Spine Specialist Near Me in Woodhine Heights, MO

Spine specialist near me in Woodhine Heights, MO. Spine injuries can make normal tasks like bending over difficult, and keep us from our best possible movement health. For athletes, back injuries can keep you from being at the top of their game. For breadwinners, it can impede your ability to put food on the table for your Woodhine Heights, MO family. For others, it can keep us from going on bike ride or playing with our children like we love doing. Physical therapists with a spine specialty can help you get back to what you love doing most. Through safe and proven exercises and treatment plans, Axes Physical Therapy can help you live your best life. If you’re ready to at long last move on from debilitating back pain, request an appointment with an Axes Woodhine Heights, MO spine specialist, or get in touch with the Axes location most convenient for you.

Missouri Revised Statute §334.506 requires a prescription for physical therapy. If you’re dealing with a recent injury or living with chronic pain, ask your doctor if physical therapy with a spine specialist in Woodhine Heights, MO can be safe and effective for you. In the meantime, come see us for one of Axes’ no-obligation injury screenings.

The Human Spine

The spine supports both our physical bodies, and how our bodies communicate. It begins at the base of your skull and ends at your pelvis. The spine is made up of:

Vertebrae

There are 33 vertebrae from the top to bottom of the spine, which are small bones that stack on top of each other to form the spinal canal. Every vertebra has a hole in the center to protect the spinal cord and its nerves. The vertebrae are grouped into five regions. There are:

• 7 vertebrae in the cervical region (your neck)
• 12 vertebrae in the thoracic region (your middle back)
• 5 vertebrae in the lumbar region (your lower back)
• 5 vertebrae in the sacrum region (the triangle shaped bone that connects to the hips)
• 4 vertebrae in the coccyx region (your tailbone)

The 24 vertebrae in the first 3 regions provide mobility; the others are fused into place.

Facet Joints

Each vertebra is connected to two facet joints which connect the bones to each other. They allow your back and neck to extend, bend, twist, and rotate. They are lined with cartilage and lubricated with synovial fluid, allowing healthy bones and joints to safely glide and slide during movement.

Intervertebral Discs

Discs are the circular cushions between the vertebrae that act as shock absorbers. There is one disc between each vertebra. Discs have a “gel-like” center known as the nucleus pulposus, which allows for mobility and absorption, and a tough, circular exterior called the annulus fibrosus that prevent the gel-like center from leaking out.

Spinal Cord

The spinal cord is made up of of nerves that travel through the vertebrae, extending from the brain to your lumbar region, where the nerves go into the lower part of your body. The spinal cord is protected by spinal fluid and a membrane called dura mater. The neural foramen are openings in the vertebrae where the nerves to go into other parts of the body. The spinal cord carries messages between our brain and other parts of our body.

Soft Tissue

The spine also has muscles, ligaments, and tendons. Ligaments connect vertebrae and holds them in the correct structure. Tendons attach muscles to the vertebrae, and the muscles are what powers the spine’s movement.

Living the lifestyle we want depends on all of these parts working together and functioning properly. Numerous different conditions can interfere with the spine and keep you from the activities you love most. When that happens, a spine specialist in Woodhine Heights, MO like Axes’ physical therapists can get you back to the lifestyle you desire.

What Conditions Can a Spine Specialist in Woodhine Heights, MO Treat Me For?

The American College of Physicians developed guidelines that include numerous physical therapy treatments for lower back pain and neck pain. Whether you’re living with chronic pain or recently suffered a work injury, Axes’ Woodhine Heights, MO spine specialists can help you live your best life. Some of the common conditions we help with in Woodhine Heights, MO are:

• Disc Injuries — Herniated discs and bulging discs can be due to either an injury or general degradation from aging. They put pressure on a nerve which can cause severe pain along your neck and back and limit strength. Degenerative disc disease occurs as a natural result of aging, and greatly decreases flexibility.
• Sciatica — Sciatica refers to a variety of conditions which irritate the sciatic nerve, which is our bodies’ longest nerves and begins in the lower spine. Symptoms include immense pain, weakness, and numbness from your buttocks all the way down to your foot.
• Spinal Stenosis — Stenosis occurs when the vertebral column is too small. Symptoms include pain, balance problems, and numbness or tingling in your hands or feet.
• Spinal Arthritis — Arthritis is the inflammation of the facet joints. It onsets as the cartilage between the joints wears down over time or from overuse. It can also be caused by autoimmune disorders. The term “arthritis” describes over a hundred conditions, most of which are possible in the spine.
• Axial Back Pain — Also known as nonspecific back pain, this refers to pain that doesn’t have a known, recognizable cause. Common causes are obesity or poor posture.

Physical therapy can also help with soft tissue injuries such as muscle strains.

Whatever condition is currently ailing you, our Woodhine Heights, MO spine specialists will work with you and your physician to come up with an evidence-backed treatment plan to get you back to the activities you love and a more comfortable life. While some conditions, like arthritis, won’t ever fully go away, physical therapy is an effective part of a comprehensive treatment plan that reduces pain and other symptoms and regains optimal mobility.

If you need surgery on your spine, we offer pre- and post-surgical rehab in Woodhine Heights, MO to help you be healthy for surgery and recovery quickly and safely.

Benefits of Working With a Physical Therapy Spine Specialist in Woodhine Heights, MO

Physical therapy is becoming an increasingly popular non-invasive treatment plan for a variety of musculoskeletal conditions. According to research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, physical therapy can get the same relief and results for some back pain as surgery, without the same recovery time or risk of adverse side-effects. Early intervention by a licensed Woodhine Heights, MO physical therapist has been demonstrated to reduce long-term opioid dependence.

A spine specialist like those at Axes Physical Therapy will be able to determine what is causing your pain or other issues, and create a treatment plan based on your injures, your age, and the lifestyle you wish to achieve or get back to. Through a variety of exercises and manual therapy, physical therapy can reduce pain, improve the function of your spine by increasing strength and flexibility, boost flexibility.

Physical Therapy for Spine Issues

Depending on your specific condition, your Woodhine Heights, MO spine specialist at Axes may implement some of the following practices to help get you back to the activities you love:

• Hands-On Care — Our Woodhine Heights, MO manual therapists are experts at using light pressures and stretches to decrease back pain due to spinal issues. Manual therapy we may use to treat you include:
  • Trigger point dry needling
  • Soft tissue mobilization
  • Joint mobilization and manipulation
  • Trigger point massage
• Guided Exercise — Safe exercises are crucial for helping you build up strength, flexibility, and balance. In addition to decreasing symptoms now, guided exercise will also help overall function and improve movement health. Exercises we might assign include:
  • Core stabilization
  • Postural retraining
  • Flexibility
  • Cardio conditioning
  • Strength training
  • Home exercise
• Injury Prevention — It’s incredibly frustrating to feel like you’ve gotten past an injury, only to suffer another injury in the future. We’ll educate you about your injury and how it affects your body’s function, so you’ll know how to protect your spine while being active. Injury prevention includes:
  • Patient education
  • Lifting education
  • Activity modification
  • Conditioning

Your treatment plan in Woodhine Heights, MO will be based not on just recovery or pain relief, but on getting you to optimal function and helping you stay there. Whatever your treatment plan includes, it will designed based on time-tested techniques.

Other conditions we help treat in Woodhine Heights, MO include:

• Neck Pain Treatment
• Physical Therapy Clinic
• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Treatment
• Sciatica Treatment
• Sports Medicine
• Hand Pain Physical Therapy
• Foot & Ankle Pain Treatment
• Hip Pain Treatment
• Plantar Fasciitis Treatment
• Stroke Rehabilitation

Count on Axes For Your Spine Specialist Near Me in Woodhine Heights, MO

Don’t allow a spine condition keep you from living the life you want. At Axes, our Woodhine Heights, MO spine specialists strive for positive patient outcomes. You didn’t decide to live with this condition, but you can choose to do something about it. For a licensed and experienced Woodhine Heights, MO spine specialist to treat you, schedule an evaluation with Axes Physical Therapy now or contact the location most convenient for you