What is Spinal Stenosis?
This is a condition of the spine where the holes which the nerves run through are beginning to narrow. There are many reasons in which they narrow, which we will go through later in the blog.
Let’s first start by describing some of the spinal anatomy. The spine houses the spinal cord which runs through the centre of the spine and it exits at every level through intervertebral foramen. These are the holes which lead to the spine and out.
re two places that stenosis can occur. One is in the central spinal canal and this is on the spinal cord and more commonly on the lateral intervertebral foramen where the nerves exit at the side.
These holes need to be uniform in shape in order for the nerve to be able to flex and stretch when you bend and move and rotate. If there is any damage or compensation to a spinal segment, the bones get closer together it’s going to put more pressure on the hole.
If this hole narrows, it will pinch in the nerve, thus causing problems. Some of the main complaints that we hear with spinal stenosis is sciatic pain that goes down the back of the leg. This is different from sciatic pain caused by a slipped disc although it will feel very similar in nature. The treatment methods and the prognosis are wildly different.
Spinal stenosis usually occurs in people later on in life due to degeneration. It’s not something that can just happen from an accident or a fall. Very rarely occurs in a short period of time. It’s usually over a long period of time.
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So how will you know if you have spinal stenosis?
Back pain is one of the common things you will feel and referred pain down the legs, so shooting pain, pins and needles, numbness of the legs. It can often be where the nerve is getting trapped. If you also feel that certain positions like going upstairs or going downstairs cause pain and one doesn’t then this is indicative of stenosis. Walking uphill not walking downhill doesn’t cause pain. Those are very common symptoms with spinal stenosis.
How to treat spinal stenosis?
The main thing we do is to open the holes. We need to identify exactly which nerve is being trapped and then we use chiropractic adjustments, spinal decompression therapies, one of the most effective tools to take pressure off the spine and using massage therapy to take the pressure off the muscles around the nerves which could be causing dysfunction. Spinal decompression stretches the ligaments and opens up the holes to allow the nerves to breathe and take pressure off the spine.
It’s important that you get a proper diagnosis and assessment to determine if you do have spinal stenosis as it could mimic a lot of other conditions.
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