Lower Back Pain: Causes, Treatments & Relief

Most of us have had it, some worse than others. For those lucky few that have never experienced it, God is looking down on you. We are talking about back pain today, specifically low back pain, and how to treat it.

Lost Work

According to Dr. Anders Cohen, Low back pain is the number one cause of lost work in the United States. On average, 83 million days of work are lost per year.

That is a lot of days. With those days also comes a lot of lost income. The average household income per day is around 400 dollars, which means that each year on average the United States loses $34,561,200,000 per year in income just due to back pain.

Who Is Affected?

Low back pain affects at least 80% of people in the United States at one point in their lives. It is also estimated that low back pain alone costs the US economy more than 50 billion dollars each year in medical expenses and lost productivity.

What Causes Low Back Pain?

There are many different causes of low back pain. The following are just a few examples.

• Injury or Trauma

• Poor Posture

• Obesity

• Pregancy

Many different scenarios can lead to low back pain. The most common we see at our office in Johnston Iowa is an old injury that was never treated, and continues to linger for years.

Chiropractic And Low Back Pain Treatment

One of the best ways, and least invasive ways to treat low back pain is to get adjusted by a licensed neurologically based chiropractor.

What does neurologically based mean?

I am so glad you asked! The most common form of chiropractic is called fixation based or structural based chiropractic care. We see them in Grimes, Johnston, Urbandale and all over Des Moines. These offices are where you receive a manual adjustment or an adjustment with “twist, crack or pop”. This style of chiropractic works, do not get me wrong, but there are more specific and impactful way to change the spine, not to mention less aggressive.

At Clarity Chiropractic in Johnston, we utilize Torque Release Technique or TRT to adjust our patients. Rather than feeling up the spine and finding areas of fixation, we ask the body a series of yes or no questions and determine exactly where and when to adjust. This method of adjusting allows us to get long term structural correction without needing to twist you like a pretzel. We are the only office in Johnston Iowa utilizing this neurologically based approach, and our results speak for themselves. Don’t take our word for it, read what our patients have to say about our office, or you can listen to what Tom has said about us in his testimonial video.

Chiropractic care is often used to treat and prevent low back pain. Studies have shown that chiropractic care can be effective in reducing pain and improving function in people with low back pain. Chiropractic care is also helpful in reducing inflammation and increasing blood flow to the low back. Combo chiropractic care with some Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment and you will be unstoppable.

Here are some of the benefits of chiropractic care for low back pain:

• Reduced pain. Chiropractic care can help to reduce pain in the low back. This is because chiropractic care can help correct misalignments of the spine which leads to reduced reduce inflammation.

• Improved function. Chiropractic care can help to improve function in the low back. This is because chiropractic care can help to restore the natural alignment of the spine and improve range of motion in the low back.

• Increased range of motion. Chiropractic care can help to increase range of motion in the low back. This is because chiropractic care can help to correct misalignments which often leads to a decrease in tight muscles. The muscles tighten up in an unstable area or an area with a large amount of misalignments. When the misalignments are corrected, the muscles relax, and range of motion problems are restored.

• Reduced inflammation. Chiropractic care can help to reduce inflammation in the low back. This is because chiropractic care can help to correct misalignments of the spine and improve blood flow to the low back. This increase in blood flow will pull the inflammation away, and lead to even more healing.

• Improved blood flow. Chiropractic care can help to improve blood flow to the low back. This is because chiropractic care can help to correct misalignments of the spine which leads to better passage of blood vessels and in turn, better blood flow to the lower extremities.

If you are experiencing low back pain, chiropractic care is an effective treatment option for you! Schedule a consultation with our doctors to learn more about how you can live a pain free life.