Your Santa Barbara Chiropractor Can Help Ease Your Age-Related Back Pain
Posted on 07. May, 2010 by admin in arthritis, back pain, blog
You know what they say, “Growing old isn’t so bad when you consider the alternative.” However, it’s no joke if the aging process is creating pain in your body! As a chiropractor in Santa Barbara, I give care to quite a few people suffering from age-related challenges that likely would not have occurred if the exacerbating cause had been taken care of earlier in life, especially when it relates to musculoskeletal breakdowns. Poor posture, improper gait, and repetitive overuse frequently produce undue stress in the back, neck, hip, knees, and even the feet that can result in painful conditions over time. If we only knew then how our aging body would feel today, eh? However, as they say, “hindsight is 20-20.”
As you can see from the list of complaints above, there are plenty of musculoskeletal conditions that can, and frequently do, take place as we age, but painful back problems are one of the most prevalent. Back pain that is age-related is generally produced by spine osteoarthritis, or Spondylosis, a degenerative disorder.
Spinal osteoarthritis is caused by prolonged erosion and weight-bearing force on the spine that, over time, undermines discs, joints, and surrounding ligaments. The area of the body and rate of the degenerative process of spondylosis is individual, varying from person to person. It is likely to affect the cervical (neck), thoracic (mid-back), or lumbar (low back) regions of the spine. Spondylosisi symptoms very from person to person and depend on the severity of the degeneration, and can range from low-amplitude pain and numbness to severe sensory loss and muscular atrophy.
Repetitive stresses negatively affect the cartilage surrounding the joints and can induce calcium to deposit in the tissues around the vertebrae. Adjacent nerves, blood vessels, and soft tissue can be constricted by these calcific deposits, also called bone spurs. This type of compression is at the root of Spondylosis.
Regular chiropractic care and overall chiropractic management is beneficial in significantly slowing age-related degeneration of the spine whether or not you are suffering from spondylosis. It may be true that “you can’t un-ring a bell” or “turn back the hands of time,” but it isn’t too late to give your spine the good treatment it deserves. Chiropractors are experts when it comes to treatment of the spine. See your Santa Barbara Chiropractor today, for the health of your spine.
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