Lower Back Pain
The lower back supports most of your body’s weight and can withstand tremendous forces without injury. Problems arise if the low back is out of adjustment or alignment and/or has weakened supporting muscles. Something as simple as picking up a wallet, purse or even a sneeze can cause your body to go into spasm and low back pain begins. Underlying conditions also play a large role in why something as simple as picking up a wallet can cause you to drop to the floor.
Eighty percent of people suffer from back pain at some point in their lives. Back pain is the second most common reason for visits to the doctor’s office, outnumbered only by colds and flus. In fact, it is estimated that low back pain affects more than half of the adult population each year and more than 10% of all people experience frequent bouts of low back pain.
The common belief has been that back pain would heal on its own. We have learned, however, that this is not true. Recent studies showed that when back pain is not treated, it might go away temporarily, but will most likely return. It is important to take low back pain seriously and seek professional chiropractic care. This is especially true with pain that recurs repeatedly over several years. Contact our chiropractor… we can help!
Low back pain may be acute (short-term), lasting less than one month, or chronic (long-term, continuous, ongoing), lasting longer than three months. While getting acute back pain more than once is common, continuous long-term pain is not, as is usually a sign of an underlying problem.
What causes lower back pain?
There are many different conditions that can result in low back pain, including: sprained ligaments, strained muscles, ruptured discs, muscles that go into spasm and inflamed joints. While sports injuries or accidents can lead to injury and pain, the most common cause of low back pain is the body being out of alignment for a prolonged period on time that allow bad postural habits to form. When you body is not able to move properly, muscles tighten and go into spasm, bone move into wrong places and arthritis can begin, and sometimes nerves are irritated and compressed due to the poor postural habits.
Chiropractic Treatment of Lower Back Pain
Chiropractic treatment for low back pain is very effective. Most commonly, it’s a matter of adjusting the lower lumbar vertebrae and pelvis to re-establish normal motion and position of your bones and joints. Additional muscle work may need to be done, but that depends of your specific care history and examination.
Chiropractic for the low back has been repeatedly shown to be the most effective treatment for low back pain. In fact, major studies have shown that chiropractic care is more effective, cheaper and has better long-term outcomes than any other treatment. All other treatments, such as muscle relaxants, pain killers and bed rest, only serve to decrease the symptoms of the problem and do not correct the problem itself. This makes sense because chiropractic care is the only method of treatment that serves to re-establish normal vertebral motion and position in the spine.
Study: Chiropractic Better Than Traditional Medical Care for Back Pain
In an eight week study, investigators compared chiropractic care to pain clinic management for chronic low back pain, (CLBP). All 30 patients had suffered CLBP for more than 12 weeks. Researchers found that both pain intensity and disability were significantly lower for those cared for with chiropractic.
According to a report published, chiropractic is more effective than medical care and just as cost efficient for patients with low back pain (LBP). The study compared 2780 patients cared for over a two-year period by either doctors of chiropractic or medical physicians. Initial findings, “acute and chronic chiropractic patients experienced better outcomes in pain, functional disability and patient satisfaction.”
Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics