Jarvis Jones – Spinal Stenosis
I see patients in my practice with conditions ranging from neck and lower back pain to spinal fractures. From one patient to the next, the injury is never the same. This is most certainly the case with spinal stenosis, a condition that I often see and treat. Let’s start with what spinal stenosis is. It is a narrowing of the spinal canal that can occur anywhere along the length of the spine. The symptoms depend on what part of the spinal cord or nerve roots that are affected. Although spinal stenosis is more common in older patients due to the natural aging process, some people are born with a narrow spinal canal that lead to symptoms at a younger age. There are also patients who suffer from spinal stenosis because of other factors, such as trauma, which is common in athletes after sports-related injuries. With the NFL Draft quickly approaching, there’s a lot of conversation surrounding individual players. Conversations run the gamut of athletic strengths and weaknesses to individual character and football IQ. Injuries are a hot topic, as the media always wants to find a player’s weakness. Spinal injuries are always highlighted, as they are categorized as huge disadvantages.
