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 Lower Back Pain
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EVERYTHING ELSE		      If you have never experienced lower back pain you are the exception as 80% of us have.  For some it means a back ache, pain into the buttock or even down the leg.  For those with a serious disc problem it can be debilitating.  The good news is that in most cases the problem can be corrected or at least managed.

Some things that can lead to Lower Back Pain:

  • Overexertion:  this one is obvious, if you work too hard you can pay the price.  This is probably the most common reason that people feel pain in their lower back.
  • Falls:  falling down the stairs, out of a tree, off your bicycle or slipping on ice; we have all done it.  One fall by itself may not be enough to cause a problem but over time your lower back may become weakened and more susceptible to being injured with even a small fall. 
  • Whiplash:  normally we would not think of an injury to our neck as a contributing factor in lower back pain.  When you consider that the spinal cord has a strong attachment at the base of the skull and at the bottom of the spine it becomes easier to see how tension at one end can cause stress at the other end.
  • Spinal Stenosis:  in rare cases the space in the spinal canal is not large enough for the nerves that make up the spinal cord and pain can result.  Since the never tissue normally only takes up about a third of the space even when that space is reduced there is a good possibility of managing the pain and making better use of the available space.
  • Bulging Disc:  the disc is made of a fibrous ring filled with a jell-o like substance called the nucleus  that distributes the forces evenly.  When the fibers start to break down, due to too much twisting, the material in the nucleus will cause the wall of the disc to bulge.  When it bulges against nerve tissue pain is often the result.
  • Herniated Disc:  When the fibers in the wall of the disc break down enough the material in the nucleus can force through and leak into the spinal canal. 
  • Congenital Anomaly:  this is a problem that goes all the way back to birth and usually does not cause pain in and of itself.  Normally the lumbar spine has five vertebrae but in about 10% of the population there is an extra lumbar vertebra.  This can appear as a normal vertebra or one that is not perfectly formed.

What can you do about lower back pain?

  • Stay in shape:  the stronger the muscle in your abdomen are the stronger you lower back will be.  For that matter the better your physical conditioning the lower your risk of injury.
  • Get Adjusted:  The Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, the federal agency that establishes standards of care studied all the known literature on acute lower back pain.  They rated all the available treatments and gave its highest recommendation to adjustments and its lowest recommendation to surgery.

Courtesy of 3DScience.com.

 

To find out how to correct your problem call Dr. Gallagher, DC at 480-513-3909 right now or email him at drbillgallagher@yahoo.com.

 

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