According to studies, the majority of the population (80%) will experience back pain at some time during their life, and for many, their back pain will have long-term effects to their lifestyle and their health.
Pain is experienced when there is irritation to, or pressure on the nervous system. Throughout your entire body the central nervous system — which consists of the brain, the spinal cord, and the nerves that exit out in-between the spinal bones — registers pain and communicates the feelings of pain to your brain.
Back Pain can Sometimes be Delayed
What many people don’t realize is only 10% of your nervous system can actually feel pain. The rest of the nervous system is responsible for controlling and coordinating all the different functions of the body — your muscles, internal organs, heart and lungs, reproduction system, and every cell in your body.
Often, because only 10% of the nervous system registers pain, back pain from injuries, accidents, falls, or even lifting something incorrectly can take years to be felt. It is not uncommon for us to treat a patient for a back injury that occurred years ago, but is just now causing pain and problems. An example you might relate to would be going to the dentist and finding out you have a cavity, yet you haven’t felt any pain yet. This is because the cavity hasn’t hit a nerve yet. Back pain can be the same way. When you feel back pain it is your body’s warning system telling you something is wrong. This is one of the reasons we recommend Wellness Chiropractic Care.
Causes of Back Pain
In a list of causes for back pain, subluxations (or misalignments in the spine) ranks at the top. This is because the vertebrae in your spine can get out of alignment from something as simple as sleeping in the wrong position. Many of us have poor posture — both sitting and standing — that can contribute to subluxations. Playing sports, golf, tennis, softball, lifting and twisting, bending over — all these things and more cause subluxations (misalignments) of the spine on a regular basis.
Additionally, sprains to tendons and ligaments, muscle strains, osteoarthritis, along with disc degeneration and disc herniation cause subluxations. For many people these subluxations, caused by disc degeneration, may take years to manifest.
• Subluxations (Misalignment):
When the joints in the spine are misaligned, or out of alignment, and not moving properly. Subluxations will affect the nerve system in a negative way because misalignments in the spine will cause irritation to the nerves within the joints of the spine and that will cause pain.
• Disc Degeneration:
When a disc in the spine is degenerating the space between the joints gets smaller, and it starts to irritate the sensitive nerve fibers causing pain. As the disc gets smaller, the space available for the nerves to exit the spine gets smaller. Eventually, the nerves will start to rub on the bones of the spine causing pain. Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease that causes inflammation, and as the inflammation affects the nerves, your body will begin experience back pain.
• Muscles, Tendons & Ligaments Injuries:
Muscle strains, as well as sprains to your tendons and ligaments can cause an immediate jolt of pain in your back. Often during injuries to the muscles, tendons, and ligaments in your back, the joints in the spine are pulled out of normal alignment. Left untreated, these subluxations (misalignments) can lead to the loss of your normal range of motion, and ultimately osteoarthritis.
Back Pain is a Warning That Something is Wrong
If you are experiencing back pain you should not ignore it. Something is irritating the nerves, and if the irritation is putting pressure on the nerves, or pinching the nerves; your body will not be functioning as it should. Since the nervous system controls everything in your body, when it is not functioning correctly this can result in a lot of other problems.
Correcting the Source of Your Back Pain
When someone has back pain, our goal at Tuckahoe Family Chiropractic is to find the true underlying cause of the problem and correct it. Back problems left untreated will continue to get worse. Back pain shouldn’t be ignored because over a long period of time the misalignment of the spinal joints and the dysfunction of the joints will lead to degenerative disc disease, and eventually to osteoarthritis — which will bring long-term pain and problems.
As chiropractors, our goal is to find the source of your back pain and correct it, eliminating pain and restoring normal function. To do this we start with a consultation followed by tests and x-rays (if needed) to determine the underlying source of your problem and determine the best course of action to correct the cause of your problem. This will allow us to treat the actual source of your back pain, restore normal function and movement to your spine, and remove the cause of your back pain.
Too often instead of seeking proper chiropractic care to correct the real cause of their back pain many people have been conditioned to take a pain reliever. Please understand that a pain reliever, while providing temporary relief, does not fix the problem, it simply masks or hides the true underlying cause of your pain.
What Happens if I Allow Back Pain to Continue?
Back pain caused by subluxations, pinched nerves, herniated discs, and other irritants to the nerves, when left uncorrected does not simply get better on its own. These problems tend to get worse over time with the pain coming and going. Sometimes when the pain has stopped for a while people think the problem has simply gone away. At our office we have treated patients that have had back pain on and off for 5, 10, even 20 years. Over the period of time degenerative changes to the discs in the vertebrae or even osteoarthritis can occur. They may have even reached a point where the degenerative conditions cannot be reversed or restored to normal function. At this point proper chiropractic care will be able to stop the further degeneration of the joints, and can be effective at relieving pain, but a lot of damage will have been done to the spine. As you can see, ignoring back pain and allowing it to go untreated for a long time can lead to long-term problems.
Tuckahoe Family Chiropractic Helps Provide Relief for Back Pain
Back pain can affect people of all ages, with 80% of the population having to deal with back pain at some time during their life.
Chiropractic care is the best way to treat back pain, and delivers proven results. When dealing with back pain, whether from injuries or a subluxation, chiropractic care should be part of your initial treatment. We also recommend that you regular checkups with your chiropractor — just like you would with your family doctor or dentist — to keep your spine properly aligned.
Having a chiropractic appointment on a regular basis is the recommended way to maintain the alignment of your spine, the proper functioning of your nervous system, and prevent any potential back problems from becoming worse. Remember, only 10% of your nervous system feels pain, so you might have a problem already but not know about it yet.