Back Pain
Dec 2008Q: “Can problems of the lower back
influence a person’s overall health?”
A: Absolutely. An important first step to pain recovery is to look at how pain of the low back is affecting your life and well-being. To consistently perform at your full potential, you need to maintain a positive attitude, eat well, exercise and get adequate rest. Low back pain tends to make all of this difficult.
When you’re in pain, your positive attitude is usually the first to go. You also may not feel like exercising—either out of fear of worsening the pain or because movement just plain hurts. In many cases, people eat unhealthy “comfort foods” to try to cover up their pain. And even if the pain itself isn’t enough to slow a person down during the day, sleeping with pain can be nearly impossible. Inadequate rest eventually begins to take its toll, affecting one’s energy levels, immune function, cognition, and just about every area of life. There’s also the capacity to develop a dependence on pain medications, which have their own set of side effects. It’s easy to see how our health can be affected by pain, even if it all started with a simple backache.
One of the main causes of low back pain is a malfunction in the sacrum, the largest bone at the base of the spine, regarding how it interacts with the structures attached to it. The sacrum causes two problems when it’s not doing its job. The malfunctioning sacrum can get “stuck” to the right or left, and the entire spine will tilt along with it. The point where the sacrum attaches to the lowest spinal segment is usually where most of the pain comes from and is located where a belt goes across the lower back. The subsequent tilt in the spine above the sacrum can cause compensatory problems all the way up to the neck.
If you experience an episode of back pain, ice the painful area with a flexible ice pack (or a bag of frozen vegetables such as peas or corn) and consider using some type of over-the-counter anti-inflammatory pain medication such as ibuprofen (Advil) or naproxen (Aleve) as directed on the label. You should generally avoid applying heat to acute pain, as it tends to increase inflammation. If you have trouble standing the cold, try putting heat on another area of your body, such as across your lap, while the ice is on your back. Avoid twisting motions—pretend you have a sheet of plywood stapled to your shoulders and hips, preventing you from twisting as you get in and out of a chair or your bed. Keep any weighty objects as close to your body as possible when holding them. When lifting anything, bend your knees to use your legs instead of your back—and remember that plywood!
Any pain that is either persistent or recurs in the same area is indicative of an underlying problem and should be evaluated. There have been many advancements in spinal care and rehabilitation over the last several years. Some very gentle and effective chiropractic techniques for the treatment of low back pain and stabilization of the spine are widely used and can cut treatment and recovery time in half. Restoration of spinal function through chiropractic care and therapeutic massage, coupled with core stabilization training, has been clinically proven time and time again as a leading treatment for low back pain caused by spinal dysfunction.
Reaching your full health potential can be nearly impossible when you’re in pain. It can be frustrating to try new activities only to find out that they make your pain worse. If that backache has been hanging around for some time, consider its far-reaching effects on your quality of life (and often that of your loved ones), and take control. You have options. The right therapy plan can get you started on a path to health without the pain.
Dr. Travis Wilson is a chiropractor at Pinto Chiropractic and Rehabilitation. He graduated from Life Chiropractic College in Marietta, Ga., in 1996. Wilson and his wife, Nan, and their five children recently relocated to Hampton Roads.
