Spinal Compression & How We Help

Hi, my name is Dr. Jacob Hendendrickson.
0:022 secondsI’m the owner and chiropractor at Crystal Grove Chiropractic in Loots,
0:066 secondsFlorida. And I wanted to take a few minutes to explain what spinal compression is or just compression on
0:1414 secondsyour body in general. Because compressive forces on the spine are generally what end up leading to neck
0:2222 secondspain, back pain, sciatic symptoms like nerve pain down your legs or your arms.
0:2727 secondsAnd then a large thing that I see in the office, tension headaches, chronic migraines that can lead to neurological issues. So we’ll start by explaining
0:3535 secondslike how this works. As humans, we stand on two feet. So our spine is upright and
0:4242 secondsthere are discs in the spine that act as shock absorbers. So this here is a nice
0:4949 secondsmodel of a piece of the spine. We have our vertebra vertebra, the disc that acts as a shock absorber. You have your spinal cord that comes out and it turns
0:5757 secondsinto these nerves that go down to your arms, legs and they also go to like all your vital organs that controls everything. Uh the spine protects your central nervous system which is the
1:061 minute, 6 secondsspinal cord and then turns into the peripheral nervous system. Now what spinal compression is literally gravity pulling down on your spine and squishing
1:151 minute, 15 secondsit. So because we stand on two feet and our spine is upright, gravity pulls us down naturally. Now what ends up
1:231 minute, 23 secondshappening why a lot of people get neck or back pain or nerve symptoms that go down their arms or legs or they get these headaches and migraines is because
1:301 minute, 30 secondsof increased compressive forces on their spine. This would increase compressive forces would be bad posture because if
1:391 minute, 39 secondsour spine is designed to be in a certain curvature and then we have this bad posture and we’re essentially putting our body out of the proper position that
1:471 minute, 47 secondsit’s supposed to be in and then gravity’s pulling us down. We’re going to increase the compressive forces on
1:541 minute, 54 secondsthe spine. And it’s not only the spine that these compressive forces are happening. It’s happening on all of your joints, all of your muscles, all of your
2:022 minutes, 2 secondstissue in general. But we talk a lot about the spine as chiropractors. Now,
2:062 minutes, 6 secondsthis is a crudder model than the one I showed you before, but it’s more animated, so it’s easier to understand.
2:122 minutes, 12 secondsIt’s squishier. So, when we get compressive compressive forces, and this is uh going to be a slight um
2:192 minutes, 19 secondsexaggeration to an extent is the disc gets squished like that. And then what can happen as you probably just saw we
2:262 minutes, 26 secondscan get a disc bulge that puts pressure on that nerve causing the sciatic symptoms or numbness and tingling. Now this is almost a more or this is a more
2:352 minutes, 35 secondsaccurate representation but we get pressure compressive forces and then we get that bulge right there. This is not
2:432 minutes, 43 secondsas animated of a spinal model but it can show you what happens. Now um a lot of
2:502 minutes, 50 secondsthe compression that happens can also lead to advanced degenerative changes.
2:562 minutes, 56 secondsAdvanced degenerative changes is osteoarthritis or um also osteopenia or
3:043 minutes, 4 secondsosteoporosis can be exacerbated by the compression.
3:083 minutes, 8 secondsNow, we will naturally over time as we get older just from essentially being alive and the natural compressive forces
3:153 minutes, 15 secondson our body will begin to lead to um degeneration or what some people may call arthritis uh in the joints,
3:223 minutes, 22 secondsdegenerative disc disease, degenerative joint disease. However, when you have this um increased compressive forces due
3:303 minutes, 30 secondsto bad posture or simply just like a fall or motor vehicle collision like a car crash or things that take a toll and
3:373 minutes, 37 secondsbeat up your body over time that add compression and put you in a bad position or you get like you develop a
3:453 minutes, 45 secondsnew pattern where maybe you like walk a certain way cuz your leg is hurt and then that compresses you into the socket, your hip socket. But the
3:533 minutes, 53 secondscompressive forces will cause advanced arthritis or degeneration. We have a healthy vertebrae disc. We have phase
4:034 minutes, 3 secondsone deterioration where we’re just getting the compression uh that’s uh affecting the disc. As you can see, it’s getting thinner. As we look at the top,
4:114 minutes, 11 secondsnice and healthy, starting to get pink.
4:144 minutes, 14 secondsAnd then we start to develop into phase two, which you can start to get this advanced arthritis, phase two arthritis.
4:224 minutes, 22 secondsand o almost any age essentially. But this isn’t something that you should see in someone until like maybe advanced uh farther in life like more elderly. But
4:304 minutes, 30 secondsyou start to get the arthritis in the joints and notice how they don’t look the vertebrae don’t look as good and you
4:384 minutes, 38 secondscan get this disc bulging happening. And then we can get even more advanced arthritis. Look how
4:464 minutes, 46 secondsbad that is. And you notice all the nerves are a lot smaller because they’re literally being squished. So what happens with compression? Why this is
4:554 minutes, 55 secondssuch a big deal is as we look at this joint, there’s a lot of space here. I’ll use this one instead. There’s a lot of
5:025 minutes, 2 secondsspace in the facet joints. Things can move very easily. It can move and bend,
5:085 minutes, 8 secondsright? And if it decompresses, there’s a lot of extra space. But why you get stiff because of the compression is
5:155 minutes, 15 secondsbecause you literally start to lose joint space. So as we look at this phase two, notice how there’s not as much joint space. It can’t move as well,
5:245 minutes, 24 secondsright? But if we decompress it, it opens up the joint space. We create more joint space. And even though there’s arthritis
5:325 minutes, 32 secondsformed, it can move better. Um, which it’s literally not grinding on itself as much. So I hope that helps. But I wanted
5:415 minutes, 41 secondsto take a moment to explain compression more on the spine and how that can affect you. Now, in another video, I’ll
5:495 minutes, 49 secondsexplain what we can do to treat someone who’s having neck pain, back pain, headaches, migraines, nerve symptoms,
5:575 minutes, 57 secondsall those sorts of things as chiropractors in the office to decrease compression.