We where in the office on Thursday and Dr. Sean told me about this research article he heard about that had to do with people having MS after having cervical trauma aka neck trauma. Our office deals with a lot of trauma in the neck and 90% of my patients have been in a car accident so I had to read this article. The name of the article is The Possible role of Cranio-Cervical Trauma and Abnormal CSF Hydrodynamics in the Genesis of Multiple Sclerosis. You are probably wondering what CSF (cerebrospinal fluid) is? CSF is basically the fluid that provides cushion and exports the waste out of the brain.
The study took 8 MS patients who entered the study on a first come first serve basis. As far as I could tell from the paper they didn’t turn away any MS patients. If you had MS you where admitted to the study. The studied used people with no cervical pathology as “normal people.” Another interesting thing about this study that the author doesn’t talk about much is that 75% of the normal group was turned away because they had some degree of cervical dysfunction. 75% of the normal people classification didn’t even qualify as normal. That means I have a lot of work left to do to correct this increasing trend of neck problems in America. Also last point about this paper until I dig into it. This paper wasn’t done by a chiropractor it was done by the creator of the upright MRI.
All 8 MS patients had obstructions of flow of CSF, which according to the author caused increase pressure in the brain causing leakage of CSF in the brain. To not dig to far in the anatomy but the leakage and increase intracranial pressure lead the author to believe into plaque formation on the brain. Then to compare this to the non-MS patients, all “normal examinees did not display these flow obstructions.”
All 8 MS patients had either pronounced or definitive cervical pathology. Breaking that down and rewording it, all 8 had some significant problems with their neck. Then to take that one step further 7/8 stated they had a “history of serious prior cervical trauma which resulted in significant cervical pathology.” 6/8 traced this significant trauma to a whiplash injury from an automobile injury. “When the mean value (average) was calculated for all 8 patients’ MS diagnosis, was 11 years.“
This research paper isn’t making me draw a conclusion that if you get in a car accident you will have MS but it even further strengthens my belief that you need to get checked out after an accident. I’m sure if these 8 MS patients had any chance of decreasing their risk of MS they would have done it if they knew. Further research is definitely needed on this topic.
So if you want to tell someone about this article here is the cliff notes version of this paper is that trauma in the neck can cause decrease flow of CSF which can cause increase cranial pressure leading to MS. This is why it is so important to get properly checked out after an accident. Again I’m not saying your PCP isn’t the right option but they are looking for anything life threatening. Does the patient have any fractures or are they going to die. If no then try these muscle relaxers or go to PT. PT is fantastic with the muscles but they don’t really focus on skeletal and if the neck is causing this then you need to go to someone like me that focuses on how the spine is functioning.
If you have been in accident call our office at 281-719-5004 for our Woodlands location or 281-719-9708 for our Champion Forest location.
