Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC Presents the Influence of the Brain/Spine Connection in Back Pain
The brain and the spine. They are connected. They’re connected more closely than any of us appreciate as we go about our daily lives. Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC keeps this connection top-of-mind as we treat our La Grande back pain sufferers’ spines and listen to their stories of pain and ways of coping. La Grande chiropractic care at Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC respects the brain and spine connection and use gentle, safe chiropractic services including spinal manipulation to ease pain concerning both.
BRAIN CHANGES IN La Grande BACK PAIN
Pain changes the brain. A person in pain knows it. Special tests today can reveal it. BOLD (blood oxygen level dependent) responses were examined after stimulating lumbar spinous processes with manipulation and demonstrated activity in the secondary somatosensory cortex, cerebellum and other brain areas. (1) Motor cortex stimulation triggers a spinal anti-inflammatory response to reduce pain. (2) Depression, anxiety, cognitive deficits often accompany chronic constriction of the sciatic nerve due to its effect on the medial prefrontal cortex. (3) Spinal manipulation may be a way to address the brain changes in chronic pain and its related issues.
SHORT TERM STIMULATION’S EFFECT ON BRAIN
Stimulating the brain even for a short time may influence the pain experience. A new study on Euclidean distance between cortical sources and temporal dynamics of plastic changes in the somatosensory cortex of the brain had even your La Grande chiropractor’s head spinning a little! What a topic! Without having to understand all these terms and measurements discussed in the study, know that the study presented that the brain, even the adult brain, is impressionable. Of course, the young brain in development is most impressionable, but with the proper input, the older, adult brain can change. The researchers in this study measured and compared the brain’s cortical size before and after stimulation and compared them on MRI. They saw a difference. More research needs to be done, but they did explain that long term experience establishes cortical organization while occasional, new and different stimulation can induce cortical reorganization of the adult brain. Such changes have been discovered in musicians, Braille readers, and persons after spinal manipulation and stroke rehab. (4) This understanding of the brain contributes to the La Grande chiropractic treatment plan!
BRAIN CHANGES WITH CHRONIC PAIN
Just how is the chiropractic treatment plan affected with such knowledge of the brain? Let us start by examining the brain with chronic pain. The two brain regions that encode the intensity of pain and add to the overall experience of chronic pain are the primary somatosensory cortex and posterior insular cortex. (5) The cortex of the brain was shown to be thinner in chronic low back pain patients. After treatment, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is thicker. To the researchers, this indicated that treating chronic pain can restore normal brain functions. (6) Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC takes care of La Grande back pain patients all day long. It’s amazing to imagine that treatment might alter more than the pain response alone!
CONTACT Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC
Listen to this PODCAST by Dr. James Cox on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he explains more plainly the brain and spine and pain connection, illustrates in more depth how the cells of the body are continually remodeling and adapting to their always-changing mechanical environment, and how chiropractic may intervene positively.
Schedule a non-surgical La Grande chiropractic care appointment with Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC for your pain, brain, and spine! The connection is there between pain and the brain. Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC can get in the middle of those two and help you find some La Grande pain relief.
