Back Pain Relief in Mt. Pleasant TX
Research suggests that 50% of Americans will suffer from low back pain during their lifetime, with 35% of you suffering at any given moment. Low back pain is a significant expense to Americans, with over $50 billion spent each year on surgeries, medicines, and therapies to help manage the pain. When you start looking at indirect costs, like loss of productivity in the workplace due to pain, that number doubles to over $100 billion spent each year. This is called presenteeism – employees show up for work but often do not perform their best due to their pain or being under the influence of pain medication.
Turning to medication is often the strategy in the traditional medical model. Low back pain is one of the most significant catalysts for our current opioid epidemic as medical doctors scramble to treat the pain instead of getting to the root cause of the problem. We all know the cost of the opioid epidemic if addiction settles in, not only the toll it takes on bank accounts but also on relationships and quality of life. We’d like to help as many people as possible avoid that at all costs.
Most folks understand that when you have problems in the spine or a pinched nerve, or what we call a subluxation in the spine, they always assume they will be able to feel that. And in some cases, they can, but that’s not always true. Less than 10% of the nerves in your body are sensory and contain pain receptors. That means the other 90% of your nerves are not sensory and don’t send pain signals but rather control the systems and organs in your body. That is called the autonomic nervous system. That system regulates involuntary processes, including heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, digestion, and the reproductive system.
How Our Care Works
- Feel Better: The first weeks of intensive care will have you feeling better as we address problems and stop further damage.
- Get Stronger: Your body will grow stronger as we realign the body and train the spine to hold and support a healthier position.
- Be Healthier: A healthier spinal structure will unlock your true health potential, while regular checkups will maintain optimal health.
How We Treat Low Back Pain
We like to get to the root cause of your low back pain. We do a thorough exam, including x-rays, body scans, and foot scans, to find out exactly what is going on so we can start treating you from a whole-body perspective. We use the latest technology and techniques for the most gentle and effective treatment available. It’s crucial that we have a way to measure the function of all your nerves, not just the ones that can communicate pain to you.
We use two different types of scans to check nerve function:
- Thermography Scan: A test that uses an infrared camera rolled down the spine to detect heat patterns and blood flow in body tissues. If there’s inflammation, it will be picked up by the thermography scan to pinpoint the location of the problem.
- Surface EMG Scan: This is a diagnostic procedure to assess the health of muscles and the nerves that control them. EMG results can reveal nerve dysfunction, muscle dysfunction, or problems with the nerve-to-muscle signals.
In addition to the scans, we also do a complete set of X-rays. There are a few reasons why we x-ray almost every patient we see. First, it shows us whether or not you have a subluxation (spine out of alignment) and helps us determine whether we can help. Also, x-rays are vital in determining how long you’ve been injured, giving us insight as we develop a care plan for you. Lastly, it provides us with a baseline to compare future x-rays. About every four months, we take a new set of x-rays to check your progress. It’s rewarding for the patient and doctor to see all the time and effort you have put into your healing pay off when you see the old and new x-rays side by side. X-rays are also helpful in deciding future care and mapping out a plan to get you back to health.
Specific Chiropractic Care
Low back pain is a spine problem and, in most cases, a nerve problem. The brain controls every function in the body by sending signals through the spinal cord. For all your cells and organs to truly be healthy, we need a clear pathway from the brain to send signals down. The reverse is also true. Every system and organ needs a clear path to the brain to send messages about the environment around them.
Chiropractic adjustments can help relieve low back pain by addressing underlying mechanical problems in the spine. When the joints in the spine are not moving correctly, it can cause tension and inflammation in the surrounding muscles and tissues, leading to pain and discomfort.
Adjustments restore proper movement and alignment to reduce tension and inflammation in the surrounding tissues, which can help alleviate pain and discomfort in the low back. They also improve nerve function in the low back. When the joints in the spine are not moving correctly, they can compress or irritate the nerves that run through the spinal column. By restoring proper joint movement and alignment, chiropractic adjustments can help to reduce nerve irritation and improve nerve function, which can help to further reduce pain and improve overall function in the low back.
Chiropractic adjustments are a safe and effective way to address mechanical problems in the spine and alleviate low back pain without using drugs or surgery. If you’re suffering from low back pain, we’d love to get you in so that we can do a thorough examination and see how we can help you get back to doing the things you need to do, want to do, and love to do.
Common Causes of Low Back Pain
A strain and a sprain are two types of soft tissue injuries that can occur in the back and cause low back pain.
Strain: an injury to a muscle or tendon in the back, often caused by overuse. Symptoms of a strain may include pain, stiffness, and limited range of motion.
Sprain: an injury to a ligament in the back, which is the tissue that connects bones to each other. Sprains can occur when the ligaments are stretched or torn due to sudden movements or trauma. Symptoms of a sprain may include pain, swelling, and bruising.
Both strains and sprains can cause low back pain by putting pressure on the muscles and nerves in the area. The pain may be felt in the lower back, but it can also radiate to other parts of the body, such as the buttocks, legs, and feet.
Our spinal discs are shock absorbers to our spine and provide space for our nerves to exit the spinal cord and service the body. A herniated disc is when the soft gel-like center of a spinal disc protrudes through a tear in the disc’s outer layer. This can cause pressure on the nearby nerves and lead to pain, numbness and tingling, muscle weakness and spasm, inflammation, and restricted movement.
Arthritis is a condition characterized by inflammation and stiffness in the joints. There are many types of arthritis, but two of the most common types that can cause low back pain are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
Osteoarthritis is a degenerative condition that occurs when the protective cartilage that cushions the joints wears down over time. When this happens in the joints of the lower back, it can cause pain, stiffness, and reduced mobility. Osteoarthritis can be caused by aging, obesity, or previous injuries to the lower back.
Rheumatoid arthritis, on the other hand, is an autoimmune disease in which the body’s immune system attacks the joints, leading to inflammation and damage. When this happens in the joints of the lower back, it can cause pain, stiffness, and reduced mobility. Rheumatoid arthritis can also cause other symptoms, such as fatigue and fever.
In addition to causing pain and stiffness in the lower back, arthritis can lead to other complications, such as nerve compression and spinal stenosis (narrowing of the spinal canal), which can cause additional pain and discomfort.
Subluxation is a misalignment of the vertebrae in the spine that may affect the normal function of the nervous system. Many factors, such as poor posture, repetitive stress, or trauma, can cause the misalignment.
When a subluxation occurs in the lower back, it can cause pressure on the spinal nerves, leading to low back pain, nerve irritation, restricted movement, muscle tension, and postural issues. It can also affect communication between the brain and the body resulting in the dysfunction of cells, organs, tissues, or entire body systems.
Chiropractic care can help correct subluxations and restore the normal function of the nervous system, reducing pain and other symptoms. Treatment may include spinal adjustments, therapeutic exercises, and other techniques to improve posture and reduce stress on the lower back.
Posture is critical to the spine’s structural integrity and, therefore, our overall health. Poor posture can contribute to low back pain by putting additional stress and pressure on the muscles, ligaments, and joints in the lower back. Poor posture results in muscle imbalances, spinal misalignments, disc pressure, and poor circulation, leading to low back pain.
To help prevent low back pain caused by poor posture, it’s essential to maintain good posture throughout the day, including when sitting, standing, and walking. This may involve changing your work environment, such as adjusting your chair and computer screen or incorporating regular breaks to stretch and move around. Regular exercise and stretching can also help to improve posture and reduce low back pain.
Take the First Step
Contact our team today to schedule your appointment. We look forward to meeting you soon!