The Health Benefits of Adjustable Beds

spinal stenosis

If you want a fast and easy way to improve the quality of your sleep, then you might want to consider buying one of the many adjustable beds on the market. This type of bed is mechanically operated, wherein one can either lower down or raise the foot or head portion of the bed, and has been around since the Middle Ages in order to provide more comfort for patients. However, with the passage of time, this bed is no longer exclusive to those who are disabled or of old age.

With the advent of technology, manufacturers have improved the overall look and design, easiness of operation, and quality of this bed. Options have also been added, such as having one that has built-in heat and massage stimulators in the bed; add to the fact that you can recline it at will. People can now feel a bit of luxury in their lives or simply have an option other than that of a flat bed, at a price that is now affordable.

There are a lot of medical benefits that this bed type offers. In fact, the federal Food and Drug Administration, FDA, has acknowledged that although it is not a proven medical cure; still, this bed type aids in treating a number of medical afflictions and illnesses, as it provides ample support and comfort. Healthcare and medical professionals have maintained that patients who are confined to the bed in a certain position can help in the care of the patient.

Below are a few instances of such conditions and how this kind of bed can help:

* Acid reflux disease. This is a symptom wherein acid, supposedly from the stomach, goes up to the esophagus. This leads to increased risks of heart burn. Aside from drugs, if one sleeps with their head being somewhat elevated, it can help keep the acid in the stomach where it should be.

* Degenerative spondylolisthesis. By sleeping in a position that is reclining with added support under the knees, this can alleviate lower back pain.

* Spinal stenosis. For those experiencing this, it is advised that their sleeping position be that of a reclining position. This is because this imitates the action of being bent forward, which is more relaxing for them than if they were to be laying or standing up straight.

* Osteoarthritis. The bed helps minimize compression on the joints by giving better support. Thus, those suffering from this ailment will experience less soreness and stiffness of the spine and joints when waking up the next day.

With the wide array of options of specialty adjustable beds, it is important that you do some research before deciding which one is best for you. By doing so you are assured of a better nights' rest as well as the comfort and luxury you deserve.

Three Options to Avoid Surgery With Spinal Stenosis

spinal stenosis

Hundreds of thousands of back surgeries are performed every year in the US. However, if you struggle with Spinal Stenosis, you may find relief and avoid surgery.

Spinal stenosis usually occurs after the age of 50. It is a narrowing of areas in the lumbar (back) or cervical (neck) spine, which causes pressure on the spinal cord or one of more of the spinal nerves. This can cause the pain you may be experiencing.

Spinal stenosis may be caused by:

* Arthritis involving the spine, usually in middle-aged or elderly people

* Herniated slipped disc

* Injury that causes pressure on the nerve roots or the spinal cord itself

* Defect in the spine that was present at birth (congenital defect)

* Tumors in the spine

The narrowing of the spinal canal can result in a number of symptoms. However, patients begin to experience problems when inflammation of the nerves occurs at levels of increased pressure.

Often, symptoms will gradually worsen over time. The symptoms can include:

* Numbness, tingling, cramping, or pain in the back, buttocks, thighs, or calves, or in the neck, shoulders, or arms

* Weakness of a portion of a leg or arm

Symptoms are more likely to be present or get worse when you stand or walk upright. They will often lessen or disappear when you sit down or lean forward. Most people with spinal stenosis cannot walk for a long periods of time.

More serious symptoms include:

* Difficulty or imbalance when walking

* Problems controlling urine or bowel movements

The diagnosis begins with a thorough medical history, and physical examination, with diagnostic testing including, x-rays, MRI and / or CT Scans to identify the source of pain.

Spinal stenosis responds well to non-surgical treatment.

Pain can be relieved with various medications depending upon your symptoms. Often narcotics are not prescribed to treat the pain from spinal stenosis.

An individualized physical therapy program can be very helpful. Physical therapy can help patients to learn how to take care of their back and how to manage recurrent episodes of back pain, thereby reducing the need for medications in most cases. In physical therapy, the muscles of the abdomen, back and legs are strengthened which helps in reduce the symptoms of nerve compression. Education on proper posture and body mechanics are an essential part of this process, thereby helping to avoid surgery.

When pain is not relieved by medications or physical therapy, an epidural steroid injection (ESI) can be performed under fluoroscopy for symptomatic relief. Fluoroscopic or x-ray guidance is the current standard of care with epidural steroid injections. Multiple studies have shown that improper placement can occur up to 34% of the time outside the epidural space when fluoroscopy is not utilized.

An epidural can help to further reduce pain and inflammation by reducing compression on the nerves. Usually you will notice a difference within 48 to 72 hours.

If the pain is persistent and does not respond to non-surgical measures, surgery may be necessary as an attempt to improve your quality of life. This is an elective procedure.

However, if spinal stenosis is causing a worsening neurologic deficit such as a foot drop, surgery may be indicated and not elective. In rare cases, some patients experience problems controlling urine or bowel movements due to stenosis. If you find yourself in this position, you should undergo a surgical evaluation.

With severe cases of stenosis, surgery can be performed. The goal of the surgery is to relieve pressure on the spinal cord or spinal nerve by widening the spinal canal or the foraminal canal. This is done by removing, trimming, or realigning the abnormal anatomy that is causing the compression of the nerves.

Surgery in spinal stenosis can be avoided and the pain can be eliminated!

Medications, physical therapy and epidural injections are viable non-surgical options for treating spinal stenosis.

Ask your doctor if you are a candidate for a non-surgical treatment to relieve your pain from spinal stenosis.

穢2011Winifred D Bragg, MD. All Rights Reserved.

Primary Causes of Lower Back Pain

spinal stenosis

For any person trying to learn the causes of lower back pain, it is important to recognize first that it is not a condition but rather a sign of irregularities in the muscles, ligaments, and nerves in the lower area of the back and possible diseases found in that specific area, like the kidneys.

Lower back pain is commonly one-sided; depending upon the pinched nerve root, it may occur on the left side or the right side.

Because many conditions could generate the pain, cited here are the primary causes of lower back pain:

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  Poor form, particularly when carrying large items (the mere act of carrying an object bigger than your body weight could cause lower back pain). Sitting for a long-period of time with arch back can also cause pain on your lower back.? If you work 8 hours a day in work office, sitting the whole time is inevitable. Take a break, stand up and stretch your back at least every three hours, and make sure that you are sitting up straight.? Bad sitting posture can't be corrected by trying harder, you need to stop sitting badly and let your body resume its natural posture.


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  Stress and fractures.


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  Non-specific anxiety or sprain of the back muscles, ligaments and soft tissues.


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  Physical factors such as disc degeneration in spondylosis, stenosis of the spine, disc herniation, spinal abnormalities such as scoliosis, and leg length discrepancy (one leg is shorter than the other)


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  Inflammation related illnesses, such as rheumatoid arthritis and spondylitis.


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  Infections, like osteomyelitis, epidural abscess and Post-herpetic neuralgia, bring about nerve irritation.


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  Metabolic problems, such as osteoporosis and osteomalacia.


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  Cancers of the bone and spine that would constrict upon the nerves.


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  Related soreness, such as in kidney disease and prostate cancer.


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  Pinched nerve, which is appropriately called as nerve root impingement (direct irritation on a nerve) or nerve root syndromes, such as sciatica and cauda equina syndrome.


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  Standard pregnancy (the rising weight and the strain of lugging a child causes strain on the lower part area of the back, nerve irritation, and elongating of pelvic ligaments).


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  Bone and joint pain syndromes, such as fibromyalgia (described by generalized ache, tenderness, rigidity and fatigue) and myofascial pain (with pain and tenderness experienced in localized areas referred to as "trigger points", which observe the dermatomal or radiating pattern of a peripheral nerve).

Depression has also been mentioned as one of the causes of lower back pain. However, reports on patients suffering from the pain and making use of anti-depressants as remedy have generated inconclusive outcomes.

Dealing With Spine and Neck Problems

spinal stenosis

Your spine runs from the base of your neck all the way down to your torso. There are different levels of what we call vertebrae. These are cervical, thoracic, lumbar, and sacral vertebrae. All of them work together to withstand the daily stresses of everyday life.

It is extremely important to know that whatever you are doing whether you are working out, doing household chores, doing your 8-5 job, or even taking care of your kids, you always need to be aware of your proper body mechanics.

There are some common spinal dysfunctions that 80 percent of American populations are experiencing:

1) Herniated Cervical Discs - Since it is located in your neck region, you will feel extreme pain, weakness, tingling or even numbness in your arms and in very rare cases, in your legs. What happens here is that as your cervical discs lose its fluid, they lose the cushioning ability. In some extreme cases, the disc is displaced causing it to come in contact with your nerves and spinal cord. This is commonly referred to as ruptured disc.

2) Sciatica - This condition affects your sciatic nerve causing a sharp pain from your buttocks to your knees. This is caused by pressure more commonly from herniated lumbar disc. The pain you are experiencing is mostly accompanied by burning, weakness, or tingling and usually affects only one side of your body.

3) Spinal Stenosis - This is the narrowing of your spinal column pinching your spinal cord and nerves. This result to back pain and sometimes leg pain. Spinal stenosis is caused by heredity, your age, and some changes in your body. The resulting pain also compromises your leg muscles, its strength and sensation.

4) Scoliosis - This is a curvature of your spine and often surgery is required if not treated early. Tight muscles are very common to patients with scoliosis so the main focus here is to do flexibility exercises targeting tight muscles.

5) Post surgical Issues - Back surgery patients often encounter several issues including but not limited to reduced flexibility, functional changes, and sensitivity to pain, decreased endurance, postural changes as well as poor body mechanics. After back surgery, it is necessary to focus on increasing flexibility, muscle strength as well as increasing your endurance and coordination.

Some common treatments are exercises targeting specific muscle groups, core body stabilization, pain control with the use of ice heat, and massage. Proper posture and good body mechanics should also be stressed. Your spine is not indestructible and constant pounding and pressure from day to day activities requires more attention to what is helping you perform your daily activities.

How to Tell If You Have a Herniated Disc

spinal stenosis

You wanted to move the television in your living room to the master bedroom upstairs in order to make space for the larger widescreen coming tomorrow. The TV is pretty big, but nothing you can't handle. So, you wrap your arms around it and lift. Going up the stairs, you sense a sharp pain in your back.

That quick shot up your spine is the last thing you wanted to feel. Back injuries can be an extraordinarily painful experience, and sometimes require major surgery. However, at times it is difficult to distinguish between a serious injury like a ruptured or herniated disc and a strain or pulled muscle in your back. Over time, and with a trip to the doctor, you will know. However, there are a few immediate signs that let you know you are dealing with something more than a short-term injury.

• A combination of back and leg pain.This may include numbness, tingling and weakness along the compressed nerve. The back pain will typically shift to one of your legs after a few days. The burning sensation, or electric shock as it is sometimes called, will follow the nerve from the lower back and down the back of the thigh and into the calf or foot. This pain is called sciatica, for the sciatic nerve that runs through this area.


• Abnormal sensations.Along the pinched nerve, you may experience numbness or a "pins and needles" feeling, or just a pain you don't typically feel. Any abnormalities along the nerve are an indicator of a disc injury.


• Atrophy.This term is used when muscles become smaller because of lack of use. If your muscles feel weak, it may be that the normal signals from the brain to the spinal cord and thus to your muscles are not being processed through your nerves.


• Bladder and bowel functions. Only in the most severe and rare situations will your bladder and bowel functions be affected. The nerves that pass through this area of the lower back are well protected; however, if this does occur, immediate treatment, which may include surgery, is necessary.

You should proceed with caution when dealing with back pain, as it can lead to serious damage. Remembering these signs will help you to better distinguish between severe soreness and a herniated disc. If you are in doubt, it is always best to check with an orthopedist.

Symptoms of Back Surgery Injury

spinal stenosis

Any type of bodily injury can be quite debilitating, but one of the worst types of injuries that can happen to you are back injuries. This is one of the worst types of injuries because your back helps to control so much of your movement in you body. When injuring your back depending on the severity of the injury you can face anything from a mild inconvenience with pain during movement to paralysis. There are many different types of treatments for back injuries depending on the type of injury and the location in the back most common is rest and heat or ice. However if pain persists especially disc pain such as a ruptured disc, bulging disc or a herniated disc back surgery may be inevitable.

There are many back surgeons and back specialists out there to help you seek the answer to your back ailments. Some people prefer to see a chiropractor however before making that decision on your own it is recommend to see a back specialist for advice first as sometimes seeing a chiropractor is not the right answer to help you heal. If you are in need of back surgery it is most common that there are nerves being pinched in your spinal column. Lower back surgery is more common than upper back surgery. The usually reason for back pain surgery is to remove a part of a disc, or replace the disc completely to relieve the pressure on the spine. While there are laser back surgery techniques most surgeons prefer to use other techniques as laser surgery is not as well proven to help control the pain as other surgical procedures have been.

Spinal stenosis is the condition in which the spinal column becomes narrow causing increased pressure on the spinal cord or nerves in the spine. There are two common types which are lumbar spinal stenosis which is when this problem occurs in the back, and cervical spinal stenosis which is when the problem occurs in the neck. Symptoms are numbness in the back, butt, legs, shoulders, or arms and weakness in the limbs. This first type of treatment for this is rest and trying to avoid repeat episodes of back pain. Medications, physical therapy, and certain lifestyle changes may help control the pain and limit the need for surgical assistance. However if none of these options seem to help spinal stenosis surgery is the next option. The surgery will be done on the site of the narrowing and will help to relieve the pressure of the obstruction.

Back surgeries can be one of the toughest surgeries to heal from as your back helps to support your weight when standing and controls so much of your movements. After back surgery expect to be hospitalized for several days or weeks after the surgery, and the pain may become much greater right after the surgery. It can take anywhere from about 6 weeks to over a year to completely heal after surgery. Physically therapy and rehabilitation will be required for a few weeks as you will need to learn how to sit, stand, and walk to keep your spine aligned properly. The best thing to do after your surgery is to take your time to heal. Do not rush yourself as this may damage your spine further and reverse the entire point of the surgery in the first place. Let your body heal. Listen to all doctor recommendations, and do not rush into anything.

Non-Surgical Decompression Options For Spinal Stenosis and Pinched Nerves

spinal stenosis

What is spinal decompression therapy and how can it help you?

Perhaps before we discuss spinal decompression therapy we should take a brief moment to talk about who might benefit from this treatment and why. As the name implies spinal decompression therapy is a treatment for spinal problems that are associated with pressure or compression. There are a number of different spinal ailments that are the result of compression of the nerves exiting the spine. The most common are slipped discs, spinal stenosis, sciatica and pinched nerves.

While the exact mechanisms of these various conditions are different they all ultimately involve pressure on or compression of the spinal nerve roots. There are surgical techniques of spinal decompression, but this article will focus on non-surgical methods available to decompress the spine. Many times these non-surgical techniques can reduce or eliminate the need for surgery. Several studies suggest that the techniques that we are about to be discuss may reduce the need for back surgery from 47 to 60 percent. So in theory more widespread use of non-surgical spinal decompression strategies could effectively eliminate the need for about one in every two spine surgery procedures. That is really great news for folks suffering from pinched spinal nerves regardless of the cause of the compression.

So how does it all work? The basic concept is really quite simple. A nerve exiting the spine gets compressed by a bad disc, spinal stenosis of spondylosis, a fancy name for spinal arthritis. Pressure on the nerve causes it to become inflamed and chemical changes occur in the nerve which makes it hyper-excitable. The result is pain, lots of it and also numbness and even weakness in the muscle of the lower back, hip and leg. Depending on the nature of the nerve compression and the amount of chemical changes that occur in each patient's compressed nerve, the signs and symptoms will vary from patient-to-patient. The important thing to remember is that the first job is to decompress the nerve. Then the inflammation and chemical changes need to be addressed for the body to heal properly.

Step one: Take the pressure off the spinal nerve to stop ongoing nerve damage. There are a number of ways to take the pressure off a pinched nerve. The general term for this is called spinal decompression; in truth we should really call it spinal nerve decompression therapy. Because it is more accurate to say we decompress the spinal nerve than to state we decompress the spine. So how do we decompress the spinal nerves? The answer is straight forward. Apply traction. Spinal traction has been used to treat back pain from nerve compression for thousands of years.

The most important question is how to most efficiently apply traction to the spine to effectively decompress the spinal nerves? There are a number of ways.

You probably can remember seeing pictures of patients strung up in harnesses with pulleys and weights. This old style of traction has been dismissed as ineffective, probably because it was inefficient in truly separating the vertebrae and causing decompression of the spinal nerve roots.

Then there are some home-based methods of spinal decompression. The two most popular ones are inversion machines that turn you upside down and cause gravity to distract the spine rather than compress it and the large exercise balls that can be used to elongate the spine through exercise. Both have pros and cons and for our discussion these should be relegated to follow-up home use after a course of true medical spinal decompression therapy.

That leaves two competing professional technologies to provide spinal decompression therapy in a medical setting. One therapy is called Spinal Decompression Therapy. It consists of a traction-like table and uses computerized sensors to monitor muscle contraction. This is important because when you start to administer traction to the spine a reflex occurs in the back muscles that resists the decompressive force. This is called the muscle stretch reflex. So this monitoring of the muscle stretch reflex is important to provide effective force to decompress the spine and pinched nerves. The Spinal Decompression Equipment times the traction with the relaxation of the muscles. Without considering this reflex muscle contraction the force used to decompress the spine will only be placing traction on the spinal muscles and not truly decompressing the pinched nerve.

In fact some scientists believe that old school traction failed to produce excellent results because they could not overcome the reflex muscle contraction hat occurs when you stretch the spinal muscles. If this was the case then traditional traction devices were limited to stretching back muscles and did very little to decompress the spine nerves. Modern Spinal Decompression equipment seems to have overcome this obstacle to true spinal nerve decompression.

An alternative to Spinal Decompression Treatment Tables is a technique called Flexion-Distraction Therapy. Flexion Distraction Therapy is unique because it is one of the only forms of decompression that treats the patient while he/she is face down. This is important for a couple of reasons.

We just talked about the muscle stretch reflex in the spinal muscles that makes them contract and resist decompression of the spine. There are many more reflexes associated with muscles. Another important reflex is called the agonist-antagonist reflex. Simply put, this is a reflex that causes the back muscle to relax when the stomach muscles are shortened. This reflex may be one of the reasons why Flexion Distraction Therapy can have profound effects on pinched spinal nerves.

While the patient is face down on the table, the Flexion Distraction Table flexes slightly. This has the effect of shortening the stomach muscles and causing a reflex relaxation of the back muscles. By slightly flexing the spine before applying the traction, the Flexion Distraction Therapy abolishes or greatly reduces the muscle stretch reflex in the back muscles. So once the spine is slightly flexed, resistance to traction of the back muscles is minimized and the spinal nerves can be effectively decompressed. Another advantage of Flexion Distraction Therapy is that the flexion movement of the table mechanically opens up the canal where most spinal nerve compression occurs.

So the properties of Flexion Distraction Therapy that make is ideal for spinal decompression is that by the nature of the procedure, back muscle relaxation and resistance to distraction are eliminated and the area of maximum nerve compression is mechanically enlarged all of which adds to effectiveness of spinal nerve root decompression.

Both Spinal Decompression technology and Flexion Distraction Technology for the non-surgical decompression of spinal nerve roots can be highly effective in reducing the pain and other symptoms associated with spinal nerve root compression. They are usually administered with additional therapies which are designed to reduce nerve inflammation and restore proper nerve chemistry. Either are worth looking into before considering surgery to decompress pinched spinal nerves.

Research supports the effectiveness of both of these competing techniques for the non-surgical decompression of spinal nerve roots.