Your Oxford Chiropractor Worries About Your Spinal Discs When You Run or Jog!

Picture of people running along side a riverDO YOU LIKE TO JOG OR RUN? Oxford provides many locations to exercise like this. Well, take into account that the spinal discs in your lower back lose fluid and decrease by greater than 6% when you run. To make matters worse, this is in young adults, not older folks with disc degeneration and advanced aging changes in their spines. Just think about the loss of disc height in them! We chiropractors do, and your Oxford chiropractor worries about your spinal discs. And Satterwhite Chiropractic confers with Oxford joggers and runners like you to reduce potential damage.

So here is the research behind the worry: Magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure the influence of moderate-intensity treadmill running on the disc height and volume in the mid- and low-backs of 8 healthy young people with no back pain. They ran for 30 minutes on the treadmill. An MRI study of their spines was performed before and after the run. After moderate intensity running, a 6.3% reduction in disc height and 6.9% reduction in disc volume were found. This analyzes the normal day-to-day difference in disc height and volume of 0.6 and 0.4%, accordingly. (1)

At Satterwhite Chiropractic, the chiropractor can direct you to suitable spinal manipulation, exercises and nutritional adaptations in your diet to help curb this detrimental spine change. Remember, although moderate intensity running is generally advocated for apparently healthy adults, running causes a loss in stature that is thought to reflect compression of the intervertebral disc that causes loss of disc height.

Picture of spinal disc cross sectionKnow that your Oxford chiropractor comprehends that repetitious loading of the low back, such as what happens in running, damages the piece of the disc referred to as the annulus fibrosus which holds in the nucleus pulposus. Such disc failure is unlikely to happen with repetitive bending in the absence of compressive load. Compressive cyclic loading with low peak load magnitude also did not create the failure of the disc. (2) However, we see that the compressive loading of the disc as occurs with running does cause the disc to lose height and volume.

Contact your Oxford chiropractor at Satterwhite Chiropractic for recommendations on how to exercise as safely as attainable with minimum damage to the spine. Your future spinal health relies on it!

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"This information and website content is not intended to diagnose, guarantee results, or recommend specific treatment or activity. It is designed to educate and inform only. Please consult your physician for a thorough examination leading to a diagnosis and well-planned treatment strategy. See more details on the DISCLAIMER page. Content is reviewed by Dr. James M. Cox I."