Many people have low back pain at one time or another in their life time. It could be just a short episode where you overdid some work and have an achy feeling for a couple of days and then it completely resolves itself with no more pain. It could also be where you have weeks, months, and years of low back pain that started as a simple ache, but which has progressively grown worse over the years to be a strong ache or sharp pain. It could even limit what you would normally do like walking, sitting for prolonged periods of time, and even keep you from good sleep at night.
What is the Cause? There can be a number of different causes for low back pain. You may have overworked some lumbar muscles which in turn have pulled a vertebrae out of place. You also could have irritated the disc (the padding between the two vertebrae). This typically causes deep ache and/or sharp pain when you move wrong. You may even be slightly off center (antalgic) as the body tries to take additional pressure off of the disc.
With chronic low back pain, you may not even remember how you originally hurt your low back, but the vertebrae and sacrum are usually out of alignment and there may even be a slight to moderate curve (scoliosis) in the low back. You started off with some low back pain for a couple of weeks with it getting better on and off, and then it eventually becomes sore all the time.
Chiropractic treatment helps to realign the vertebra, balance out the muscles, and takes pressure off the disc and the nerve roots. Dr. Zager also gives all her patients at Zager Chiropractic Services strengthening exercises and stretches that will help you prevent future back pain and will increase your flexibility and the mobility of your spine.
Stretches: Back Rocks: lying on your back, bring one knee up to your chest, then the other knee. Then bring both your knees up to your chest and pump your knees. This exercise puts a lot of motion into you low back and sacrum.
Low back ranges of motion: standing or sitting, lean forward (with your hands on your thighs), lean back slightly, turn to the right and the left, and lean to the right and left. Do not go past a point of pain, and always do pure movements.
Ice: Use an ice pack for 10 – 15 minutes at a time. This helps take some of the inflammation out of the area.
Heat: You can use heat (moist heat is the best – i.e. a hot shower), but you MUST follow it up with 10 – 15 minutes of ice, otherwise you will stiffen up after the heat.
Strengthen your Core Muscles: your core muscles include your stomach, back muscles, buttocks, and thighs. These all need to be strengthened and BALANCED with each other. See our website www.zagerchiro.com for Core Exercises or join one of Dr. Zager’s core exercise classes to learn these exercises.