Cervical spinal stenosis is the narrowing of the spinal canal, mainly affecting adults in their 50’s and 60’s as the most common cause of cervical spinal stenosis is degeneration due to aging. Cervical spinal stenosis can also be caused by injury, lifestyle habits such as poor posture, abnormal bone growth, and tumors.
How Dangerous is Cervical Spinal Stenosis?
Cervical spinal stenosis can become dangerous if left untreated and can cause serious problems with the nervous system. As the narrowing occurs in the spine, your spinal cord and nerves may become compressed causing many symptoms to occur. While the symptoms can range from being uncomfortable to painful, cervical spinal stenosis can be doing more damage than you think.
The compression of the nerves and cord in the cervical spine could change how the spinal cord functions and lead it to become stiff or weak in the neck area. As this pressure changes your spinal cord functions, it can affect how a person controls their bladder and bowels as well as have permanent loss of strength and feeling in their legs, arms, hands, and chest.
In addition to your spinal cord not functioning properly, it makes it more difficult for your body to fight off disease and repair itself from injury and cervical spinal stenosis can become crippling if the spinal cord is damaged.
The upper cervical area of your spine protects your brain stem and when cervical spinal stenosis causes narrowing in this area, there can be disruption of the brain to body communication as pressure is placed on the brain stem.
The brain stem oversees the control of your basic body functions: breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, consciousness, swallowing, and if you are awake or sleepy. The stress placed on the brain stem causes many complications to occur all throughout the body and cervical spinal stenosis can put a lot of pressure on your brain stem.
Severe cases of cervical spinal stenosis can lead to paralysis and the spinal cord connects the body’s peripheral nervous system to the brain where it receives information on if something is wrong in the body and how to react to it.
If your brain stem is disrupted, there is a chance your body can end up attacking itself as signals become distorted when sent back and forth from the brain to the body: This being said, cervical spinal stenosis can be dangerous to your body’s health.
What Type of Surgery Is Done for Cervical Spinal Stenosis?
The following surgeries are common treatments for cervical spinal stenosis:
Laminectomy – Also known as decompression surgery, this treatment removes the back part of the affected vertebra to reduce pressure on the nerves by increasing the amount of space around them.
Laminotomy – Laminotomy relieves pressure on a particular spot usually by carving a hole to remove a portion of the lamina.
Laminoplasty – This procedure for cervical spinal stenosis uses a hinge on the lamina to create space within the spinal canal and is only done on the cervical part, neck area, of the spine.
Minimally Invasive Surgery – An invasive surgery that removes bone or lamina to reduce damage to healthy surrounding tissue.
Please note that all surgery comes with risks and natural treatment should be considered first.
Can Cervical Spinal Stenosis Cause Death?
Due to the tightening or narrowing canal of the spine, cervical spinal stenosis can cause many problems for the body and if it becomes severe and left untreated, it can lead to permanent nerve damage – including paralysis and death. Spinal health is extremely important, and if you believe you or a loved one has signs of cervical spinal stenosis it is best to get a professional opinion to be safe.
Is Cervical Spinal Stenosis Progressive?
Cervical spinal stenosis does not always get worse or cause progressive symptoms. There are cases in which patients will have mild stenosis and never encounter symptoms associated with it or have symptoms that do not become bothersome enough for them to seek treatment.
Although symptoms may not be bothersome, spinal health is extremely important for the body as it can affect your bodily functions and nerves. If you feel you have signs of cervical spinal stenosis, there is a natural treatment that can help and is safe for any age – read below on how your cervical spinal stenosis can get better.
Does Cervical Spinal Stenosis Get Better?
Cervical spinal stenosis cannot get better without effective treatment. As surgery does not work for everyone and does not guarantee an improvement in one’s current state, many may feel they have to rely on medication to help live with the symptoms they encounter. However, there is an all-natural treatment that has shown great results for cervical spinal stenosis.
Upper cervical adjustments help correct misalignments within the upper cervical spine (neck area) and release pressure off your brain stem without surgery. Unlike general chiropractic, upper cervical chiropractors focus on the upper cervical area and study how small changes affect the brain stem and your body’s health.
Using extremely precise and gentle pressure, upper cervical chiropractors can realign and, in return, have your brain stem released from the pressure to allow the proper brain to body communication.
When corrections are made, the signals traveling through the brain stem begin to improve right away – allowing the body to begin repairing and healing itself now that communication is no longer disrupted. Because of this, many patients have noticed improvements to their conditions in as little as one adjustment even after surgery.
Can Cervical Spinal Stenosis Go Away?
Each case varies with each patient. By using upper cervical adjustments, patients have reported relief that was not possible with surgery. For those wanting the best chance in having relief from cervical spinal stenosis, a natural treatment that allows the body to have the ability to target the underlying cause can be very beneficial – to the overall health of your body and to finding relief.
Upper cervical adjustments correct the top two bones of the spine, upper cervical area, and once these two bones are aligned, the rest of your spine naturally follows. This means when one of these top two bones are out of alignment, the rest of the spine can develop misalignments as well.
The purpose of upper cervical adjustments is to ensure your brain stem is healthy and provides proper brain to body communication. Unlike medication and surgery where each is based on targeting symptoms, a patient has, upper cervical adjustments allow the body to naturally target the underlying cause of each symptom a patient is having.
Over time, fewer adjustments are made as the patient’s upper cervical area becomes strong enough to hold the correction.
If you are looking for a treatment that can provide the best outcome of relieving you or a loved one from cervical spinal stenosis, an upper cervical treatment should be considered as it lets the body heal and repair itself by targeting the underlying cause of damage without the risks or side effects that come with medication and surgery.