Many people are aware of how very helpful Chiropractic care can be in relieving pain and for the management of Lower Back Pain, Back and Shoulder Pain, Disc problems, Back Ache, Sciatica and other referred pain. The first step is to contact your chiropractor for a thorough check-up on the cause of your back pain.
It is very likely that lower back pain, back pain and referred pain can be improved naturally without the use of drugs or surgery. Often the incorrect functioning of nerves, muscles, ligaments and joints result in the pain and the condition responds very well to chiropractic care and advice.
What is back pain due to?
Back pain is common with some 80% of people tending to experience back pain or lower back pain at least some of the time. 85% experience disabling lower back pain at least once. At any given time 6.8% of the US adult population suffers from back pain episode lasting more than 2 weeks (see ref 1). This is because many things in our life place stresses on our body especially on our spine, ligaments, discs, muscles, joints etc and this can lead to misalignment, overstretching and irritation with resulting dysfunction and pain.
Factors that contribute to back pain?
Many factors contribute to back pain, our lifestyle, health and level of fitness will impact on how our body responds to the demands placed on it on a daily basis and hence the propensity to develop aches and pains especially back related pain and lower back pain.
Some special factors include:
- Poor ergonomics and general bad work practices
- Lack of warm-up and stretching prior to exercise
- Lack of adequate exercise and poor fitness levels
- Life filled with lots of stress
- Trauma or injury or previous accident
- Obesity or body weight excessive for your frame
- Poor posture
The Chiropractic Approach to treating Back Pain, Lower Back Pain and Sciatica
Chiropractic care restores the spine to more normal position, motion and function; Chiropractic care reduces symptoms of pain and improves function. Chiropractors have helped millions of people with low back problems, often making the difference to enable a life of ease, better health and comfort. Spinal manipulation applied by highly trained chiropractors is shown to be more effective than alternative treatments for low back pain. The Royal Commission (New Zealand) has found it established beyond any reasonable degree of doubt that chiropractors have a more thorough training in spinal mechanics and spinal manual therapy than any other health professional (ref 2).
The percentage of chiropractic patients ‘very satisfied’ with the care they received for low back pain was triple that for patients of family physicians (see ref 3).
Back Pain References:
ref 1 Deyo RA. Description epidemiology of lower back pain and its related medical care in the United States. Spine. 1987;12(3):264-268.
ref 2 Royal Commission of Inquiry on Chiropractic in New Zealand, 1979.
ref 3 Meade TW, Dyer S, et al. Low back pain of mechanical origin, randomized comparison of chiropractic and hospital outpatient treatment. British Medical Journal. 1990;300:431-437.