Back Pain: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatments
Some things are universal human experiences such as the need to eat and desire to sleep. Unfortunately, back pain is also one of them.
According to the Canadian Chiropractic Association, 85% of the world’s population will experience low back pain during their lifetime.
Low back pain has physical, mental, financial and social ramifications that far exceed a single episode of pain. Low back pain is one of the leading causes of absenteeism from work worldwide, one of the main reasons people initially start using opioids, and one of the most common reasons why people visit the hospital.
In Canada, low back pain related medical expenses cost the government and taxpayers between 6 and 12 billion dollars annually.
Low back pain is treatable, and many things can be done to help. Similar to any injury, there are many different types of back pain, especially low back pain. The two main categories are musculoskeletal (MSK) and non-musculoskeletal (NON-MSK).
The cause of low back pain is diagnosed by a physical examination, functional testing and orthopaedic testing. When your low back pain is due to an underlying cause that is not musculoskeletal related, such as kidney stones or another medical condition, your Chiropractor at Movability will refer you to your family physician to undergo the appropriate treatment. We will work with your existing healthcare team to make sure you get comprehensive back pain treatment.
If your physical examination reveals that your low back pain is MSK related, our Chiropractors will figure out why the pain started, how it can be fixed and teach you how to prevent it in the future.
Common Causes of Low Back Pain:
1. Muscle Tightness and Spasming: The most common type of low back pain is called Mechanical Low back pain. This happens when a person is sedentary (either at work or home), is stressed, is experiencing pain after exercising incorrectly or is overweight. Patients with mechanical low back pain experience tightness and spasming in the low back, limited ranges of motion, difficulty in moving or walking and discomfort while sleeping. These patients typically don’t have sharp, shooting or numbness down their legs but they can have discomfort in their buttock and/or groin area.
Patients suffering from mechanical low back pain respond well to manual therapy, including but not limited to gentle spinal manipulation, mobilization, exercise, acupuncture, laser therapy and trigger point therapy.
2. Degenerative Discs and Herniated Discs: Degeneration of the vertebral discs in the spine are a common part of the ageing process, but NOT a normal process. Unfortunately, as people age, the discs lose their hydration and wear and tear of the spine due to incorrect movement patterns starts to degrade the disc material and degeneration ensues.
In younger patients, the discs are well hydrated and full of fluid. This fluid can leak out of the disc through micro-trauma and create irritation of the surrounding nerves. There is typically a prodrome period where the patient may experience low back pain without leg pain. Within 3 to 5 days, there is generally sharp, shooting pain or numbness down their legs.
Although this type of low back pain takes a more extended time period to rehabilitate, it can be done.
Gentle treatments including acupuncture, mobilizations and soft tissue therapy are recommended during the earlier stages of a disc herniation.
Specific exercises will be given once the initial pain begins to subside to restore normal spinal function and prevent further episodes of back pain.
3. Nerve Compression: Many different nerves in the body can be compressed causing pain and discomfort. A commonly compressed nerve is the sciatic nerve resulting in Sciatica which is sharp shooting pain going down the back of the legs and possibly into the feet.
The cause and location of nerve compression can vary:
- Nerve compression can originate in the spine due to a disc irritation or herniation.
- Nerve compression can be as a result of compression of a nerve within a muscle (for example, the piriformis or quadratus lumborum muscles)
-Nerve compression can be structural: due to unusually small openings where the nerves emerge
- Nerve compression can be as a result of tight fascia or ligaments
4. Incorrect Movement Patterns: this can cause overloading of sensitive joint and structures leading to pain. Optimizing movement not only alleviates back pain but can also enhance athletic performance and general wellbeing.
How to Ease Low Back Pain
1. Practice good posture when you can: make sure you’re moving often and moving well. Being in the same position for prolonged periods of time, even if your posture is “perfect,” isn’t going to help you stay pain-free.
2. Strengthen your muscles: sometimes low back pain is caused by weak muscles, your Movability Chiropractor will show you exercises to strengthen the area and prevent re-injury.
3. Avoid too much bed rest: spending time resting is important, but try to avoid crawling into bed and staying there. Not using the muscles can actually make things worse and significantly slow down your recovery.
4. Try losing weight: carrying excess weight puts increased stress on our bodies and contributes to the onset and progression of low back pain. You will notice a difference in your pain and posture with as little as 5 pounds of weight loss.
How Movability Chiropractors Treat Low Back Pain
1. Chiropractic care is one of the most effective treatments of low back pain, rated higher than pain medication in assisting patients to recover. Movability Chiropractors use techniques such as gentle manipulations or adjustments, mobilization, movement therapy, soft tissue therapy and modalities such as laser and cupping to decrease your pain and discomfort.
2. Acupuncture is a highly useful tool in the treatment of low back pain. The small needles are strategically placed to help decrease pain, increase blood flow and release your bodies natural chemicals that help clear out inflammation.
3. Exercises! At Movability, our therapists spend the time to ensure that you are equipped with the proper exercises to speed recovery and leave you feeling great.
4. Patient education. The philosophy at Movability is that you can’t get better if you don’t understand why you’re injured. We focus time and energy on making sure you know why you’re feeling this way and how we’re going to help you get back to feeling like yourself again.
Still not sure where to start? Call us today at (905) 763-4000 and book your complimentary 15-minute consultation with one of our manual therapists. You don’t have to live with pain, we’re here to help.