Feb 23

Chiropractic Cox® Technic Creates Vertebral Motion & Increased Spinal Canal Space

Back pain? Spinal Stenosis? Degenerative disc disease? What do they have in common…besides pain? Reduced spinal canal area. With disc degeneration, the disc shrinks, resulting in reduced spinal canal area. With spinal stenosis, a(n) disc bulge, protruding disc, osteophyte, discal cyst, synovial cyst, spinal cyst diminishes the spinal canal area. A newly published paper detailed how chiropractic flexion distraction treatment, namely Cox® Technic spinal manipulation and mobilization (SMM), enlarged the spinal canal area and created vertebral motions.

  • Vertebral bone movement:4.2° at L4-L5 and 3.68° at L5-S1
  • Vertebral bone separation(resulting in increased disc height): 1.10mm at L4-L5 and 0.08mm at L5-S1

This new study just published in January 2023 reported that chiropractic flexion distraction produced increases in spinal area, height, and width due to increased nerve foraminal area. (1)

  • Area increase: 21.12% at L4-L5 and 18.02% at L5-S1
  • Height increase: 12.13% at L4-L5 and 8.11% at L5-S1
  • Width increase: 5.12% at L4-L5 and 4.11% at L5-S1

Such spinal changes set the scene for affected spinal elements like spinal nerves to ‘breathe’ leading to eventual (though sometimes quicker or even immediate for some patients) back pain relief. Outcomes and supporting research like this are the forces behind our using gentle, safe chiropractic treatment options like Cox® Technic. Bring your stenotic spine and/or degenerated disc to us!

Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Ram Gudavalli, the principle investigator in Cox® Technic studies, on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he describes the research behind The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management.

TIP OF THE MONTH: Exercise to Open Lumbar Spinal Canal Area

Back pain sufferers are often recommended exercises to strengthen spinal, gluteal, and core muscles as a way to complement their in-office chiropractic treatment. Classic lumbar flexion (Williams) exercises have been standard since the 1930s as they limit lumbar extension while improving lumbar flexion with high levels of research evidence (III and IV) support. A typical exercise series would have a patient lie on the floor, hands at the side, knees bent, then simply tighten ab and gluteal muscles while flattening the spine against the floor. The next would be a knee-chest (each single knee then both knees) motion exercise follows. (2) There are more such exercises in the series, but we’d be thrilled for our new back pain patients to start with these simple moves on day 1 (after we examine and set a treatment plan, of course). Let’s talk soon to see if these will be good for you and your spinal stenotic, disc degenerative spine!

We look forward to seeing you and your spine this month of February!

References for HEALTHY NEWS – February 2023

  1. Dydyk, A. M., & Sapra, A. (2022). Williams Back Exercises. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing.
  2. Maruti R. Gudavalli, Gregory D. Cramer, and Avinash G. Patwardhan. Intervertebral Movements and Changes in Intervertebral Foraminal Morphology in the Lumbar Spine During a Chiropractic Procedure: A Cadaveric Study. Integrative Medicine Reports.Feb 2023.7-13.http://doi.org/10.1089/imr.2022.0022