The brain and the spine. They’re connected. They’re connected more intimately than any of us appreciate
as we go about our daily lives. Layden Chiropractic keeps this connection in
mind as we treat our Plainville back
pain sufferers’ spines and pay attention to their stories of
pain and ways of coping. Plainville chiropractic care at Layden Chiropractic
respects the brain and spine connection and use gentle, safe
chiropractic services including spinal manipulation to reduce
pain affecting both.
BRAIN CHANGES IN Plainville BACK PAIN
Pain changes the brain. A person in pain feels
it. Special tests today can reveal it. BOLD (blood oxygen level
dependent) responses were examined after stimulating lumbar spinous
processes with manipulation and exhibited activity in the
secondary somatosensory cortex, cerebellum and other brain areas. (1) Motor cortex stimulation triggers a spinal
anti-inflammatory response to decrease pain. (2) Depression,
anxiety, cognitive deficits often come with chronic
constriction of the sciatic nerve because of its effect
on the medial prefrontal cortex. (3)
Spinal manipulation may be a means to address the
brain changes in chronic pain and its related issues.
SHORT TERM STIMULATION’S EFFECT ON BRAIN
Stimulating the brain even for a short time may influence
the pain experience. A new study on Euclidean distance between
cortical sources and temporal dynamics of plastic changes in the somatosensory
cortex of the brain had even your Plainville chiropractor’s mind
spinning a little! What a topic! 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.
Sure, the young developing brain 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 their size on MRI. They saw
a difference. More research needs to be done, but they did explain
that long term experience establishes cortical organization while
occasional, new and different stimulation can trigger
cortical reorganization of the adult brain. Such changes have been discovered
in musicians, Braille readers, and persons after spinal manipulation and stroke
rehab. (4) This understanding of the brain
contributes to the Plainville 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 looking at the brain with chronic pain. The two brain regions that encode the
intensity of pain and add 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. Post-treatment, the
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is thicker. To the researchers, this indicated
that treating chronic pain may well restore normal
brain functions. (6) Layden Chiropractic treats Plainville back pain patients all day long. It’s amazing to imagine
that treatment might modify more than just the pain response!
CONTACT Layden Chiropractic
Listen to this PODCAST
by Dr. James Cox on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he
defines 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 ever-changing mechanical environment, and how chiropractic may intervene
positively.
Schedule a non-surgical Plainville chiropractic care
appointment with Layden Chiropractic for your pain, brain, and spine! The
connection is there between pain and the brain. Layden Chiropractic can get in the center
of those two and help you obtain some Plainville pain relief.