Hi, everybody. I’m Dr. Kinney, your chiropractor for low back pain in Belmar, NJ.
Here at Kinney chiropractic, one of the most common conditions that we treat is lower back pain.
So up to 80% of all people in the world are going to develop some sort of lower back pain or lower back condition in their lives. And it is the number one cause of disability in America.
So the reason why lower back pain is so common is because half of your body weight rests on these couple, several joints of the lower back spine and everything you do, sitting and standing, bending, lifting, running, sports, it all requires a strong, stable, lower back.
Two Types of Low Back Pain | Chiropractic Belmar, NJ
So there are two main types of lower back pain that we treat in this office. There’s acute low back pain, and there’s chronic low back pain.
So acute low back pain is something that usually develops suddenly. You lifted wrong, you bent wrong, maybe you had a quick, you know, trip or fall or sports or auto injury. And this lasts maybe a few days to perhaps a few weeks.
Chronic lower back pain is something that develops over time.
Chronic lower back pain we see a lot in our office. And it’s usually the results of a previously untreated acute, acute lower back pain injury. And as something that kind of worsens over time.
Chronic lower back pain lasts from a couple of weeks, maybe a couple months, to perhaps years, and is sometimes difficult to treat.
Which is why because acute low back pain does develop into something chronic, it’s really important and imperative that you get any lower back pain treated as quickly as you possibly can, so that it doesn’t become a lifelong problem.
Low Back Pain Treatment | Chiropractic Belmar, NJ
So there are three major areas of concern that we address in any lower back patient that comes into our office.
The first is what’s going on with motion, and alignment of the spine. So we always want to assess alignment of the spine to make sure not only that it’s straight.
But we also want to see if there are any vertebrae that not only are out of alignment, but are locked. So typically when the spine does shift out of alignment, it becomes like a locked, stuck joint.
And sometimes the patient will actually tell me it feels like it’s stuck, it doesn’t want to move. This is what we call in chiropractic, a subluxation.
So vertebrae that shift at a place can become locked or stuck. And they usually start to irritate or pinch or press on the nerves that exit out here. This is what chiropractors adjust.
So adjustments are what gets motion and movement back in those spinal joints, correcting normal alignment, but also alleviating and taking pressure off of the nerves that exit out there.
So that you can not only reduce pain, but feel better motion and range of motion and movement and just feel overall better.
The second area of concern that we always want to address is what is going on with the health of the discs. So discs are like these little shock absorbers that are in every in between every one of our vertebrae, from the neck, spine all the way down to your tailbone or your sacrum.
And so when there’s good space, and the discs are nice and healthy, we have these nice big holes or openings, which are where all the nerves exit out from the spinal cord out to all of the body parts.
Now, repetitive stress, injuries, accidents, poor motion, sudden slips and falls can all cause problems with the discs. And there are two main types of problems. A bulge can occur in a disc or it can become what we call a herniation.
Low Back Pain Assessment | Chiropractic Belmar, NJ
In a later video, I’m going to describe the difference between a bulge and a herniation. So go and check that out. We always want to make sure that there are no disc injuries or problems whenever we assess what’s going on with lower back pain.
So the main way that you can diagnose a disc bulge or herniation is with a very expensive test called an MRI. We not do that in our facility. Often insurance companies don’t want to pay for this expensive test.
So we utilize digital X ray in our office and even though you can’t see exactly what’s going on with a disk through X ray, through specific analysis, assessment of the alignment and maybe spacing we can see if perhaps there’s some sort of problem or injury or problem or something going on with the disc that we need to address.
As a holistic doctor, I always work conservatively. With chiropractic care, stretching, adjustments, soft tissue work, to try to create a healthier scenario for this patient before we ever refer to pain management, or God forbid have to refer to surgery.
So the last area that we need to address in any lower back condition is what’s going on with the supporting soft tissues.
Soft tissues are things like muscles and ligaments and tendons and core musculature. When there’s instability, misalignments of the spine subluxations in the spine, pinched nerves, the muscles will always tighten up and spasm around those problem areas to try to decrease the abnormality.
So during any lower back exam, we always want to assess what is happening with the soft tissue and try to create a healthier scenario for the soft tissue, and work to see what muscles are not functioning well, or what muscles may be overstretched or what my muscles may be too tight.
Chiropractic Exam for Low Back Pain in Belmar, NJ
And of course, in order to determine what’s going on with any of this, we have to do a thorough examination. So in our office, we take a very detailed history and do a very detailed consultation with our patients.
And then we go into a very thorough exam, which includes not only chiropractic tests, we use orthopedic testing, neurologic testing, we check range of motion, we check posture, we do very specific palpation.
And then of course, we take those very detailed digital X rays. So we don’t only guess we actually know and can see clearly what’s going on in black and white with our patients.
And then we can go back and actually show you as the patient where those problem areas are. And then we put together a detailed treatment plan, which includes not only chiropractic, but maybe stretching, strengthening soft tissue things exercises that we can do to help to support your lower back pain problem.
And not only get it better, and get you out of pain, but work to create a scenario so that you can stay pain free and live a long healthy life without any problems in the future. So thank you so much for watching this video.
Come look out for more of our videos to come. And I appreciate you tuning in. Have a great day.
