Low Back Pain is the number one reason people go to the chiropractor and a very common reason they visit medical doctors. Low back pain ranges from mild stiffness or achyness that causes restlessness to debilitating spasms with sharp or electric like jolts that interfere with the ability to walk or even crawl. Such low back pain attacks often come on without warning in a person who only moments before seemed to have no physical problems.
Low back pain can be due to severe trauma such as sprain or strain from athletic injury or automobile accident. But more commonly, the cause is a lack of proper care and maintenance of a healthy physique. When this is the case, often a minor move such as bending or turning triggers the onset of paralyzing pain.
For someone suffering with even the worst of pain, this is good news. That is, fixing the pain may be as simple as restoring proper function to the spine combined with simple specific range of motion exercises that improve flexibility and joint lubrication. Even severe cases can often be resolved in a few days.
Sometimes low back pain irritates a nerve that runs down the leg. This can cause “radiating pain” often following a path into the buttock, posterior thigh, calf, and even into the foot and toes. Sometimes “pins and needles” or “numbness and tingling” are felt. This condition is usually referred to as “Sciatica”.
When the problem involves “radicular” pain or numbness such as this, it is an indication of a more severe problem. However, even radicular problems can usually be resolved conservatively with restoration of function combined with proper stretching and range of motion exercises.
If the low back problem is so severe that is causes loss of body functions such as loss of bowel and bladder control, this is an indication of a more serious problem. “Cauda Equina Syndrome” is rare, however, in the event of such symptoms, emergency medical attention should be sought immediately.
Chiropractors are trained to detect and correct loss of normal spinal function, called “subluxation”, and prescribe specific exercises to help encourage and maintain such improvement. Nowadays medical doctors are likely to refer low back problems to the chiropractor given their track record of success.
Dr. Michael Haley has been helping people with low back pain and scitica in the Pompano Beach Fort Laduerdale area since 1996.
Agape Chiropractic
Pompano Beach, Florida 33060
(954) 545-9750