Back Pain

This affects almost everyone at sometime, but staying active with the help of Chiropractic treatment may be the best solution for it.

NICE Guidelines that were produced in May 2009 on non-specific low back pain, recommend spinal manipulation carried out by Chiropractors, osteopaths and specialist physiotherapists to be included in its management.

Chiropractic can help low back pain coming from muscles and joints, but patients may describe this  Pulled Muscles,Locked or stiff back joints ,Trapped Nerves ,Meralgia Paraesthetica ,Slipped Disc ,Leg pain ,Misalignment

Pulled Muscles – It s easy to think that this is a minor problem that will go away with some rest and pain killers. However, you might be ignoring your body’s warning sign and hence the reason behind why you have pulled this muscle.

Locked or stiff back joints – This is what causes simple, uncomplicated back pain that can resolve quickly and efficiently with Chiropractic treatment. It results usually from bending and twisting injuries as well as incorrect lifting (heavy or light).

In many cases though, it is the movement of the back in awkward position that locks and inflames the joint. Wrongly carried out heavy or light lifting is still going to be a strain for your back and can cause a joint to lock and inflame. This can often catch you when you try to move as the back does not want to move too much.

Our Chiropractors are qualified to examine the back and find the injured joint that is not moving and then apply corrective stretch on the joint to free it up and restore the normal movement.

Trapped Nerves – This is irritation of a nerve in the back or neck from injury which results in sharp shooting pain, pins and needles and/or numbness in the leg or arm respectively. Sometimes pain along the sciatic nerve at the back of the leg is an example of the irritation of the nerve.

This can feel like you have pins and needles in the hand when the irritation is in the neck or anywhere along the path of the nerve along the arm to the hand or the pins and needles can be in the foot when the irritation is in the back or buttock or anywhere along the leg itself to the foot.

Meralgia Paraesthetica – This is a condition in which a patient presents with numbness feeling at the side and at the front of the thigh, and it is due to the irritation of the nerve to the skin of the thigh at the level of the spine or the back, where the nerve comes out from the spinal cord.

Slipped Disc – This is known as Disc Herniation in medical terms and it is an injury of one of the discs which are between the bones of your spine. The most common area of the spine that often gets “slipped discs” is the lower back, and then the next common area is the neck.

The disc is made up of jelly like material surrounded by layers and layers of tissue which resembles the onion skin layers. With repetitive injuries to the back which will always be known to the patient as the body often gives warning signs, the layers surrounding the disc can often get torn, one by one. The reason for this is fatigue of the tissues as well as injury caused by the loading under stress of bending forward. And when the last inner layer is torn, then the jelly like material usually leaks through the tear causing irritation and inflammation of the surrounding tissues and nerves. This will in turn result in “sciatica” symptoms down one leg if the disc injury was in the lower back and arm pain, numbness as well as tingling; if the disc injury was in the neck. In severe cases of disc injury both legs (lower back disc injury) can be affected.

The only way you can ensure that the same disc won’t flare up again would be with surgical removal of the disc material. Back surgery often brings many of its own complications, and therefore many Chiropractors and even many hospital consultants may advise you to look after the injury with conservative care like Chiropractic or physiotherapy and avoid the back surgery as long as possible.

Leg pain – There are many other causes of leg pain which can mimic sciatica. These include trigger points (“knots”) in the buttock or hip muscles, sacroiliac or pelvic joint irritation, and bursitis of the hip.

It is often believed by most patients that when they have leg pain, it is “sciatica”, but in reality there can be many causes of the leg pain, and our Chiropractors will be able to examine the patient and determine the true cause of an individual’s leg pain.

Misalignment – This refers mainly to the pelvic joints which can misalign in an injury creating torsion in the pelvis. This often will result in appearance of one of your legs being longer than the other one.
Sometimes you might have broken your leg in the past or you might have structural curvature of the spine that you were born with or you might just be born with longer or shorter leg. Obviously in these cases the chiropractic manipulation will not make any correction to the leg length difference.

In such cases as those giving the permanent leg length difference, the Foot Orthotics(Arch supports) made with the necessary heel lift to level out the difference, would be of use.