How To Avoid Back Pain And Why Chiropractic Care Can Help

If you are wondering how to avoid back pain, especially all the way down your lower spine, read on to learn about the most common triggers of back pain, and how chiropractic care can help you find relief.

Back pain is one of the most common health problems the majority of people will experience at some degree throughout their lives. It mostly manifests itself in the lower back (lumbar spine) and may vary from a dull constant ache to a sharp, incapacitating shooting pain. It can appear suddenly, or start mildly and increase over time.

And even though the likelihood of back pain occurring increases as we age, it may be seen in young people as well.

Why Is Back Pain Affecting So Many Of Us? 

Because the lower back is made up of 5 vertebrae (L1-L5) that bear most of the weight of the upper body! This constant heavy work makes this region of our anatomy susceptible to injuries and wear and tear.

How To Avoid Lower Back Pain: A Classic Scenario

Avoiding lower back pain can be tricky because usually, the most common causes of lower back pain attacks are a pinched nerve, the misalignment of the spine (subluxation), or a muscle spasm. 

These are some of the cases we come across often in our Los Gatos Chiropractic Clinic and unfortunately are hard to prevent by patients, especially by those not having enough information about how to avoid back pain. 

For the patients that come to our office seeking help, the course of action is as follows; after diagnosing the root of the complaint, the chiropractor will prepare a treatment plan that involves in-office adjustments coupled with exercises at home. 

The 2 Categories Of Low Back Pain: Acute And Chronic

Before looking at how to avoid back pain, let’s first see the two main categories of low back pain.

Acute Low Back Pain 

This is a transitory type of pain that happens suddenly and is usually resolved within days, or a few weeks. It doesn’t leave the sufferer with a permanent loss of function.

Chronic Low Back Pain 

Chronic low back pain lasts more than 3 months. When the problem continues for this long, the patient needs to be diagnosed for potentially serious conditions such as;

• Scoliosis and posture problems

• Osteoporosis (age-related bone density loss)

• Sprains-strains and muscle spasm

• Disc or spine degeneration problems

• Arthritis or other autoimmune conditions

It is important to remember that pain may manifest itself even though the underlying cause is not severe. The opposite is also true. Sometimes a serious problem in the spine may not cause great discomfort. 

What Advice Can Be Given To a Low Back Pain Sufferer?

So, how to avoid back pain? The good news is, the majority of lower back problems are the acute type. Most of them will resolve themselves within a short time, with minimum care.

Although this may be the case, it is still important to find out why they came about. 

When an acute attack recedes, we feel great. But, we mustn’t let this positive feeling stop us from identifying what triggered it in the first place though. Doing this will help prevent future bouts. Once the real source — or sources — of the problem is known, your chiropractor will be in a good place to start treating you. 

If the underlying cause is a degenerative problem, a spinal cord issue, or a traumatic injury (sprain, strain, fracture) they will refer you to a neurologist, rheumatologist, or orthopedist. For most other conditions, you are at the right place in a chiropractic practice.

Potential Low Back Pain Triggers

Poor Posture

Among the most common causes of low back pain is poor posture. The good news is that chiropractic care can definitely help improve your posture, even if you suffer from problems such as scoliosis.

Lifting Heavy Objects

When looking for how to avoid back pain, another common cause is poor posture habits while doing risky movements. Most people don’t know the right way to pick up and carry heavy objects. If their jobs require them to do so regularly, it’s absolutely necessary to learn the correct form.

And even though most of us avoid lifting heavy objects, learning how to manipulate these can be a lifesaver. An acute bout of low back pain may pass in a few days or weeks but recurring bouts may lead to a chronic condition that may affect our quality of life for years.

Your chiropractor can teach you the correct way of executing such heavy chores. 

Repeated exercises are going to ingrain the precise movements and postures as a reflex. You will learn not to bend over but lower yourself by bending your knees, lift heavy objects close to your body, and always maintain the natural lower back curve (lordosis), among other techniques.

Fitness

Being physically fit is one of the best answers for those looking for how to avoid back pain. Strong lumbar and abdominal muscles help support the lumbar spine. However, other deeper and less known muscles also assist healthy spine movement, perhaps the most important being the multifidus.

Muscle Imbalances

Another potential culprit for low back pain stems from muscle imbalances. For example, if the psoas muscle (which bends the lumbar spine forward) is too tight, the natural curve will be lost, which will lead to chronic low back pain.

All these potential causes can be addressed and corrected at our clinic. We will diagnose the muscle imbalances and design the correct exercise sequences to correct them. 

If tightness is the root of the complaint, your chiropractor may advise you to do some yoga poses or other forms of exercise to safely strengthen the weak muscles.

Weight Gain

Being obese or having gained a significant amount of weight recently will increase the odds of experiencing low back pain. Especially as the patient gets older, the effect of body weight on lumbar complaints increases.

Exercises, good posture, and chiropractic therapies will definitely help, but in addition to those, it is always a good idea to consider losing weight.

The Best Course Of Action To Avoid Back Pain

One smart thing any acute low back pain sufferer can do is to visit a qualified chiropractor. You may visit us both during the attack or after it is healed. Your chiropractor will assess how you feel and your range of movement, carry out a physical examination, and ask you questions about your habits and routine. As a result, the causes of the pain will become clear.

The same advice is applicable for chronic low back pain sufferers.

Our chiropractors are well versed in all the issues that lead to both acute and chronic low back pain complaints and can teach you how to avoid back pain in the first place, so don’t hesitate to reach out to us and set an appointment.

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