Why low back pain responds so well to chiropractic care...

Have you ever wondered why it is that so many people recommend chiropractic care for low back pain? You know that chiropractors adjust your spine. Automatically you associate chiropractic with back pain, but why? What is it that is causing the pain and what is the chiropractic adjustment doing to relieve that pain?

There are many, many different conditions that can lead to low back pain. Mechanical factors are the most common. Included in this category would be:
Facet syndrome, where the joints at the back of the spine between the bones are jammed together because of trauma or chronic mechanical stress.
Disc problems, including bulges, herniations and degeneration, where direct pressure can be placed on the nerves that exit the spinal cord, causing pain going into your legs (sciatica).
Subluxation, where poor motion and malposition of the joints of the spine cause nerve irritation and facilitation leading to low back pain.
Bone spurs caused by spinal decay can cause direct and indirect nerve irritation leading to low back pain.
Spinal stenosis can result from the protective ligaments inside the spinal canal becoming stretched and then kinked, putting direct pressure on spinal nerves or even the spinal cord.

Some of the causes of low back pain that are organic and may or may not have a mechanical factor include:
Kidney problems, which often cause pain in the flanks and low back area.
Pregnancy, which obviously leads to mechanical changes of the spine.
Intestinal problems, which sometimes first show up as pain in the lower back.
Cancer (prostate, colon, etc.) sometimes has a first symptom of low back pain that mimics mechanical causes.

Chiropractic adjustments work so well for the treatment of low back pain because they are designed to treat the specific area of malfunction. When the proper function and structure are restored to the specific joints of the spinal column nerve irritation and facilitation is eliminated and low back pain ceases. This is also why so many conditions other than back pain respond to chiropractic care. The spinal cord is the conduit for communication between the nerves of the body and the brain, and vice versa. When interference occurs with this communication, dis-ease results. It is important to remember that there are many causes of diseases recognized today, and that chiropractic does not profess to treat many of these. What chiropractic aims to do is provide the body with the best possible conditions for it to heal itself.

The best way to determine what it is that is causing your low back pain is to schedule an appointment with your doctor of chiropractic. Your D.C. will perform a thorough evaluation of not only the mechanical factors that may be causing your low back pain, but will also perform tests to rule out organic causes. This will insure that your condition will be helped by chiropractic care. Many times a combination of mechanical and organic causes may be present. In this case co-care with the appropriate medical professional will be recommended.

At Main Street Chiropractic Center we absolutely recommend seeing your doctor of chiropractic for your low back pain. This is the most conservative route of care, and it only makes sense to try the most conservative route with the best results before trying more aggressive and invasive options such as pain killing drugs or surgery.