A Deeper Dive into your Symptoms

Neck pain and back pain is on the rise in Maple Grove, MN. As a new patient or prospective patient you want to know two things, how can I help you and what does a plan of treatment for your care look like? There is another facet that eventually as you get through your initial visits as to how did things get so bad you live a healthy life, exercise, eat right how did symptoms get so bad? Lets take a deeper dive into how this happens.

There is a literal and physical connection between your back (the spine) and your brain (the nervous system). In fact, there are 7 locations where your back and brain are physically connected. It anchors your brain and spinal cord to ensure it is protected around the bony structure of your spine. Your brain is the most important organ in your body. Through sitting, poor posture, trauma and instability at a level or several levels of your spine the brain starts to receive signals of pain or you start experiencing other symptoms.

This your brain literally telling you "help me, something is wrong!"

Watch this on YouTube as Dr. Greg leads a New Patient Class: a deeper dive to your symptoms

What did we do, because we all did it at least once in our lives. Many people in Maple Grove are looking for pain relief solutions everyday. The moment we felt pain or symptoms we grabbed a pill and took it knowing we'll feel better in 20-30 minutes. Or we grabbed an ice pack and waited 15 minutes, knowing we'll feel better soon. But that's not how your body works.

In many cases when the brain receives a signal of pain or symptoms there is an associated damage and change to the spine. It starts and progresses like this.

1. One or multiple joints of your spine stops moving, or isn't moving right.
2. This alters and changes the associated nerve from sending and receiving signals to the brain. Scar tissue begins around the joint and nerve.
3. The corresponding muscle gets small and weak because it isn't getting the signal from the brain.
4. The connective tissue and the disc between each bone in your spine weakens and degenerates.
   

Spinal degeneration is the most common musculoskeletal disease, it is the leading cause of pain and disability. It is not associated with aging as we once thought. In fact, 1 in 3 teenagers have observable spinal degeneration on an x-ray. This prevalence increases with each decade and with the most current statistics 85% of 50 year olds have spinal degeneration.

However, when the disc degenerates and the joints of the spine degenerate the bone will drift backwards and press into the spinal cord. At this moment there will be consistent neurological symptoms and it can only be relieved through surgical intervention. I want to detect any degeneration in its earliest forms before it starts to change the bone. Once the bone changes, it can't be reversed.

Finally, you probably have symptoms because of the first 4 things. The joint isn't moving, the nerve isn't sending the signal, the muscle isn't working, connective tissue is weakening and the disc is degenerating. This is why as we progress through care I'm not going to release you when you feel good, because the initial start of your symptoms was with movement.

Your brain isn't asking to feel better, it's asking you to move better so it can function at a higher level.

Healing takes time, every adjustment builds off the next, show up to every appointment, make time in your schedule to put your health first.