The brain and the spine. They’re connected. They’re connected more deeply than any of us appreciate
as we go about our daily lives. Pflugerville Wellness Center keeps this connection top-of-mind as we treat our Pflugerville back
pain sufferers’ spines and pay attention to their stories of
pain and ways of coping. Pflugerville chiropractic care at Pflugerville Wellness Center
respects the brain and spine connection and use gentle, safe
chiropractic services including spinal manipulation to reduce
pain concerning both.
BRAIN CHANGES IN Pflugerville 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 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 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 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 Pflugerville chiropractor’s head
spinning a little! What a topic! Without having to understand
all these terms and measurements discussed in the study, know that
the study shared that the brain, even the adult brain, is pliable.
Sure, the young developing brain is most impressionable, but with the proper
input, the older, adult brain can change. The researchers in
this study took measurements
before and after stimulation and compared them on MRI. They saw
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 spark
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
informs the Pflugerville chiropractic treatment
plan!
BRAIN CHANGES WITH CHRONIC PAIN
Just how is the chiropractic treatment plan influenced by 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 painful stimuli 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. After treatment, the
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is thicker. To the researchers, this indicated
that treating chronic pain may well reestablish normal
brain functions. (6) Pflugerville Wellness Center care for Pflugerville back pain patients all day long. It is amazing to imagine
that treatment might affect more than the pain response
alone!
CONTACT Pflugerville Wellness Center
Listen to this PODCAST
by Dr. James Cox on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he
explains more clearly the brain and spine and pain
connection, illustrates in more depth how the cells of the body
are continually remodeling and adapting to
their always-changing mechanical environment, and how chiropractic may help.
Schedule a non-surgical Pflugerville chiropractic care
appointment with Pflugerville Wellness Center for your pain, brain, and spine! The
connection is there between pain and the brain. Pflugerville Wellness Center can get in the middle
of those two and help you get some Pflugerville pain relief.