Can Spinal Stenosis Be Reversed?

If you regularly experience neck or back pain, know you’re not alone. These issues are common among adults in the United States and often relate to structural problems in or around your spine. Your spine contains many sensitive nerves, vertebral bones, spinal discs, and complex joints. When structural issues occur around your spine, symptoms like persistent pain let you know.

One of the structural issues that can occur with your spine is known as spinal stenosis. In this condition, the spinal canal that holds your spinal nerves and other structures narrows. Pinched nerves often result in ongoing back pain and physical difficulty.

Board-certified neurosurgeon Dr. Beejal Y. Amin evaluates your symptoms and your spinal condition. If you have spinal stenosis, Dr. Amin and his team in Hinsdale and Woodridge, Illinois, can help you find relief. Here’s what you need to know about reversing spinal stenosis.

Causes and complications of spinal stenosis

What causes spinal stenosis to occur? Often, the issue results from degenerative changes related to aging. You’re more likely to experience spinal stenosis as you get older. You may develop degenerative disc disease, bone spurs, or thickened ligaments, producing spinal stenosis. 

Osteoarthritis, slipped vertebrae, or a herniated, bulging spinal disc can also cause spinal stenosis. You’re also at a higher risk of spinal stenosis if you’re living with a spinal abnormality such as scoliosis.

Typically, you realize you have spinal stenosis after you start to experience back pain that won’t go away. If the lower part of your spine is most affected, your pain might center in your lower back, buttocks, or legs. Spinal stenosis in your upper (cervical) spine produces neck pain symptoms.

In addition to pain, your symptoms of spinal stenosis may include numbness, tingling, prickling, or burning sensations. You may even experience weakness or muscle spasms in some body parts. That’s because the pain associated with spinal stenosis comes from nerve compression.

Primary nerves run throughout your body to your spinal column, where they need to be able to pass through small gaps in your spinal bones. When spinal narrowing happens, your nerves don’t have enough “breathing room” to avoid being pinched, trapped, or irritated. If one or more of your nerves become irritated or compressed, your symptoms can follow the path of that nerve.

Preventing or reversing spinal stenosis

Lifestyle habits can keep you strong and flexible to help prevent spinal stenosis. Healthy weight loss keeps your back from having to bear too much pressure. Strengthening your back and core muscles also takes pressure off your spine. Stretches that relieve spinal compression, such as forward bends, can ease spinal stenosis in the early stages.

Dr. Amin recommends starting with conservative approaches to reversing spinal stenosis. Gentle stretching, rest from physically arduous activity, and physical therapy may improve your spinal condition. Dr. Amin suggests anti-inflammatory or muscle relaxant medications for chronic back pain relief. You may also benefit from pain injections such as nerve blocks or epidural steroid injections.

In some cases, you may need surgery to relieve spinal stenosis and create needed space in your spinal canal. Dr. Amin provides decompression surgery using minimally invasive spine surgery (MISS) whenever possible. The procedure you need depends on the cause of your spinal stenosis. For example, you may need bone spurs removed or a herniated spinal disc removed and changed with an artificial replacement.

To learn more about the treatments that could relieve spinal stenosis symptoms, contact Beejal Y. Amin MD online or over the phone today and schedule an appointment.