Why Doesn’t My Back Pain Go Away?

You have been seeing medical doctors that prescribed medication, chiropractors that adjusted you, physical therapists that exercised you, and massage therapists that rubbed you and yet your back pain persists.  Why?  There is a saying that the doctor always uses; “if you step on a cat’s tail does the tail scream?”  Silly question, yes, but it demonstrates a point. Most likely, other practitioners were treating the site of pain (where your body is “screaming”), but not the source (the “tail”).  We look beyond the site of pain to remove the cause.  In our office, chiropractic is more than back adjustments. The following are examples of why your back pain may persist.

Excessive Pronation/Fallen Arches

Some people are born without arches, while others lose them later in life. This is not an issue for persons born without an arch. For everyone else it may be the culprit.  To demonstrate this, you can look, or have someone look at your Achilles tendon on the back of your foot.  Look for bowing on the side were the arch has fallen.  You may also see your foot turning in.  How can this cause back pain? 

If you build a tall building and the first floor is not stable, the rest of the building is unstable.  The same applies to the body.  This picture demonstrates a “functional short leg” created by an arch that is excessively pronated.  The foot and ankle turn inward, causing the knee and hip to follow.  The body naturally wants to stay straight, so it can compensate all the way up to the neck.  Often this creates a scoliosis of the spine and one shoulder higher than the other side.  All of these problems are due to pronated feet.  This is why the doctor examines the feet and measures the arch drop during a new patient examination.  With treatment and orthotic,s most, if not all, symptoms resolve.  Treatment can include adjustments to the feet, legs, hips and spine; rehabilitation; motion release; therapy; deep tissue therapy; facilitated stretching and custom orthotics to restore the arch.

Short Leg Syndrome

This syndrome has the same effect on the body as fallen arches.  We are not all born symmetrical.  As we develop, sometimes one leg grows longer than the other resulting in adaptations in other tissues including disc, cartilage, bone, ligament, muscle, and nerve, etc.  The doctor will check for leg length discrepancy during the new patient examination.  The treatment mentioned above and custom orthotics with a lift to even out the leg length discrepancy.

Muscle Imbalance

The role of a muscle in the body is to move the bones.  Therefore, if muscles are tight the full range of motion can be limited in that joint.  This can lead to improper biomechanics; in other words, you just don’t move correctly.

A good example of a small muscle that causes lot of problems with the back is the piriformis muscle illustrated here with some other minor muscles.  The piriformis originates at the sacrum and attaches at the top of the thigh muscle.  When you sit a lot, like most desk workers, the muscle becomes tight because it is always in a contracted or shorted state.  If in that position for an extended amount of time on a daily basis, the muscle remains contracted (tight) even when you stand up.  The sacrum’s movement is now restricted, resulting in low back pain. With chiropractic adjustment, which provides a fast stretch to the muscles helping them to release, and an appropriate stretching/strengthening program the pain can be relieved.

This is only one example of a muscle that can cause low back problems.  Many muscles attach to the bones and discs that make up the low back.  These can include some commonly know muscles like the abdominals, hamstrings, quadriceps, and glutes.  Some muscles are not well known, like psoas, tensor fasciae latae, quadratus lumborum and adductor magnus to name a few.   The doctor performs muscle tests to identify the particular muscle or muscles that are causing your individual problem.  A treatment plan is created by the doctor based the findings from these and other tests performed during the examination.

What Every Body Needs Chiropractic & Rehabilitation

To schedule an appointment call (619) 265-2222 or e-mail us at frontdesk@whateverybodyneeds.net