Spinal Disease Pt 4

Over a longer period of time the disk starves and shrinks or thins. The thinning disk makes the connective tissue that spams across the disk and connects the vertebral bones above and bellow the disk to become loose. The brain interprets this slack in the connective tissue as instability and causes the muscles around the effected disk to tighten to create more stability. After a while, the body recognizes that keeping the muscles tight around the spine wastes a lot of energy. The body addresses this by laying down bone alone the plane of the unhealthy disk. This extra layer of bone creates a broader foundation for the unhealthy disk, thereby increasing stability. By using bone to create stability, the body can then stop relying on muscles, and wasting energy. It is estimated to take about seven years for the body to transition from muscle tension to laying down bone to stabilize an unhealthy spinal segment. While laying down this bone is more energy efficient, it does create other problems. Namely, the extra bone reduces the space for the spine and spinal nerves. This is called osteoarthritis or degenerative joint disease of the spine. As the space is reduced, a predictable series of events begins to happen. First, the range of motion of the joint is reduced, more bone around the joint means less space for the joint to move. Less movement means the disk starves faster, stimulating more bone deposits. As the bone deposits begin to move closer to the spine and spinal nerves, the first structure affected is the blood supply to the nerves. When we look at the anatomy of a nerve, the blood supply to the nerve wraps around the outside of the nerve. As the nerve begins to be compressed, it is the blood supply that is compromised first. The blood supply has two parts, the arteries, which carry fresh oxygen and nutrients to the nerve, and the veins when carries the waist away. Now the arteries have a muscular layer, when makes them more resistant to pressure. When pressure begins to build around the nerve, the veins are the first to suffer. This causes blood, and waste to build up in and around the nerve, particularly in areas farther away from the heart, like the hands and feet. This subtle reduction in circulation begins to start the process of nerve disease. The nerves require lots of oxygen and nutrients, and nerves have a relatively low tolerance for waste. As the circulation is compromised so is the health of the nervous system.