Thank you for reading along! Do you or a loved one suffer from numbness and pain in the neck and arms, or lower back and legs, and have been diagnosed with spinal stenosis? Millions suffer with this. This epidemic can be quite severe and compromise our ability to use our hands, as well as limit our ability to walk. This edition will help demystify this condition and offer solutions. As always, clicking ‘read online’ above will allow you to browse other topics we have covered. Please feel free to forward these newsletters to folks you think may benefit from the info.

Spinal Stenosis is like Clogging of Arteries

Stenosis simply means a blocking or closing up of an opening. The illustration above should be familiar to you. It demonstrates what happens to our arteries when they get clogged up with cholesterol plaques. It is a progressive condition that has been shown to us time and again by the medical profession as it relates to heart attack and stroke. This progressive closing up of the arteries in ‘arteriosclerosis’ is in fact, a form of stenosis.

This progressive narrowing of arteries is very much like what happens in the spine with spinal stenosis as the openings in vertebrae that the spinal cord runs through become smaller. The difference is in what makes up the clogs and what is being blocked. In the arteries the blockage is to blood flow. In spinal stenosis the blockage is against nerves and nerve transmission.

Your Spine Has a Canal

This canal tunnel in Venice is not such a bad metaphor for the canal in your spine. The roof of the tunnel would represent the bone of the vertebrae, the water would be ‘cerebrospinal fluid’, and the gondola—the spinal cord passing through. The bones in your spine have a big hole in the middle of them. These holes line up one atop the other to form a canal that runs from where the spine joins the skull all the way down to your ‘tailbone.’ This canal is filled with a clear liquid, again called cerebrospinal fluid, and the spinal cord runs down the length of the canal with this fluid surrounding it.

This ‘aerial’ view of two vertebrae shows a normal spinal canal on the left and the effect of spinal stenosis on the spinal canal on the right. Notice how the opening on the right is smaller.

MRI of the Neck

The image above is an MRI of the cervical spine (neck). We are looking at the anatomy in profile (side view). The spinal cord is the grey snakelike structure you see. The fluid filled spinal canal it runs through is bright white. Notice how this bright white fluid canal is larger than the cord. There is plenty of room for the cord demonstrated in this image.

This MRI view above shows us what spinal stenosis looks like. Look at the area in brackets. Notice how you do not see bright fluid surrounding the cord. See how narrow the canal is in his section compared to above and below. This individual would likely be sufferings with neck pain and numbness, and/or even weakness in the arms and hands—all cause by the pressure on the spinal cord and nerves in the narrowed region.

What Causes This?

Here’s a list:

• normal aging process in the elderly (can often be asymptomatic)

• Disc herniation/protrusion

• Boney and ligamentous hypertrophy (I’ll explain)

• Chronic Inflammation (there it is again!)

As we move into advanced age our spines implode a bit. The vertebrae become shorter and fatter, and simply stated, this causes them to take up space in the canal. If this happens gradually as a natural consequence of aging, it can be asymptomatic— without irritating the nerves and spinal cord, or producing pain and numbness.

Disc herniations and protrusions are a common cause of stenosis, and thankfully it may only be a short-term problem if the disc herniation is corrected. Below is a link to my edition devoted to disc herniations. This is a condition we can fix.

Boney and ligamentous hypertrophy are components of progressive degenerative joint disease of the spine, a wear-and-tear form of arthritis. This can be due to prolonged postural stress, or set off by an injury like whiplash from an auto accident. In this case both bone and ligamentous tissue surrounding the canal are breaking down from abnormal stress and spreading out in a way that narrows the canal. This is a more difficult situation to recover from if it is bad enough to be causing spinal cord pressure, pain, and numbness. We address this the same way we do with treating disc herniation—spinal adjustments, traction, ice, and with the addition of postural exercises to address what is causing the advanced wear and tear to begin with.

Chronic inflammation (CI) causes all of our body tissues to swell. A swelling of the tissues within the spinal canal will make the opening smaller. In many cases simply addressing CI will produce enough restored space to relieve the cord pressure. Here is a link to my edition on chronic inflammation:

On the Level - Making Space

Overcoming the pain and numbness of spinal stenosis is about making more space for the spinal cord and nerves. Some folks opt to attempt this surgically. This should never be done unless you have thoroughly exhausted all potential for improvement using methods like those described above. We are here to help. We’ve helped hundreds of folks recover from this.

Until next time,

Blessings to you!