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Toronto Chiropractic Care Respects Spinal Extension

Extension of the spine: It is good. It is bad. So what is up with extension for the spine? Both are true: It’s valuable. It is harmful. It’s the job of your Toronto chiropractor to help you figure out the role of extension in your Toronto back pain relief plan and Toronto back pain control plan in the future. Your Toronto chiropractor at Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre is well experienced in the effects – good and bad – of spinal extension and respects its role in spinal health and mobility.

SPINAL CURVES

Two of the spine’s most prominent curves – the cervical and lumbar curves – are lordotic curves meaning they curve concavely. Flexion flattens these curves. Extension magnifies them. When a disc herniates or bulges, it does so into the concavity of the curve and potentially pushes on the spinal nerves resulting in pain. Flexion usually permits the disc bulge to move off of the nerve. Extension often allows the disc bulge to press on the nerves more. Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre wants to help reduce painful situations like this!

SPINAL MOTION

75% of the flexion and extension movement in the low back happens at the L5-S1 level of the lumbar spine. 20% occurs at the L4-L5 level. Therefore, 95% of flexion and extension of the lumbar spine happens at these two lower disc levels. Here, degenerative disc disease (minor and more advanced) happens most. In the cervical spine, C5-C6 is the spinal level where most of the flexion takes place, and C4-C5 is where most of the extension occurs. Toronto chiropractic patients need healthy extension!

SPINAL EXTENSION

Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre respects extension and understands how it may benefit and hurt. The extensor muscles in the back weaken and degenerate just as discs degenerate. (1) Extension helps strengthen these muscles to support the spine. Extension is necessary for this when the spine is healthy enough to do extension. Extension to a painful spine may be harmful. Why? In the cervical spine, flexion decreased disc protrusion and enlarges the sagittal diameter of the vertebral canal while extension increased the disc protrusion and narrowed the vertebral canal producing stenosis. (2) In a degenerative lumbar spine with spinal stenosis, flexion opened the vertebral canal and relieved pain while extension exacerbated the stenosis and caused pain. (3) Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre understands the key to getting the benefits of extension is in recognizing when to apply extension.

Toronto CHIROPRACTIC USE OF EXTENSION

Toronto chiropractic treatment incorporates extension into the Toronto chiropractic treatment plan for its benefits. Cox® Technic used with the cervical spine reduced intradiscal pressures to as low as 502 mmHg (4) and to as low as -192 mmHg in the lumbar spine. (5) Extension increased pressures in the lumbar spine to 1250 mmHg (the most the transducer could measure). (4) Dropping intradiscal pressures and back pain is what Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre does for its Toronto back pain patients.

CONTACT Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre

Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. David Atiyeh on the Back Doctor’s Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson. He shares how he helped a patient whose back pain continues after multiple back surgeries with flexion distraction which gives her relief as the table is flexed not extended.

Schedule your Toronto chiropractic appointment with Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre today. Let’s discover the role extension might play in your back pain recovery and future back pain control plan.

 Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre knows the role of extension in spinal motion, its necessity, its benefits and potential harmful effects.  
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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."