Have you been told you have arthritis in your spine?
Have you heard a friend or family member mention they had this problem?
Arthritis is common in the spine. Although, it isn’t normal. Big difference.
So, what is arthritis, and can anything be done to help it?
Arthritis, also known as degeneration, is abnormal wear of the bones. This can happen in the fingers, knees, feet, neck, low-back, etc. Anywhere there’s bone, there’s the potential for degeneration.
This abnormal wearing takes place due to imbalance. Shifting in the spine, uneven musculature, repetitious movement, or injury can cause the degeneration.
This sort of thing, unless it happens after a traumatic incident, typically takes many years to form. After a number of years symptoms can arise.
Some of the more common symptoms are numbness and tingling, pain, achiness, loss of motion, etc. However, arthritis doesn’t always cause symptoms. It can be what’s called asymptomatic. People who have this typically won’t even be aware of it unless an x-ray is taken of their spine.
Here’s the thing about arthritis…once it occurs, you can’t reverse it. But, you can keep it from getting worse. Over time, arthritis usually gets worse if nothing is done to correct the underlying problem of imbalance.
However, if the structural problems that are leading to the degeneration are removed, then the progression of the arthritis will be halted.
The first step that we would recommend is to see a chiropractor. A chiropractor is a doctor of the nervous system and will examine the spine for any degeneration as part of their initial exam.
Follow the recommendations you receive from them in order to prevent any acceleration of the arthritis. Also, if there’s any muscular imbalance, make sure to have proper instruction on what you should be doing for training the areas that are deficient.
Once you have corrected the underlying problems, you may still have arthritis, but the symptoms may improve, and there should be no progression.
Stay healthy friends.