Back Pain and Chiropractic Treatment

The Spine & Back Pain

The human spine is quite a phenomenal piece of engineering. Developed through years of evolution or by intelligent design? Well, that is probably a discussion for another forum. But it is extraordinary how well it does its job.

You may have heard people say that “we were not made to walk upright” and “if we walked on all fours, we wouldn’t suffer from back pain”.

Well, both statements are wrong. The human spine and pelvis are quite different from, for example, the chimpanzee’s, which prefer to walk with the aid of their arms and hands. The chimpanzee’s back and pelvis are not made for walking upright. Just watch how they walk when they walk on their hind legs only.

And secondly, animals such as dogs and horses do get problems with their backs, too. Ask any vet or chiropractor who treats animals.

The reason we get problems with our backs is mostly down to ourselves. It is not surprising that back pain is on the rise; in general, we sit too much, exercise too little, and often eat the wrong things. When we lift, we often lift the wrong way, and we do too much in one go. Let’s face it, we often abuse our backs. Most people do not even give their back a second thought until it starts to hurt. The spine, although a robust structure, needs to be maintained and looked after to ensure that it is not going to give you pain and discomfort.

The Anatomy

The spine consists of 24 vertebrae with discs between them. In the spinal canal runs the spinal cord, and a set of two spinal nerves exit at each vertebra.

Between each vertebra, there are two joints (facet joints), there are ligaments for passive support and several layers of muscles for active support. This makes it a strong but also flexible structure, allowing us mobility and at the same time gives good protection for the spinal cord and nerves.

So Why Do We Feel Back Pain?

The spine’s components, bones, vertebrae, discs, joints, ligaments, muscles, nerves and blood vessels are all pain-sensitive to a greater or lesser degree. So why do we feel pain?

Well, the sensation of pain is a protective mechanism, and without it, we would constantly hurt ourselves without knowing it. That would lead to irreparable injury and, therefore, ultimately a serious threat to our survival.

The distribution of pain nerves is not equal all over our body. The greater the risk of injury to a body part, the more pain fibres there are. For example, our fingers and toes are more sensitive to pain and temperature than for example our torso. The structures of the spine that have the most pain nerves are the joint capsules of the facet joints (spinal joints). So, it is reasonable to assume that the ‘designer’ of the spine expected the joints to be the most likely to get injured. The joints, muscles and ligaments are also full of mechanoreceptors (nerve endings that sense movement and position), which give the nervous system feedback of our activities. This also helps to protect the spinal structures.

Why Do Injuries Occur?

Essentially, the spine is a long chain of joints which are protected by ligaments and muscles. If some of the links stiffen up through injuries or anatomical changes it makes other links move more to compensate and eventually the overuse of the flexible joints cause pain through a sprain.

Most injuries are caused by what is called repeated micro-trauma, it means many small repetitive injuries, until the proverbial ‘last straw’. That is why people often hurt themselves doing trivial things such as bending to pick up a pen, and they hurt themselves before they even get to lift the pen. This can happen through fairly trivial activities. It does not have to involve heavy lifting, it is more often caused by awkward movements. Maybe things that you have done a hundred times before.

Once the injury has occurred and the nerve signals pain, the surrounding muscles go into a protective spasm to help splint the injured area. After a while, the muscle becomes more and more painful. Quite often, the pain in the tight muscle becomes more severe and takes over the symptoms. That is why it often feels muscular in nature, but the cause of the problem is the injured joint; this is especially true if you have recurring problems.

Why Does Back Pain Recur?

If you suffer recurrent episodes of spinal pain, it is usually a sign of what chiropractors would refer to as a functional ‘instability’. When you get a joint or ligament sprain, the healing creates scar tissue as part of the normal healing process.

Scar tissue is less elastic and breaks more easily. It has been shown that injuries leave the deeper muscles weakened, permanently, even after the pain has gone. The only way to make the muscle recover is to do specific exercises (see Spinal rehabilitation).

Injuries affect the nerve endings embedded in ligaments, disrupting their signals to the motor control system and impairing their ability to alert muscles to protect joints and ligaments.

What Can I Do To Stop The Back Pain from Recurring?

There are many different treatments available. Recent research shows that spinal manipulation of the type chiropractors do and in combination with exercise, is the most effective treatment for both acute and chronic back pain. Chiropractors advocate dealing with the underlying neurological, mechanical and muscular problems.

Just relying on taking pain killers and rest does not deal with the underlying causes, so even if the pain goes away with rest, it is bound to come back due to the remaining underlying weakness.

My Pain Usually Goes away In A Couple Of Days

That is good! But each time you injure your back, you create more of a weakness. The natural progression of back pain is that after each episode you are more likely to get another episode. The episodes usually get more frequent and start to last longer, and eventually, the pain does not go away at all.

The biggest risk factor for getting back pain is having had a previous episode of back pain, and recurrent injuries to the same area is what can eventually cause a disc herniation (see Disc injuries).

Painkillers Simply Mask The Pain!

Chiropractic treats the cause of the pain, unlike pain-killing drugs, which just mask the symptoms.

For more information and advice on how our treatment can help you with back pain, including disc herniation, sciatica and referred pain, contact us at Isis Chiropractic Centres.