What Causes Spinal Arthritis?

hey Dr Alter your Delray Beach

chiropractor people all the time want to

try to understand what’s really going on

with arthritis in the spine that people

hear all the time I have arthritis in

the spine I have degenerative joint

disease or degenerative dis disease or

even stenosis which is a narrowing so I

want to explain to you what’s really

happening what causes it and what you

can do to prevent it okay so here is our

spine okay two Verte and a disc and if

you look close up you’ve got a vertebrae

you’ve got a disc you’ve got another

vertebrae and you have a nerve and you

have this hole here where the nerve

comes out the key is that hole the nerve

is coming out through a hole and we want

the most amount of space there and what

can happen is this vertebrae can

shift and start to get stuck right here

instead of being up on top of that disc

it can start to shift back and get stuck

and wind up being fixated and not mobile

and not move correctly like a hinge on a

door that’s not lined up properly and

when that happens there’s something

called imbibition where the vertebrae

pumps like this this is what happens

with a good spine that disc is getting

pumped and when the vertebrae shifts

back and gets stuck that pumping slows

down or stops and it starts the

degenerative processes it starts the

breakdown of the spine it starts the the

wear and tear in the arthritis it would

be similar to having a piece of food

caught in your tooth and it starts to

kind of create a cavity and what it will

look

like is the vertebrae will wind up like

this over time and you can see all this

new bone these big Spurs all chewed up

the disc is collapsed and crushed that

hole where the nerve comes out is really

jammed up and pinched and we wind up

with a big giant mess so that is

degenerative joint disease degenerative

disc disease arthritis of the spine and

why did that happen it happened from a

mechanical problem the vertebrae shifted

and got stuck so what do you do about

that how do you stop that well the

Chiropractic adjustment the whole

purpose of the Chiropractic adjustment

is to take the vertebrae from here and

work work work work this vertebrae

forward and flush so the nerve is open

but in this context what we’re talking

about to get the vertebrae back on there

so this pumping action is restored and

it stops and arrests the breakdown in

the degenerative process we also have

what’s called spinal decompression which

will pull the vertebrae apart again

trying to restore normal mechanics and

get that vertebrae and that disc pumping

to prevent the arthritic process so

there’s a mechanical thing that goes on

that needs to be corrected Ed

mechanically to stop or arrest the

process okay it’s best to start taking

care of your spine when you’re young

because once it winds up a big mess you

can’t go backwards you can slow it down

but you can’t reverse it so we want to

keep the spine good and how do you do

that well with good Chiropractic Care

along with spinal decompression here in

Del we offer both we want to be a

resource we’re here to help and make

sure that everyone in this area

understands what they can do to keep

themsel in as good shape possible and we

want to make sure that you’re always

feeling your best