Lower Back Pain

Back pain and especially lower back pain is one of the most common problems people deal with. Over 620 million people deal with back pain every year worldwide and back pain causes people in the United States to lose over 83 million work days a year. Back pain costs billions in health care every year with lower back pain costing over $50 billion a year. 

Back pain can be very debilitating and the most common treatments people use are over the counter pain killers, rest, heat, massage, physical therapy, injections, muscle relaxants, acupuncture, antidepressants, and surgery. Most of these only treat the symptom of back pain and do not fix the underlying cause of back pain. ​

Back pain is often blamed on an accident, a fall, or lifting something heavy, but most often these are just the straw that broke the camels back. Acute and chronic back pain is the result of a loss of joint mobility, muscle flexibility, muscle strength, stability, and balance over time that leave the back vulnerable to injury. 

To understand the cause of back pain, we must first have a basic understanding of spinal anatomy and movement patterns. The human spine consists of 33 vertebrae - 7 cervical (neck), 12 thoracic (mid back), 5 lumbar (lower back), 5 sacral (fused together), and 4 coccygeal (often fused together).

​Each vertebra of the spine is designed for both movement and weight-bearing. In order to work optimally, the vertebra need to maintain both their ideal alignment and range of motion. Since bones don't move bones, muscles move bones - balanced muscle strength and flexibility is essential for optimal spinal health. 

---

The spine however, doesn't work by itself, but is sitting on top of the pelvis and between the shoulders and scapula, and these parts all affect each other. For good spinal health, the pelvis needs to be level, balanced, and stable and the hip joints need to have good range of motion along with stability. A pelvis that is higher on one side can quickly lead to back problems and cause everything from herniated discs, to back spasms, to sciatica, to sacroiliac (SI) joint pain. 

Thoracic flexion, kyphosis, or upper back rounding doesn't just create issues for the upper back, but can also lead to lower back pain. If the upper back is rounded forward it will have a limited ability to extend and the lumbar spine will often take over that extension demand which can cause lower back problems including: spondylolisthesis, degenerative disc disease, and stenosis. 

The important thing when dealing with any type of lower back pain is to not just treat the symptoms, but look at your standing posture and movement to find any postural imbalances, muscular weaknesses, or range of motion limitations that are the underlying cause of your lower back pain. 

Want help? Contact me for a Free Posture Evaluation on Zoom from the comfort of your home today!