If you suffer from constant or recurrent back pain you’re certainly not alone. Chronic back pain is a growing problem in the US. It interferes with your ability to perform in all areas of your life and as you will find out, if you don’t take corrective measures it results in a much more severe condition.
According to the CDC for those over 45 yo 44% of adults experienced back pain and it rises above age 65.
My model of health doesn’t as much involve how long one lives but rather how long they live while expressing vibrant health. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to walk around with a walker or oxygen or have difficulty getting up off the floor.
Overcoming chronic back pain is essential if you want to be active and productive and enjoy yourself.
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Eliminate Chronic Pain…Retrain Your Nervous System
Caution With Chiropractic
As a chiropractor I see people every day who come in with back pain. And, I have an approach that I will share shortly that offers predictable, repeatable, and measurable results.
The most important results you should expect with seeing a chiropractor for chronic back pain are:
- Resolution or marked reduction in your pain
- Return to the activities that bring you the greatest joy
- An understanding of what you can do to change the trajectory of your back
But, after more than 35 years of practice and experience with a number of chiropractors I must admit you should be very selective about choosing a chiropractor to treat you.
Here are a few guidelines on selecting a chiropractor and then I’ll review what I consider the 4 essential keys to finding a chiropractor to overcome chronic back pain.
- Does the chiropractor provide manipulations or adjustments? This is actually very important. Simply look up the definition of each and decide for yourself.
- Try to find out if the chiropractor does the same routine every single visit. Many chiropractors and especially budget places like ‘The Joint’ provide cookie cutter care that looks identical from one person to the next. You want both a personalized program and something that changes as you do.
- You want a chiropractor that will address your entire spine. The vast majority of the time I find the cause of a problem above, below, or on the opposite side of where the pain is. Simply treating your pain might offer short term relief but it will not correct the problem.
- Find a chiropractor that will offer you insights as to how you might be contributing to your pain. Here you want to understand the basics of sitting, standing and moving that doesn’t perpetuate the pain.
- Find a chiropractor that offers specialized movement or exercises that activate the muscles that work against gravity. Simply going to the gym might get you more fit but will not activate these muscles that get turned down with our lifestyle.
4 Essential Keys to Overcoming Chronic Back Pain
Your body is amazing. The human body is constantly regulating tens of thousands of chemical reactions along with heart rate, breathing, digestion, and blood pressure. It is also self-healing. All healing, whether from a cut, a fracture, a viral infection, or back pain happens from the body.
So, if you are experiencing chronic back pain something must be interfering with your body’s ability to bring you back to a state of balance and heal the pain.
All pain and everything else in life is experienced through your nervous system. If you are experiencing a chronic issue then something is interfering with your nervous system’s ability to facilitate healing and return to balance.
The focus of overcoming and correcting chronic back pain must have the goal of removing tension and interference from the nervous system and returning it to a state of ease.
Essential Key #1: Structural Balance. As I stated your body is forever working to maintain a state of balance or homeostasis. This also applies to the structure of your body.
Here’s a simple way to assess this. It will help to have an assistant. Stand in front of a full length mirror (or bathroom mirror). Have someone behind you put their hands on top of your pelvis on each side. Is one side higher than the other? Move up to the shoulders and look for imbalance. And, finally to the head. The ear lobes offer the easiest place to assess this.
Imbalances, especially at the pelvis and head are indicators of significant stress in your spine. Where you are out of balance does not tell you where the problem is. I often find an imbalance in the upper neck causes pelvic unleveling.
Essential Key #2: Spinal Joint Motion. Your body is designed to move. In fact the nerves that control pain require joint mobility to eliminate pain. Any restriction of a joint will result in some pain. This is especially critical for all the joints that support your weight when you sit, stand, and walk.
A loss of mobility of any joints starts a domino effect. First the restricted joint gets inflamed and tender. Next, since that joint is not moving properly other joints must compensate and pick up the slack. These are often the joints that start to express more pain.
Restoring balance and motion to all the pelvic and spinal joints is an essential component in reducing nerve irritation and overcoming chronic back pain.
Essential Key #3: Posture and Movement Patterns. When you experience pain you instinctively adopt postures and alter your movement in an effort to avoid or reduce the pain. While this might work short term, over time these patterns often become perpetuating factors in your chronic back pain.
It’s important to avoid as many postures and movements that add stress to already irritated and inflamed joints and tissues. This is where taking an anti-inflammatory medication actually works against you. It might help relieve the pain but it allows you to continue to reinforce the imbalance causing some of the pain.
Essential Key #4: Restore Function & Balance to the Postural Muscles. The Posterior Chain Muscles become inactive due to our modern life. Sitting especially causes tightening of the muscles of the front of body and inhibition of the critical posterior chain muscles.
In my practice once I’ve restored mobility to the spine and pelvis and proper balance my clients start on a simple but challenging program of activating the posterior chain. These exercises take less than 10 minutes and can be done at home with no equipment.
I view these posterior chain exercises as sort of antigravity exercises. They directly address the critical muscles that are inhibited and weakened due to our modern lifestyle.
Most people consider chiropractors as back doctors. That’s understandable but the real benefits of chiropractic are realized with a chiropractor whose focus is on the nervous system. Health is dependent on a nervous system free from tension and interference. The same applies to chronic back pain.
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