Satterwhite Chiropractic Explains Degenerative Disc Disease and How Nutrition Helps
Common questions we hear from Oxford back pain sufferers at Satterwhite Chiropractic include: “What is Oxford degenerative disease?” (Satterwhite Chiropractic can explain what degenerative disc disease at the drop of a hat!) and “Can nutrition help?” (“Yes!”)
WHAT IS DEGENERATIVE DISC DISEASE?
Degenerative disc disease comes oftentimes from normal, age-related changes that take place in the discs of the spine that produce pain. The spinal discs function like shock absorbers between the vertebral bones of your spine. As discs degenerate, they don’t do their job very well. A discs’ health depends on the health of surrounding structures as much as its own health. The cartilage endplates play a huge role in the health of the disc. Unhealthy endplates do, too, as they may play a part in degenerative disc disease.
HOW CHIROPRACTIC CARE AND NUTRITION HELP DEGENERATIVE DISC DISEASE
Chiropractic care at Satterwhite Chiropractic manages disc health from both the inside and outside. The disc needs some special nutritional elements to maintain its health and strength, ready to keep the spine mobile. It requires glucose, glycosaminoglycan, calcium, magnesium, chondroitin sulfate, and more. It gets these nutrients via the cartilaginous endplates that border it above and below (70%) and from the sides of the disc (30%). The cartilage endplates of the disc that abut the vertebral bodies of the spine provide a major path for nutrients to get into the disc. Permeability of the cartilage endplate rises as it ages and degenerates. Degeneration of the cartilage endplate is linked to the beginning of cell starvation and death of the disc due to poor nutrition. Degeneration of the cartilage endplate may well be to blame for mechanical load-induced dehydration of the disc’s nucleus pulposus and reduced levels of glucose in the nucleus pulposus (inner gel of the disc)-annulus fibrosus (outer bands of the disc) connection area. (Read more about disc nutrition with glucosamine sulfate and chondroitin sulfate.) (1) The endplates are vital to the disc’s health. When the endplates are harmed by degenerative changes, they cannot perform their job of transporting nutrients into the disc. One study emphasizes this issue by describing how severe inhibition in the endplate nutritional pathways likely leads to intervertebral disc disruption. (2) Further, a good night’s rest may be beneficial for more than beauty! resting recumbent even for a short time allows an increase in the cervical spine and thoracic intervertebral discs’ hydration volume. (3) Satterwhite Chiropractic treats the disc from the inside with nutrition and the outside with sleep recommendations in addition to spinal manipulation.
Oxford CHIROPRACTIC TREATMENT HELPS DEGENERATIVE DISC DISEASE
While resting recumbent unloads the spine, dynamic loading of the spine helps, too. How? It returns to those cartilage endplates once again. The ability of the cartilage endplates The more porous and healthy the endplates are, the more flow of nutrients is permitted. The less porous, less hydrated, more degenerated the endplates are, the less flow of nutrients is allowed. Recent research today presents the benefits of dynamic loading (as opposed to static loading) on nutrient transport into the disc via cartilage endplates. (4) Chiropractic spinal manipulation is dynamic treatment of the spine. The protocols of Cox® Technic focus on individual segments of the spine to increase motion where disc degeneration may be present. It’s gentle, relieving care delivered daily at Satterwhite Chiropractic!
CONTACT Satterwhite Chiropractic
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Sylvia Hrefna from Iceland on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as she discusses her relieving care with Cox® Technic of a patient with disc degeneration in her cervical spine, the second of two cases in this podcast.
