Lower back pain is a nightmare. No matter how mild or severe it intrudes in your life, limits your participation and performance, and drains you. 

And, lower back pain is both a common cause of, and an indicator of developing Osteoarthritis of the Spine. This is also called Degenerative Joint Disease or DJD. The more this develops the more difficult it is to correct the lower back pain. It is almost always possible to reduce the frequency and severity but degenerative changes are permanent. 

According to the National Library of Medicine almost 20% of people between age 20 and 59 suffer from chronic low back pain. It obviously tends to increase with age. Let’s explore why low back pain is so prevalent and more importantly what can be done.

Low Back Pain is an Epidemic

According to the CDC the incidence of low back pain is increasing among all age groups. And, the number of people who suffer from chronic low back pain is at an all time high. 

A significant percentage of visits to the ER, Urgent Care, and Primary Care Physicians is for low back pain. That presents a problem given the nature and cause of the vast majority of low back pain. 

With the rising incidence and severity of low back pain one question we should be asking is WHY? 

And, the next question should be what can we do about it?

WHY: The reasons are multifold. First, we live a much more sedentary life and with it sit a lot more than ever before. Sitting puts 40% more pressure on the lower discs than standing or lying down. That’s just one facet of why we have an epidemic of low back pain. 

WHAT: How to solve this outside of changing our lifestyle is found in exploring what is causing the low back pain and looking to what can be done to correct it. This is what we will be exploring in this article. 

3 Critical Keys to Low Back Pain

Let’s focus on chronic low back pain. You can experience acute low back pain due to overexertion or an injury. When the pain lasts more than 3 months or keeps recurring, it now becomes chronic in nature. 

Chronic low back pain, like most other chronic conditions, is indicative of  imbalances in the body. These imbalances hold the keys to solving the nightmare of chronic low back pain. 

I was drawn to chiropractic as a result of my experience with chronic neck and back pain that developed as a result of untreated injuries from an auto accident. I’ve spent the past 36+ years researching, exploring, and refining my techniques to help people escape the cycle of chronic pain. Here’s what I’ve found are the 3 most important keys:

Critical Key #1: Balance – what is meant here is the balance of your structure. With almost every person experiencing chronic low back pain I find significant imbalances. The pelvis is usually unlevel as are the shoulders and head. Any imbalance of the pelvis changes the mechanics of every step one takes. It puts uneven stress on the hips, sacroiliac joints, and lower lumbar joints. 

It’s essential to bring the body back into balance to start by finding the cause of the pelvis being unlevel. Any imbalance causes a chain reaction of compensations that are often the cause of the pain. The body is always doing its best to bring itself back into balance. 

Critical Key #2: Spinal Joint Mechanics – you have joints in the pelvis and between every 2 spinal bones. Joints exist for one purpose and that is to provide for movement. If a joint loses its mobility in any way the body immediately shifts the stress to other joints that have to move more. This added stress to these joints is a tremendous contributor to chronic low back pain. 

Both the imbalance noted above and the loss of proper joint motion are key contributors in the eventual development of chronic degenerative arthritis. And, this is an additional source and intensification of low back pain. And, progressive restriction of motion comes with it.

Critical Key #3: Balance – Strength – Movement – The longer the combination of restricted pelvic and spinal joints along with imbalance exists the more loss of function of the spinal muscles happens. Even after restoring balance and joint mobility it is essential to activate the muscles of proper posture and movement. These “anti-gravity” muscles need to be woken up and engaged. It is also critical to unlearn poor movement patterns and replace them with patterns that are protective of the low back. 

Since low back pain is a mechanical problem the longer you experience it the more loss of function you experience in the low back and pelvis. This causes compensations which along with the loss of joint motion sets in process a cycle of pain and progressive joint degeneration.

Treating chronic low back pain with short term relief measures from ice to anti-inflammatories to massage to periodic chiropractic adjustments is doing absolutely nothing to correct the underlying problem, which is mechanical. 

The longer you experience recurrent or constant low back pain the more likely you are causing an acceleration of the aging of the joints in your pelvis and lumbar spine. We call this Degenerative Joint Disease. No sense letting that happen if it is possible to stop that process and live pain free. 

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