Healthy News January 2023

Lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) is seemingly one of the most common spinal conditions in the US, afflicting over 500 million people over the age of 62. (1) As researchers grapple with a more systematic approach to dealing with patient care for lumbar spinal stenosis patients, your La Grande chiropractor provides gentle, safe, pain easing treatment. The latest attempt at a system underscored that each LSS patient presents a bit differently which restrains any algorithm to be “soft guidance” as to its treatment plan based initially on the LSS patient's pain relief in spinal flexion. (2) Since spinal stenosis is characteristically a systemic issue, meaning if you have spinal stenosis in the lumbar spine, you likely have it in other spinal areas like the cervical too, you don’t want to overlook it. Further, lumbar spinal stenosis is not a condition that appears and disappears forever. Its pain can be contained, but it’s often “chronic,” meaning it lasts beyond 90 days. Have hope! Your chiropractor can help with lumbar spinal stenosis relief. One study documented that flexion distraction significantly reduced pain and disability for lumbar spinal stenosis patients. (3) Another study stated that chronic back pain sufferers with moderate to severe symptoms improved most with the chiropractic technique, Cox® Technic Flexion Distraction Decompression (CTFDD), compared with physical therapy. (4) Those same patients experienced significantly lower pain scores over the following year than did patients who underwent physical therapy. (5) LSS patients also experience altered gait and balance issues. (1,6) CTFDD helps these things, too! A study about the influence of spinal manipulation on balance problems in LSS patients explained that flexion distraction spinal manipulation improved function, symptoms, and performance-based mobility in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis. (6) We also anticipate the outcomes of a prospective data collection study in its second year for follow-up with patients who underwent CTFDD for relief of their LSS-related back pain. Data collection will be completed later this year with results being published in the years to come. La Grande lumbar spinal stenosis is everywhere, and its relieving partner is your La Grande chiropractor here at Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC!

Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Dean Greenwood on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he explains his alleviating treatment of a spinal stenosis patient with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management.

As a set of researchers sets up a new study to evaluate if a 6-week education and exercise program will improve the walking capacity of lumbar spinal stenosis patients who also have neurogenic claudication (7), Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC suggests