Back Pain

When you hear the word chiropractic do you think of care for back and neck complaints? Many people do and yet the world's first chiropractic patient (1895) was deaf and recovered his hearing after a chiropractic spinal adjustment. The world's second chiropractic patient was relieved of a heart condition. Thousands soon praised chiropractic for saving them from headaches, colds, allergies, asthma, sciatica, arthritis, seizures, ear infections, stomach trouble, gynecological problems and many other conditions including back pain.

What Does Your Chiropractor Do?

Your chiropractor is specially trained to locate and free your body of a severe abnormality that interferes with your body's proper function. It is called a vertebral subluxation. It is a misalignment of your spinal bones or vertebrae that affects your discs, nerves, ligaments and ultimately, your entire body. Once your chiropractor relieves you of a vertebral subluxation, your body functions better.

Low Back Pain

Low back pain is very, very common. About 85 percent of the population will experience disabling low back pain at least once during their lives! That's almost all of us. The problem is so bad that, according to one researcher, at any given time 6.8% of the US adult population is suffering from an episode of back pain lasting more than two weeks. (1) That's a lot of bad backs. The estimated cost of this problem in the US is over $50 billion a year. (2)

Medical Treatments and Surgery

The standard medical approach to back pain varies depending on the severity of the condition. Muscle relaxers, painkillers, rest and physical therapy such as traction, diathermy, ultrasound, hot packs and cold packs, are sometimes used. These approaches are often found wanting however. (3) Even bed rest has been found ineffective for a serious form of back and leg pain called sciatica. (4)

If the problem doesn't improve or worsens then surgery may be performed.

The medical approach is at times necessary — even back surgery has a place. But research is revealing that spinal surgery for acute lower back problems should rarely be performed. (5) Many of those who have had back surgery report a recurrence of their symptoms within a year or two of the operation and may return to the operating table. Spinal surgery is currently a very controversial (and costly) approach to low back pain. Over time, most patients with disc herniations recover with or without surgery, so that outcomes after five years are similar when surgical and non-surgical approaches are compared. In the end, the decision to operate on a patient with a lumbar disc herniation usually depends on patient preference rather than necessity. (6)

The Chiropractic Approach

Chiropractors have helped millions of people with low back problems, often saving them, from pain, disability, drugs and surgery. The chiropractor's purpose is to gently and painlessly rebalance and realign your spine to relieve pressure on your nerves, discs and muscles. Chiropractors have a special term for an area of your spine that is not properly aligned and is causing nerve stress: a vertebral subluxation.

Anyone suffering from a back problem should see a chiropractor to have their spine checked for vertebral subluxations. If they are present, then the chiropractor will gently and painlessly correct the subluxation and release stress on spinal nerves, meninges, discs and vertebrae.

Why are the results so overwhelmingly in favor of chiropractic?

If a subluxation exists in your body it must be corrected. This could make the difference between a life of ease, health and comfort or a life of pain, disease and disability.

Major government studies from the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand, have reaffirmed what chiropractic patients have been telling their friends with back pain for years: Why don't you see my chiropractor? You'll get better much faster than from drugs or surgery — and it's safer too. For example: on the evidence, particularly the most scientifically valid clinical studies, spinal manipulation applied by chiropractors is shown to be more effective than alternative treatments for low back pain.

The Commission has found it established beyond any reasonable degree of doubt that chiropractors have a more thorough training in spinal mechanics and spinal manual therapy than any other health professional. (7)

There is, therefore, economic support for the use of chiropractic in low back pain. The benefit of chiropractic treatment became more evident throughout the follow-up period. Chiropractic was particularly effective in those with fairly intractable pain-that is, those with a history of severe pain. The percentage of chiropractic patients who were 'very satisfied' with the care they received for low back pain was triple that for patients of family physicians. (8)

Why are the results so overwhelmingly in favor of chiropractic? Because painkillers, muscle relaxers, Valium, T braces, physical therapy and surgery are not designed to correct vertebral subluxations. Chiropractic is!

More Than Back Pain

For over a hundred years people with all kinds of health conditions have visited their doctors of chiropractic. Many have initially come for back pain, but then discovered so many other ways chiropractic spinal care can help them and their family.

The goal of chiropractic is to free your body from subluxations, permitting realigning of your entire spinal column and releasing pressure on your nerves so your entire body may function at its optimum.

Soothe Back Pain and Sciatic Pain Naturally

If you suffer from sciatica, no one needs to tell you how painful it is. It's hard to believe that one or two vertebrae out of line can cause such intense pain all the way down your legs, but it's true.

The sciatic nerve supplies the hip, buttocks, posterior thigh, calf, and foot. Being the largest nerve in the body, the sciatic nerve extends from the lower spine down the leg to the foot. A single fall, accident, unusual exercise, or gradual posture deterioration can move one or more vertebrae out of their proper positions. These misaligned bones then compress or irritate the sciatic nerve as it passes through the openings between the vertebrae.

Spinal nerves are so sensitive that even the slightest pressure can substantially decrease their signals and cause a problem in any part of the body that the nerve affects. Extreme, intense pain in the legs, numbness, and muscle weakness are the most typical symptoms of sciatica.

Although analgesics may temporarily help combat symptoms, chiropractic care can provide more effective long term relief from sciatic pain. Chiropractic care gets to the root of the problem by correcting the cause of pressure on the sciatic nerve. Once the pressure is relieved, the radiating, burning pain and other symptoms are relieved.

In a study of 59 patients suffering from low back pain with radiating pain in the leg, 90% were helped with chiropractic care. A previous history of low back surgery was often a predictor of poor outcome of care.

Dr. Poehlman understands how the body works and is especially skilled in returning the misaligned vertebrae to their correct positions. If you suffer from sciatica, please come to our office. We're not satisfied until you are free of pain.

The sciatic nerve, the largest nerve in the body, extends from the lower spine down the back of the thigh to the knee. There it divides; one nerve runs down the front while the other runs down the back of the lower leg.

_________________________________________________________________

References:

1. Deyo RA. Description epidemiology of lower-back pain and its related medical care in the United States. Spine. 1987;12(3):264-268.
2. Low Back Pain, the S50 Billion Problem. Conference sponsored by the Institute for Low Back Care. Minneapolis, MN: Abbott Northwestern Hospital, September 30, 1982.
3. Acute low back problems in adults. Clinical Practice Guideline No. 14. U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. Public Health Service. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, Rockville, Maryland, Dec. 1994.
4. Patrick CAJ, Vroomen MD, Marc CTFM, et al. Lack of effectiveness of bed rest for sciatica. The New England Journal of Medicine. 1999;340:418-423.
5. Acute low back problems in adults. Clinical Practice Guideline No. 14. U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. Public Health Service. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, Rockville, Maryland, Dec. 1994. p. 30.
6. McCulloch JA. Focus issue on lumbar disc herniation: macro-and microdiscectomy. [Review] Spine. 1996;21(24 Suppl):45S-56S.
7. Royal Commission of Inquiry on Chiropractic in New Zealand, 1979
8. Meade TW, Dyer S, et al. Low back pain of mechanical origin: randomised comparison of chiropractic and hospital outpatient treatment. British Medical Journal. 1990;300:431-437.