Back and Lower Back Pain Treatment

Between each one of your vertebrae (the bones in your spine), there are nerves that come out from your spinal cord.  If you have had either car accidents, slips and falls, sports injuries, repetitive motion (overuse) injuries, or poor posture for a number of years, these bones will have problems—either they will not be moving properly, or they will be slightly out of the ideal position.  We call this a subluxation—that’s when the problematic bones put pressure on your nerves, which causes a problem wherever those nerves go.  

In many cases, the nerves that go to the muscles of the lower back, hips, or deep core muscles are affected first.  Then, these out-of-balance muscles lead to worsening of either the bad movement or bad positioning of the bones (or both!). Eventually, the muscles that are deep in your lower back have to “take over” and tighten up, which causes achiness in the spinal joints, more pressure on the same or other nerves in the area, and ultimately, worsening of the lower back muscle spasm and the experience of pain.

Because we are a specialty clinic, we are not only looking at the movement and position of the bones in your spine, but also the muscles that surround them, that cross over them, and that move them. After all, if you wanted to see what was wrong with a door hinge, you wouldn’t just look at it and start touching it, you’d grab onto the door handle and start opening and closing it to better understand what the function of the hinge was like. We do something similar with our spinal examination, as well as our muscle testing evaluation.

Once we diagnose any number of problems in your spine and muscular system, we are able to perform a combination of spinal adjustments, to take pressure off of the nerves and get the bones moving properly again, as well as to address the muscle problems. We address not only the muscle weakness and imbalances, but also any scar tissue, adhesions, or other “knots” with treatments such as Active Release Techniques, cupping, electrical stimulation, spinal traction, or, if you request, dry needling techniques.

The best way to prevent back pain is the same way you would prevent tooth decay and dental disease—by going to the doctor who treats it BEFORE it becomes a major problem. When you come to us for prevention, we are able to intercept early problems in your spine and muscular system before they reach a crisis or become an injury. If left unchecked, these problems can lead to disability and not being able to do the things that you need to do, have to do, or love to do. Regular exercise, stretching, foam rolling, and doing “pre-hab” exercises with bands can certainly help prevent these problems. But, just like no amount of brushing your teeth and flossing them can be as good as a proper dental cleaning by a dentist or dental hygienist, there is no substitute for seeing our doctors for a proper evaluation, excellent chiropractic adjustments, and muscle activation.