Low back pain can be difficult to treat for most practitioners. In the wise words of one of my professors in chiropractic college, “when it comes to low back pain, chiropractors suck the least at treating it.” In saying that, his intention wasn’t to discredit anybody or to say that we aren’t good at treating it. His intention was to explain that it is so multi-factorial that those who don’t use good diagnostic and holistic treatment skills will often not have good patient outcomes when treating low back pain and that other professions (MDs, PTs, orthopedists) simply don’t get the outcomes that chiropractors do. In his case, he would venture to say that chiropractic care with physical therapy and steroid injections are the way to go.
If you’ve read anything else on my website before this, you should understand that that is completely opposite of how I treat. His message still rings in my ears. What is the missing piece of the puzzle that he believed our maximum potential to treat low back pain is to “suck the least” of any practitioner? I argue that utilizing manual muscle testing and biofeedback mechanisms allow for the greatest success in treatment of pain. Stick around and learn why the method I employ is good, if not great, at treating low back pain, and why your low back pain isn’t getting better.
Detraining Your Way Into Worse Pain
Low back pain can arise due to a variety of reasons. Oftentimes there is trauma involved that leads to immediate pain. Especially with low back issues, acute trauma can lead to chronic issues as pain leads to change in function and activity. If you hurt your low back while bending over to pick up a box while moving, would you want to go and pick up another box right away? Probably not. That is a very simplistic view on change of activity, but it carries over to any aspect of daily activities. If a man threw out his shoulder playing catch with his son, maybe he would avoid throwing or even doing anything overhead with that shoulder for a while.
When activity changes due to pain, there are very often altered movement patterns that are learned, and weaknesses in underused muscles that follow. There is a thing called the chronic pain cycle. This cycle begins with acute injury that leads to activity avoidance. Avoiding activities leads to detraining of muscles. Detraining then leads to increased susceptibility to re-injury. This can be a difficult cycle to break and often applies to patients with low back pain.
Hidden Causes
Sometimes, low back pain arises when there hasn’t been an obvious injury. Patients can try to justify causes for their issues, but there was no significant trauma. In these cases, the need to think holistically is vital to see decreases in pain levels. When there is an imbalance of the gut microbiome due to bacterial, fungal, or parasitic infections, there can be a viscerosomatic reflex in the muscles of the low back that causes an increase in tension, leading to pain. In this case, the spine is very rigid and ceases to function as a flexible, but stable spring as it usually does. Patients who have this won’t see any relief from pain without healthcare intervention through anti-microbial therapies.
How We Treat
In our office, we utilize a technique called applied kinesiology to identify many things that vary from functional muscle strength all the way to which anti-microbial herbs are most suitable to treat gut infections (as well as other things). Utilizing manual muscle tests, we can functionally assess the neurology of the patient using a variety of reflexes to identify what is causing muscular weaknesses. For the treatment of low back issues, we will test many low back and hip muscles and treat them using manual therapies and supplementation. In the case of gut infection leading to low back pain, we use this technique to assess not only the gut, but immune function and nutritional support to kill off the infection as well as to help the body filter out the waste generated by immune function.
Spot The Cause
In order to properly treat low back pain, we need to know what the cause is. Use the following signs and symptoms to get a better idea of what might be causing your issues:
Musculoskeletal low back pain:
- Try to remember if there was some sort of injury or trauma that caused it. Acute injury can lead to chronic issues and be musculoskeletal in nature.
- There are specific movements that make the pain either better or worse. If bending over or leaning back causes pain, then it could be muscular in nature.
- Identify muscular imbalances that you might have. Try some easy at home assessments such as a single leg glute bridge. If one side is weaker than the other, then muscular imbalances can be causing your pain.
Low back pain caused by the gut:
- There wasn’t any injury or trauma that caused the pain in the first place. Gut infections can cause more gradual pain that doesn’t have a definitive start.
- Symptoms of digestive issues such as constipation or diarrhea, bloating, gas, heartburn, and abdominal tenderness.
- White or yellow coating on the back of the tongue. This is often worsened after eating a lot of sugar or drinking alcohol.
- Itching or rash present near the anal region
Regardless of the cause of your low back complaint, proper examination by a professional is always the best course of action. If you tend to have any of the symptoms listed above, then I highly recommend seeking care from a professional. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to book a free consult with me here. For more articles about aches and pains, click here.