Low Back Pain Causes People To Seek Chiropractic Treatment In Independence MO
Low back pain is probably the most common symptom that causes people to seek help from a chiropractor. Dr. Bryan Baker, founder of the Spine Hand And Foot Clinic, is a chiropractor in Independence, MO. In this series of videos, Dr. Baker puts lower back pain…also known as lumbalgia…into a simple perspective so you can make better decisions.
Low Back Pain: Fractures, Dislocations, Infections and Bone Disease Must Be Ruled Out
A chiropractor may not be your best choice for the treatment of back pain. It depends on what’s actually causing the pain. The first thing to consider is whether there is a serious issue that deserves emergency evaluation. Severe recent trauma could have caused a dislocation or fracture. Chiropractic treatment would not be appropriate until it is clear that the area is free of these types of injury.
The bones of your back are also subject to infection and to attack from various types of cancer. And some conditions, like an aneurism (ballooning) in the abdominal aortic artery can cause your back to hurt. Before providing treatment for your low back pain, your Independence MO chiropractor will ask appropriate questions to ensure that these conditions are not likely causes of your pain and that it would be safe to provide chiropractic treatment.
Back Pain Usually Has A Mechanical Cause That Can Be Relieved By Chiropractic Treatment
Now that we’ve eliminated more serious trauma and disease, your chiropractor here in Independence can probably relieve your low back pain. The better you understand why your pain happens, the better you can control future episodes. There are many reasons why you may suffer from episodes of pain in your back, but the direct cause can really only be that chemical or mechanical pain receptors are being stimulated…giving you the sensation of pain.
Pain in your back is felt if something stimulates a chemical or mechanical pain receptor in your back.
This could be caused by chemicals that your body produces with inflammation. Or it could result from stretching or compressing tissues in your back. But pain is the direct result of stimulation of a pain receptor. And inflammation or physical/mechanical distortion is what stimulates pain receptors.
In the next video with the Spine Hand and Foot Clinic of Independence, MO, Dr. Baker will delve deeper into inflammation…the primary chemical cause of pain in your back.
Inflammation is frequently considered a bad thing, but it may not really be your enemy.
Inflammation is at the scene in almost all chronic diseases, including low back pain. As a result, a common medical treatment is anti-inflammatory medications. But inflammation is a very intelligent response to trauma and is actually a required part of tissue healing. Although inflammation is nearly always present at the scene, it is not necessarily a good idea to get rid of it because you may be interrupting a required natural response…and setting yourself up for recurrent episodes of continuing back pain.
Americans who eat the standard Western diet are more subject to chronic states of damaging inflammation.
The Western diet promotes an “over” inflammatory state of the body. Anti-inflammatory medications, including steroids and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID’s) are give for symptomatic relief of many conditions. But the inflammation itself is rarely the real problem. Inflammation is an intelligent response of your body. So recurrent low back pain might indicate the presence of an inflammatory state of your body. If that is the case, diet must be altered or the inflammatory state will continue to be produced from the inside out…and episodes of low back pain could persist.