Lower back pain… its a BIG deal
Lower back pain is one of the most common conditions in our clinic. Almost everyone suffers from back pain at some point in their life. It is not limited to adults however, I do see children who are reporting lower back pain. Chiropractic care is a safe and effective form of treatment for back pain. Your spine has 3 main segments, neck or cervical region, mid back or thoracic and then lower back which is called the lumbar spine. At the bottom of the lumbar spine we have our pelvis and sacrum too! Lower back pain specifically can be described as a pain right on the spine or at the belt line. It can also be described as pain into the muscle of the lower back and butt regions too. Typically our patients say the pain feels sharp, achy, shooting when the cause is more nerve or compression of the nerve. If someone bends, lifts or twists incorrectly and has pain that pain can be described as achy, burning, irritating or more of a muscle spasm sensation.
How does chiropractic help with lower back pain? Over the decades there are more and more research studies showing the benefits of chiropractic and proper alignment and movement of spine related conditions, like lower back pain. Due to our opioid crisis in America and long before it, providers both chiropractic and medically have seen the benefit of chiropractic care to align the spine, reduce the pinching to the nerves and doing rehabilitation exercises to insure both alignment of the spine and the muscle systems to reduce or eliminate pain. We live in a world where everyone wants results NOW, and instant gratification. However the human body does not always work that way. I believe most people know when they take a drug to help reduce pain that it is only a band aid. It’s not actually fixing the problem. It is just chemically altering their system and tricking them into thinking they have no pain… but it is only being numbed for a short period of time then will be back with vengeance.
At Healthmax, as well as nearly all chiropractic clinics, our focus is to get the route cause of the lower back pain. I spend most of my time in the initial visit with my patients listening to them and learning their lifestyle. Their health history tells me a great deal about their spine even before I take x-rays. We talk about ergonomics at home and at work. We talk about flexibility and balance. What their hobbies are and how that affects their spine as well as their current condition of lower back pain. Obviously we also cover the history of trauma. I cannot tell you how many people have forgotten lower back injuries when they were in high school or early 20s. They all say “but I didn’t have any pain, so I thought I was fine.” Which I ALWAYS follow that statement with, well PAIN is a very poor way to measure your health. Only 10 percent of your nerves register pain, the main function of the nervous system is FUNCTION. Following the health history, my examination includes taking patients through basic vital, then range of motion, checking reflexes, muscle strength, sensation check as well as orthopedic tests to help with my working diagnosis. We take posture pictures and digital x-rays. Nearly every patient also gets a foot analysis done to gauge health of the 3 arches of the feet. Many times people have collapsing arches of the feet that lead to lower back pain.
By and large after exams and x-rays most people are suffering from some kind of degeneration or pinching in the lumbar spine. Chiropractic has been around 100 years and we know it helps! But one of the greatest additions to Healthmax is that we added lumbar decompression with the state of the art Back on Trac from ErgoFlex! This chair has been a game changer for not only the people who are suffering acute lower back pain, but also my patients who have chronic lower back pain. Pain that comes 1-2 times per year and just is always at the back of their mind… when’s it going to “go out” again. Lumbar decompression is a non surgical therapy treatment to a disc injury and joint degeneration by lowering disc pressure. During normal daily activities the pressure on the discs can range between 100-300 mm/HG pressure. Spinal decompression therapy can reduce pressure inside the disc by 150 mm/HG pressure, shrinking disc herniation or bulges by drawing nutrient and fluid into the disc. Research on spinal decompression creates a negative pressure in the disc creating a vacuum effect. This vacuum effect can suck the disc that has bulged or herniated out back inside the disc, relieving pressure on the nerves. Spinal decompression is so effective that it is reported to have a success rate of over 90% in treating lower back pain and sciatica.
If you can tell, we like to be thorough! Obviously we are human, so we check, we re-check, re-evaluate and make sure that patients are being heard, and they are healing. If and when they are not responding to chiropractic, or are not a chiropractic case, we refer out to other health care professionals for more imaging or a second opinion. However, since adding the Back on Trac, we have been seeing such wonderful and successful treatment progress with our lower back patients. If you or someone you love is suffering with lower back pain, have them give us a call TODAY.
