Ow! My Back Hurts!

Back pain is one of the most frequent complaints heard in any doctor’s office. Though there are many causes of this universal complaint, by far the primary cause is due to muscle weakness from trauma. And that trauma can be years old.

Think back and try to remember all the jolts, jars, falls and accidents you have experienced, not just as an adult but also as a child. Most of the time there was no damage to muscles or bones; you got back up and went about your business with only temporary soreness.

Then there were other times when you hit hard – really hard. If you were a child, your caregiver kissed your “boo-boo,” your crying stopped and everything was assumed to be “all better.” As you grew older you experienced more jars, jolts, or falls and you kept on going – sometimes out of sheer pride or determination to not take time to stop. After days, weeks, or months the pain slowly went away and you assumed it was “all better.” But was it really?

The spinal column is the center of human motion and the muscles that connect to it help keep us upright, stable, and mobile. After a jar, jolt, fall, or accident, the body attempts to biomechanically adapt to the physical trauma in an effort to keep us from feeling pain. This doesn’t mean the problem is corrected; it means that the body is quietly going about its business to decrease pain by creating a distortion pattern. Millions of people are walking around with these postural distortions and don’t even know it. Unfortunately, not only the spine is involved.  The spinal nerves that reach out to other muscles, bones, sections of your skin, and organs are also affected.

Consider the facts:

• Americans spent $134 billion from 1996 to 2016 on treatments for neck and lower back pain.
• That’s more than treatments for diabetes ($111 billion) or heart disease ($89 billion).
• Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy in DC states that back problems are among patients’ most frequent complaints to their doctors. “Nearly 65 million Americans report a recent episode of back pain.”
• Georgetown also reported patients were more satisfied by Chiropractic treatment than standard medical care.
• Some 16 million adults — 8 percent of all adults — experience persistent or chronic back pain and are limited in certain everyday activities.
• Back pain is the sixth most costly condition in the United States. Healthcare costs and costs related to missed days of work and disability payments are over $12 billion/year.
• The NIH (National Institute of Health) states that during their lives, four in five adults experience lower back pain.

As a Chiropractor and trained Applied Kinesiologist, I can help you avoid being one of these statistics. Through posture analysis, muscle testing, and correcting postural distortions caused by weak muscles, I will help you get out of pain and return to the confidence you once had in your own strength and agility.