Can Spinal Decay/Degeneration Be Reversed?

Looks like I need to find another analogy. Thousands of chiropractors have used the "rust on a car doesn't make more paint" analogy when explaining spinal degeneration to patients- you leave rust on a car, and it makes more rust. You keep a degenerating vertebra in the same condition, it will degenerate further. But a new study on cadaver spines suggests this may only be half the story.


Scientists took spines of people who died in their 50's to 90's and asked whether the ostephytes (bone spurs) from T5-L4 were there to keep the vertebra from compressing on the discs, or an adaptation to restrict movement in a direction that had been damaged. They removed the osteophytes to run the tests again, and after analyzing the results came to some surprising conclusions. Removing the spurs made compressing the spines a little easier- about 17%, but being able to bend forward, backward, and side to side increased from 35-49%. Those vertebrae with the osteophytes also scored 7-9% lower on bone density tests, suggesting that the calcification was lightening the load on the spine by acting as a bony support for it.

The researchers wrote that, since the osteophytes were a signal that the body had reversed the process that lead to their formation, the calcification seemed to be more of an adaptation to instability in bending than a "wearing out." This subtle, important difference has major implications for chiropractic. For one, calling something an adaptation signals that the body is intelligently growing and protecting itself from further damage. It also suggests that if the conditions are changed, the adaptation will, too.

Watch how the spine Adapts(Reacts) to the Progression of Stress...

The Good News!

This is a more accurate way of describing what we see in practice- that some of the "degeneration" on an xray seems to disappear after a year (or sometimes less) of chiropractic care not because we're tapping into some Fountain of Youth, but because we're changing the adaptation to instability. As we teach the body's neurology what the new normal is and improve the spine's biomechanics, the vertebrae become more stable and find they need the adaptive osteophytes less and less. This is also a positive sign for chiropractic's role in osteoporosis. If a vertebrae with osteophytes have a lower bone density, then allowing the body to adapt without the extra calcification means that the vertebral body will gradually take on more load (up to 17%, apparently) and be forced to increase its density.

Al-Rawahi, Maimouna; Luo, Jin; Pollintine, Phillip; Dolan, Patricia; Adams, Michael A. (2011). "Mechanical Function of Vertebral Body Osteophytes, as Revealed by Experiments on Cadaveric Spines." Spine 36(10) pp. 770–777; doi: 10.1097/BRS.0b013e3181df1a70

Credit: The GuerrilaHealthReport