It's a busy week at RRS Education! We've launched the E-Seminar version of "Older & Bolder: Chiropractic Care for Healthy Aging" - check it out here

This is the same program we're featuring at our Spring 2022 in-person Seminars - details here

On to this week's Review...a really cool paper featured in this new program on healthy aging:

Low back pain (LBP) is the leading cause of disability worldwide, with approximately two-thirds of patients still reporting pain after twelve months. The literature has suggested that chronic LBP may negatively affect brain structure, which can lead to impairment in attention, mental flexibility, language skills, and emotional decision making.

 

It has been demonstrated that in chronic LBP, there are gray matter density changes in multiple regions, most notably the prefrontal cortex, thalamus, brainstem, corpus callosum, and total gray matter volume (references in the Review). Furthermore, treatment appears to help normalize these gray matter alterations.

 

One machine-learning approach to assessing the gray matter density of an individual compared to an age-matched healthy peer is called brain age. Brain age serves as a holistic measurement of numerous regional structural changes and can be especially useful to define structural changes in terms of accelerated aging. Of note, past research has shown significant differences of brain age in a chronic pain population compared to healthy individuals.

 

The aim of this study is to apply a brain age prediction model to a chronic low back pain cohort without depression. This study investigated the association between brain age and factors of chronic LBP duration and pain severity, as well as an analysis to identify regions with altered gray matter density…very cool results with broad implications for evidence-based spine care!