spine to effectively perform numerous operations.
Complications that affect this curvature are often the source of not only back pain but conditions that can negatively impact your long-term spinal health.
What Are the Most Common Spinal Conditions?
Many conditions can affect the spine’s curvature and alignment which can not only cause pain but also interfere with bodily functions and affect your health.
Some of the most common are:
- Kyphosis: Kyphosis refers to the natural curvature of the thoracic spine; however, the thoracic spine can become abnormally curved. An exaggerated forward hunching of the thoracic spine is referred to as hyperkyphosis, or a “hunched back,” while overextension of the thoracic spine is referred to as hypokyphosis. Hyperkyphosis and hypokyphosis can occur at any age and are correlated with middle back and neck pain, balance issues, and increased stress response.
- Cervical lordosis: Lordosis refers to the normal C-shaped curvature found in the neck. Forward head posture and loss of curvature of the neck are correlated with neck pain, headaches, decreased nerve function, decreased blood flow, increased stress response, and impaired cognitive function.
- Lumbar lordosis: Lordosis is the normal shape of the lower back curvature. Too much curvature is called hyperlordosis or “sway-back”. Too little curvature is called hypolordosis and is commonly seen as a hunching. Both can create low back pain, slipped discs, and pelvic problems and impair the function of gait.
- Scoliosis: Scoliosis is a developmental spinal condition in which there is an unnatural lateral curvature exceeding 10 degrees. There are a few different types of scoliosis, including idiopathic and degenerative scoliosis. Idiopathic has no known cause, while degenerative occurs over time as the muscles and ligaments in the back deteriorate.
These conditions can not only cause pain but can cause your spinal health to deteriorate even further when left untreated, diminishing your quality of life.
Beyond these structural conditions, other factors can affect your spinal health such as:
- Ligament adhesions
- Joint inflammation
- Arthritis in the neck and back
- Herniated discs
These conditions also share a relationship with the spine’s curvature because the amount of strain placed on the disparate parts of your spine from curvature irregularities is often the source of pain or discomfort.
This is why it’s crucial to ensure you maintain good posture and spinal health—corrective chiropractic care can help. While wear and tear on the spine is a natural part of aging, with proper care, you can experience less pain and optimize your spinal health for the long term.
How Corrective Chiropractic Care Promotes a Healthy Life
Taking the measures to ensure your spine ages gracefully can be a key component to living a longer, healthier life. Corrective chiropractic care offers a variety of frontline solutions and treatments that will ensure proper spinal alignment so that you can keep doing the things you need.
| Corrective Chiropractic Care Treatments | |||
| Postural Exercises | Chiropractic Adjustments | Spinal Traction | Neuromuscular Reeducation |
| Core strength: Poor posture can either create or exacerbate spinal misalignments. Muscles and ligaments that support the spine lose the capacity to keep the spine’s normal curve as they deteriorate, and these ligaments and muscles stretch and tighten throughout time to maintain the present curvature. With postural exercises, the core muscles in the back are reworked and strengthened so they can maintain a natural curve. | Joint range of motion: Also known as spinal manipulation, chiropractic adjustments apply controlled force to each joint in the spine, either with the hand or a small device. These adjustments relieve pressure and discomfort while simultaneously restoring the spine’s range of motion. | Spinal flexibility and alignment: In multiple recent randomized control trials, spinal traction is shown to be the only therapy that will restore spinal alignment. Traction is the application of a deep, slow stretch to the spinal ligaments. As a result, the spine’s vertebrae are gently pulled into the correct alignment, decompressing each part of the spine and enabling the spine to realign and stabilize long-term. | Reset of neutral posture: Due to slow ergonomic stress or trauma, the brain sets bad posture as neutral. Neuromuscular reeducation entails training the brain to maintain a healthier posture and spinal curvature without you having to think about it. |
When reaching out for chiropractic care, it is paramount to consider the level of expertise provided by the chiropractor. You should ensure that your chiropractor is identifying the root cause of your pain, spinal misalignment, or unnatural curvature. While many treatments can offer immediate relief, their efficacy can quickly subside if the real cause isn’t addressed.
PostureWorks for Cutting Edge Chiropractic Care
Alleviating pain or discomfort is only the surface of effective corrective chiropractic care. Without isolating the source of the pain, symptoms such as pain and immobility are likely to return. Furthermore, you can also likely expect to see expedited spinal health complications as you age.
That’s why the team at PostureWorks uses Chiropractic BioPhysics® to properly assess your spinal health. Chiropractic BioPhysics® analyzes not only your unique spinal curvature but cross-references it with your entire medical history to isolate the root of your symptoms and identify your ideal spinal curvature.
This way, we go beyond typical chiropractic care treatments by creating a custom-tailored treatment plan involving a mixture of postural exercises, spinal traction, chiropractic adjustments, and neuromuscular reeducation. By going beyond relieving pain to reestablish balance in your body, we set you up for improved health and a greater quality of life.
Contact us today for more information on corrective chiropractic care or to schedule your appointment with PostureWorks.
Chiropractic BioPhysics®, or CBP, is a deeply researched and results-oriented corrective care technique. CBP-trained chiropractors aim to realign the spine back to health and optimal function. As with all chiropractic care, CBP is conservative, painless, and non-invasive.
