Back Pain Re-visited!

The next time you’re at the doctor’s office, start a conversation with some of the people that are there. What you’ll most likely find is that except for those who are bothered by colds, flu, and infections, almost everyone else is there for back pain. Back ailments are the second most common complaint that people have when visiting their family physician.

In many cases back pain and discomfort are the result of a simple strain and or sprain of the muscles, which usually heal on their own within a few days to a week. But if that back pain continues and is not treated, there’s a chance that it may get worse. In many cases, the back pain is gone temporarily, only to return later.

In a recent study, researchers found that more than one third of the test subjects still had pain for over 30 days! That’s an entire month where each person had difficulty sleeping, showering, doing daily chores, driving and even dressing.

Five years later, the researchers went back to the people in the study to find out how they were doing with their back pain. And believe it or not, 81% of those who had the low back pain for over 30 days still had back pain!

There are some symptoms that can indicate a trip to your family doctor for back pain is the right thing to do. These symptoms include the loss of bowel control or urinary control, when the pain is caused by an injury (there may be internal bleeding), if you have fever, sweating, vomiting and/or weakness along with the back pain, and if your leg, foot, rectum or groin feels numb. In these cases, your chiropractor would no doubt refer you to a family physician.

The best thing you can do when you have back pain and discomfort is to determine the true reason why you have pain. The best place to go for that is to a health practitioner who spent hundreds of hours studying the biomechanics of the back, how all the nerves and blood vessels feed the different muscles and joints of the back, and how to effectively treat the back. That practitioner is not your family physician, who spent very little time on this topic in medical school and may not know how to calculate the degree of curvature of a spinal curvature because his training didn’t include this. However, your Somerville Chiropractor has spent years learning thousands of facts about every related topic and your back. He’s the one who is your greatest resource when it comes to back pain.

Back pain can result from an injury, overuse, poor posture, arthritis and many others. Each one of these causes is treated differently. The answers to specific questions you are asked help determine the diagnosis and why you have your back pain.

After questions in the initial history, an exam is completed. At that time, your chiropractor may take x-rays for more information and to confirm what he suspects. Next, he will determine what stretches, exercises, and additional natural therapies such as cold or hot packs, ultrasound, cold laser treatment or nutritional supplements you need that can relieve your back pain in the shortest period of time.

In one study, participants with long lasting back pain felt improvement soon after starting chiropractic treatment. In another study, it was noted that the relief felt after a month of treatment was often greater than the relief felt from prescription medications or other treatments offered by a family physician. If you have back pain, it’s your time to heal.

Seeing your local Somerville Chiropractor for treatment of your back pain may just be the best way to take care of your back pain.