An Overview of Spinal Decompression and Its Benefits

 

In our youth, the discs between our vertebrae are full of water, which means we are practically floating along through the day on a pillow of fluid. Getting older, we lose fluid on our discs, and we typically end up losing height and moving more jarringly. We also tend to more jarringly Our movements also become less more jarring, and alas!

 

The loss of height is due to the decreased concentrations of proteoglycans, or proteins in the discs that draw in water through the process of osmosis.

 

Continual spinal loading considerably reduces proteoglycan synthesis rates, and we typically load our spines by sitting for hours and hours. Sitting not only forces fluid out of the discs, but also makes getting fresh fluid in more difficult. This is the reason our discs in the lumbar area thin the most as we grow older.  Diminished concentrations of proteoglycans is among the first indications of disc degeneration. It can lead to disc thinning at a single spinal level over time.

 

Disruption of the negative effects of spinal loading is among the benefits of daily decompression. However, the therapy's ability to revive height lost from disc degeneration has yet to be established.

 

Everyday, we lose about 20% of discal fluid because of two major factors - gravity's weighing down effect, and spine compression due to muscular activity. Small studies done on football players, whose heights were measured before and after a game, indicated that height loss due to spinal decompression from sugar land chiropractic can be recouped.

 

Sitting for a long time, our lumbar spines lose more fluid as intra-discal pressures around this part of the body are greater. Within the first two hours of sitting, which compresses our discs, about 10% of discal fluid will be squeezed out; with lumbar decompression, the fluid can be helped back in.

 

Research says fluid that is lost from too much spinal loading - when you carry a ten-kilo barbell, for instance - can be counteracted by lying on the back, legs folded at the knees. In addition, it was found that we lose more discal fluid when our backs are bent (kyphotic) position than when they're arched (lordotic).

 

While spinal decompression from sugar land acupuncture (traction) helps both acute and chronic conditions, it does so in different ways. In acute pain, the relief is provided by the muscles being gently stretched out of over-protective mode, in turn helping the fluid that has collected around joints to seep out. In chronic conditions, traction stretches the very strong fibrous mesh of the disc walls, allowing more fluid to be accommodated, and blocks disc breakdown.

 

 Finally, for the most important part, remember that discs are water-filled sacks. When you pull them apart, nutrient-rich fluid flows in, leading not only to prevention of disc generation but also enhancement of repair processes.