Chiropractic Care for Low Back Pain

Today, chiropractors are the primary care providers for low back pain and associated conditions of low back pain. Chiropractic provides conservative and natural treatment approaches for the management of low back pain.

Back pain is the single leading cause of disability worldwide and prevents people from engaging in work and everyday activities. It is estimated that up to 80% of the population will experience back pain at some point in their lives.

While low back pain may appear common, it is not normal.

Understanding the low back 

Your low back, referred to as the lumbar spine, is composed of 5 vertebrae. The joints involved in the low back are important for bending and twisting. Vertebra also contain attachment points for muscles and ligaments that attach to other areas of your body such as the knees and shoulders.  

A few concepts are important to know when trying to understand low back pain: First, the amount of low back pain felt does not correlate to the amount of physical damage. For example, a strain of the low back muscles during lifting can be more painful than a herniated lumbar disc.

Second, there are many different structures in the body that can be the cause of low back pain. For example, “Sciatica" is an older term describing the symptoms of inflammation of the sciatic nerve. Sciatica involves radiating pain down the back of one lower extremity, usually including the back of the thigh and back of the calf, possibly extending into the foot. When lower back pain is accompanied by radiating lower extremity pain, it is useful to attempt to assess the relative distributions of such pain. If low back pain predominates or low back pain and sciatica pain are fairly equal in distribution (approximately 50% of the pain is in the low back and approximately 50% of the pain is in the lower extremity), then the sciatica pain may likely be caused by mechanical dysfunction in the low back. If sciatica is associated with a herniated disc, then leg and buttock pain will be the dominant symptom, compared with low back pain.

Chiropractors perform a detailed examination to determine the cause of your low back pain and any other associated symptoms. Once identified, chiropractic aims to treat the cause of your pain so that your symptoms subside.

Chiropractic care for low back pain 

Chiropractors treat low back pain through the following ways:

• Spinal adjustments: This is the most common method used by chiropractor to treat low back pain. It involves using controlled physical manipulation of the spine to improve spinal mobility without surgical procedures.
• Spinal Decompression: Decompression is a non-surgical comfortable traction therapy that provides relief from low back pain and possible associated leg pain. Specific levels of the low back are targeted under a negative pressure which causes a vacuum effect inside each disc. This helps improve disc mobility and blood supply, leading to low back pain relief and healing.
• Massage: Chiropractors also utilize massage therapy to manipulate the muscles of the low back to reduce low back pain and spasms. Massage therapy targets specific muscles that become tight during episodes of low back pain to help enhance relaxation and well-being.  
• Therapeutic exercise: Therapeutic exercise is beneficial for patients after they receive spinal adjustments and their pain levels have decreased. These exercises help strengthen the core and other muscles so that patients have the tools to promote long term spinal health and wellness.
• Therapeutic devices: These devices include electrical muscle stimulation, laser therapy, and spinal traction tables.  Immediate relief of low back pain is achieved using these modalities during the initial phase of care.

Call Dodd Chiropractic Clinic for low back pain relief 

If you have been living with low back pain for years or are suffering from a sudden onset of back pain, we are here to help.

Stop living with low back pain and start your journey towards spinal health and well-being with chiropractic care through Dodd Chiropractic Clinic.  Give us a call at 904-388-1811 or click here to schedule an appointment.