Chiropractic focuses on the spine and the 31 pairs of nerves that branch off to the rest of your body. Chiropractors centralize their efforts on preventing damage and injury to your spine which is comprised of the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar regions. Your spine can be damaged through a car accident recently or long ago, sports related injuries, or just repetitive stress throughout the years. When these events happen, your spine becomes mechanically stressed causing dysfunction not only in the joints, but the nerve roots as well. Physical stress or injury to these spinal segments can cause nerve root impingement from one of two arenas. First, the actual spinal segment (bone) can cause nerve root interference.
Second, the disc in between the bones can be injured causing a bulging or herniated disc which in turn, causes nerve root interference.This nerve root impingement can begin a cascade of physical stresses and events in the body. Nerve roots control two avenues in the body. First, nerve roots cause muscles to prematurely contract causing severe spasm. This spasm is a protective condition that surrounds the joint that is injured. If not treated, this muscle spasm causes scar tissue to form which will severely restrict the range of motion of those adjacent joints. Second, nerve roots control sensory changes. These sensory changes can range from the burning, numbness, or dull aches that you feel daily to weekly in your body.
My primary focus is to locate and detect where these injuries are originating from. I accomplish this by taking digital x-rays which will allow us to see the spine and the approximate age of the injury. If a disc injury is suspected, then an MRI would be ordered to see the integrity of the discs at the adjacent levels. These two studies typically address the hard tissue component (bone) and soft tissue component (disc) and allow us to see their correlation.Please call for a consultation so you can have your life back!
