Spinal Stenosis – How Spinal Decompression Lawrenceville GA Works

Spinal stenosis is a condition that causes narrowing in the spine. It can take place at the center of your spine, where the canals branch off the spine and/or between its bones. The narrowing puts pressure on your nerves and spinal cord and can induce pain. Men and women older than 50, are more likely to be affected with this condition. Nonetheless, younger people with a spine injury or a narrow spinal canal and those with arthritis and scoliosis are also at risk. Symptoms may show up progressively or may not show at all. A person with spinal stenosis may experience back pain, neck pain, numbness, weakness or pain in the arms or legs, and foot problems.

Medications, physical therapy, braces, and surgery are traditionally used as treatments that address problems accompanying spinal stenosis. However, they only work to relieve the symptoms, not the cause. Remedying the cause is the most effective solution to relieve the symptoms and prevent its recurrence. That is what spinal decompression can do. Spinal decompression Lawrenceville GA is an alternative treatment that eases back pain, neck pain, and other symptoms caused by spinal stenosis and it can be an excellent alternative for surgery.

What is spinal stenosis?

Spinal stenosis is a narrowing of spaces in the spine which results in pressure on the spinal cord and/or nerve roots. This disorder usually involves the narrowing of the canals and openings of the vertebrae where the nerve roots pass through. The narrowing may involve a small or large area of the spine. This can occur in the neck (cervical) as well as the lower back (lumbar) and on rare cases, in the mid spine (thoracic).

What are the symptoms of spinal stenosis?

Symptoms usually get worse gradually over time. Most commonly, symptoms will be on one side of the body or the other. If the pressure it causes takes place on the lower part of the spine or on nerve roots branching out from that area, it may give rise to pain or numbness in the legs. If it occurs in the upper back, it may cause similar symptoms in the neck, shoulders, or arms. Additional symptoms of spinal stenosis include difficulty or poor balance when walking and problems controlling urine or bowel movements.

What causes spinal stenosis?

Arthritis, the weakening of any joint in the body, is the most usual cause of spinal stenosis. In the spine, it is the result of degenerating disc and loss of hydration. As an individual gets older, the discs start to dry out and weaken. This problem causes settling down, or collapse of the disk spaces and loss of disk space height. Other causes of spinal stenosis include accidents, falls, and bone diseases.

How can spinal stenosis be treated?

In treating the disorder, traditional concepts such as medications and physical therapy can help lessen pain but only with short term results. Moreover, they only work on reducing the symptoms rather than treating the root cause, which is why pain only reoccurs before long. Surgery on the other hand may work on the actual cause but it comes with dangerous risks and complications and it does not ensure success either.

Luckily, doing away with the pain for good just takes much safer and cost-friendly conservative treatments. Spinal decompression therapy can be used to help minimize the pain for a long time. It works by lessening mechanical stress on bone surfaces, resulting to a substantial decrease in inflammation.

Decompression Therapy Lawrenceville GA supports improved moisture to the discs, which can eventually improve their thickness and in turn reduces the mechanical stress on the spine. The immediate effect of this reduced mechanical stress is often a dramatic reduction in inflammation. And because spinal decompression corrects the affected area of the spine, where the underlying cause is, the effect can be lasting. Disc decompression also enhances disc hydration which helps slowing down or stopping the progression of the abnormal bone formation.

To sum it all, spinal decompression can be a highly effective treatment for spinal stenosis and can help prevent the need for invasive treatments. The spine and rehab center in Lawrenceville accepts patients with spinal stenosis Lawrenceville GA. For those who are considering surgery, this treatment can be a very good alternative to surgical treatment.