- Hi, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- I thought for a minute
you were gonna do it like silently.
(Brad chuckling)
And together we are the most famous physical therapist
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course. - In our opinion.
Today, Brad, we're gonna talk about
something near and dear to you.
- You bet.
- Unfortunately, it's dear to you.
As we're gonna talk about Spinal Stenosis
and we're gonna talk about three ways,
you can maybe tell that you have Spinal Stenosis.
- Yep. - And this
is more kind of a back pain issue.
Back pain and leg pain issue.
- Sure. Yep.
Low back usually. - Right.
- Could be in the neck too,
but we're gonna focus down here today.
- Right.
Exactly. This is all about the back.
Not the low back,
not the neck.
- Right. - Because you can
get stenosis anywhere.
First off...
Oh, you know what we need the spine.
- Oh! - Yeah.
Nancy. - Be careful.
- [Nancy] I know. Gonna get a rotator.
- Keep it vertical.
Go ahead.
- All right. - [Nancy] Gonna get a rotator
top.
- Rotator top. - Top repair.
- [Nancy] Rotator top (laughs) repair,-
- All right, here we go.- - from that.-
- All right, each one of these segments here.
Okay.
Have basically on the back of it
an open area, like a tunnel.
Is that a good way to say it, Brad?
- Right. Where the spinal nerve exit from the spinal cord,
and they have to go through the two vertebra,
and that area, that hole is called a?
- Foramen. - Foramen.
Yes,- - And we're talking about
more central Spinal Stenosis.
The one going down the main canal.
Let me show it on here.
- Alright.
- Okay.
So this is kind of a cross-section
through a one of the vertebrae.
And you can see this round hole here.
All right.
The spinal cord goes right down that hole.
This is a person who has spinal stenosis.
And as you can see, it's narrowed up
and this can be caused by a thickening of the ligaments.
It could be caused by bony growth.
There's other things that can cause it a disc protrusion
into the canal also cause it,
but anyway,
so there's pressure on the spinal cord.
And when you get to the low back
actually what is happening at that point,
it's really not the spinal cord anymore.
It's the cauda equina.
Which is what they...
Actually it's Latin
for horses tail. - Right.
Yep. - So,
and that's just the spinal nerves
that are starting to spread out.
Okay. So it's...
- Right.
If you look up here, it is kind of like a garden hose,
I imagine it.
And once you get down to L-1 here
it starts to turn into that cauda equina.
In other words, it turns into a number of...
Like spaghetti,
you have like a number of spaghetti
- Strands. - Strands going down,
and then they'll exit out
the frame in here-
- Or it has to come down the bottom.
- Or down to the SAC room.
- So anyway, that's enough about anatomy.
What are you gonna feel if you have spinal stenosis, Brad?
You apparently have some spinal stenosis
so you can tell- - Well, yeah, I think,
yeah, mine, I'm not really sure yet.
I've gotta get some more scans done
whether it's through the spinal cord
or the stenosis through the frame itself
- Frame itself. - Right.
- Okay.
- But one thing that definitely is no fun
is standing in one spot for long period of times
like shopping.
If I go shopping, my wife is shopping and I'm waiting.
I need to sit down.- - Another reason
not to like shopping for a man.
- Right. - But...
and I saw statistically
that was the highest correlated find
with spinal stenosis that they don't like standing.
And it was actually called the shopping cart test
or shopping cart syndrome.
Cause people will tell me, and Brad,
say it feels better when you lean forward
and hold onto the shopping cart.
- Right.
Take some weight off lean forward.
And right now, I mean,
cause I'm having some back pain, now this feels good.
And I'm doing the opposite of what we talk about.
- Right. - I'm actually
rounding my back
and separating.
It gives it a little more space.
- And this is the one case
where you're gonna want to be allowed to do that.
- Right. - And usually
it's the opposite with normal back pain.
Normal back pain generally feels better standing
and walking generally, not always
and worse with sitting.
This feels better with sitting.
- Right. You better believe it.
- Okay. You also gonna get numbness,
tingling, and pain down into the legs.
- Yep.
- And quite often,
what I see is often,
it's in both legs,
and that's also not typical back pain.
Typical back pain tends to go down one side.
- Right.
- So if you're getting it down, both legs,
it more often is gonna be a spinal stenosis.
- Sure. - Again, not,
you know, definitive.
- Right.
- The last thing Brad is extension hurts.
- Right? - Right.
- You wanna show them what extension is?
- Yeah. So if you're gonna bend backwards like this,
and I can do this, and this isn't too bad,
but if you're doing something like overhead,
like over the weekend,
I was working on the ceiling,
the next two days
weren't very fun, but you gotta-
- Feel it. - Yeah.
So that's really the three
symptoms.
- Right.
And then I think we'll save it for another video,
for exercises, and treatment conserv-
- We're actually gonna do that next video, Brad.
- Absolutely. So...
Yeah, just...- - Nancy, maybe it can
even put a link to that video from this one.
- Yeah. Link it right up, Nancy.
- Yeah. - Put it together.
- Oh, by the way, just real quickly.
Spinal stenosis tends to happen, by the way,
in people very commonly 60 and over.
Brad, unfortunately, got it early.
But so if you're in that age 40 and over,
you're gonna want to subscribe to us
cause we do provide videos
on how to stay healthy, fit, and pain free
well into your elder years.-
- You better believe it.- - And you can deal
with these things like spinal stenosis.
(upbeat music begins)