What Causes Arthritis in the Spine?

hey Dr Alter your Del 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