“You’re young! You don’t have to worry about
back pain.” Not true! New research confirms young and old alike
must contend with disc degeneration. Most of us will personally have
to deal with disc degeneration’s pain at some point in our lives…or help a loved one dealing with its back pain or neck pain
complications. Pflugerville Wellness Center is here for young and
old alike when Pflugerville disc degeneration disrupts your quality of
life.
DDD STARTS EARLIER THAN ONCE THOUGHT
It is hard to believe, but it’s documented
in the medical literature. Disc degeneration begins in the late
teens! A study of 18-20 year old healthy
air force cadets uncovered that 77% had13
disc degeneration or disc herniation. (1) That is a new
discovery! It has been written
elsewhere that disc degeneration starts at
age 20. Now it is shown to rear its head
in 18 year olds! In this project MRIs were done on
all cadets. None of the cadets reported spine pain. The
MRIs revealed that: 30% showed at least one disc’s
dehydrating, 13% disc narrowing, 49% disc bulging, 18% disc protruding, 8% disc
extruding, 13% with spondylolisthesis, and less than 1% even showed
asymptomatic vertebral fractures. These findings in young,
seemingly healthy people are similar to what would be expected
in adults. (1) It’s never too early to start paying attention to the spine! Pflugerville Wellness Center takes care of spines at all ages via spinal manipulation, nutrition
and exercise.
WHY?
Researchers (and parents) ask “why?” Why does
lumbar spine disc degeneration or cervical spine disc degeneration start so young? It may be genetic. 80% of patients in a new study had mutations
in their collagen-encoding genes. Collagen is vital to disc and
joint health. Back pain sufferers with a lumbar disc herniation had two variants in their gene encoding
for aggrecan, a protein that the end plate depends on for load-bearing. Such a mutation
influences the nucleus pulposus, annulus fibrosus and end plates.
(2) Certainly, the whole story of why a disc
degenerates is not fully defined yet. Pflugerville Wellness Center
does have ways to contain and relieve the pain of
a Pflugerville degenerated disc.
INTERRUPTING DISC DEGENERATION, PROMOTING DISC REGENERATION
Researchers described disc degeneration as a
complex connection of mechanical, biochemical, and structural changes
at the cellular level, cells that are in an abnormal mechanical environment.
Regeneration of such cells would demand very specific conditions and
wouldn’t always be possible. However, traction of 2 to 6 weeks was
found to be a sensitive time for regeneration of a degenerated
disc. The researchers propose that this could interrupt the above
described cascade of changes. (3) Pflugerville Wellness Center uses Cox® Technic
to gently create a positive environment for the healing of degenerated
discs by enhancing the area of the spinal canal by 28%,
increasing the height of the disc by 17%, and decreasing
intradiscal pressures to as low as -192mmHg in the low back and dropping
pressures in the cervical spine by a mean pressure as much as 1265 mmHg. (4,5)
Pflugerville Wellness Center bolsters the Cox® Technic
system of spinal pain management by adding spinal nutrition (especially
disc nutrition supplementation) and exercise to optimize the relief
and clinical outcome for Pflugerville back pain patients.
CONTACT Pflugerville Wellness Center
Listen to this PODCAST
with Dr. Paxton Schofield on The Back Doctors’ Podcast with Dr.
Michael Johnson who presented his care of arthritis and
degeneration with Cox® Technic.
Schedule your Pflugerville chiropractic appointment at
Pflugerville Wellness Center for your spine’s health. You may not be too young for back pain, and you are undoubtedly
not too young to look after your spine. A Pflugerville
chiropractic treatment plan of spinal manipulation, nutrition and exercise can benefit all ages of back pain and neck pain sufferers struggling with
disc degeneration.