Lumbar facet arthropathy

(Keywords: lumbar facet arthropathy, low back and leg pain, chiropractic help, help for sciatica)

There are some very strange people in this world. Like my cousin. She sent me this picture, and then said that (if I publish it) then I'm the dirty old man! Hmph! Maybe, but I anyway I couldn't resist it. Thought: do you get dirty old women?

Searching for something specific? Say, " slipped disc ". Just type it in here...

Custom Search

What is a " Lumbar Facet "?

1. A disc joint that is a sort of shock absorber.

2. Two facet joints.

On either side, between the disc joint and the facet joint lies the foramen where the nerve exits from the spine. That's where the drama begins.

These are the facet joints, fairly healthy ones. They control how far you can bend and twist your spine. In particular they determine how far you can extend your spine. Those girls have healthy facets! Extension - backward bending - doesn't cause pain obviously.

Here you can see the relation between the facet on one side, the foramen with its nerve, and the disc...

What is Arthropathy?

Try breaking big medical words down into their constitutent parts:

Arthr-opathy

• Arthr simply means to do with a joint and is the root of the word arthritis. Arthr-itis. An itis (inflammation) of an arthr (joint)

• opathy simply means "a condition of". Sometimes if we want to sound really impressive and scare you we would say "a disease of". Don't be frightened of that word "disease". It simply means a lack of ease.

So, arthr-opathy simply means a condition to do with a joint.

Lumbar Facet Arthropathy

Mostly, it's an OSIS not an ITIS. It's non-inflammatory, so taking anti-inflammatories certainly won't help. Lumbar Facet ArthrITIS may be inflammatory, but even then we Chiropractors are not in favour of NSAIDS (Non Steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drugs) except perhaps for a very short period as they have such nasty side-effects. ANTI INFLAMMATORY DRUGS ...

Sometimes an arthropathy is highly inflammatory (like America's fastest growing disease - gout - thanks to the great all-American diet! GOUT ... hospitalisations for gout have increased by 400% in the last 20 years. There are other less common inflammatory arthritides caused by example by inflammation of the bowel (avoid ALL wheat products if you have colitis), joint infections, diabetes and a particuarly nasty one where the nerve to a joint becomes inflammed.

But most Lumbar facet arthropathy is non-inflammatory. In one sense it's a normal part of aging. Like grey hair. As the facets joints get older wear-and-tear sets in, and they get thicker. Extension of the spine gradually becomes more limited.

IMMOBILISATION ARTHRITIS