Chiropractic Treatment of Lower Back Pain

By Dr. Steven Warfield

Nobody likes to go through a day, let alone a lifetime with chronic pain, especially spinal pain. Yet there are few of us who will go through a lifetime without experiencing back pain, either from muscle strain or due to a sports injury or an accident.  The important thing to understand when you do encounter back pain is that you are not alone.  Nearly 22 million Americans visit chiropractors annually. Of these, 7.7 million are seeking relief from back pain. 

When someone injures their back, the first response is usually either an over the counter or prescription pain killer.  While this may make the pain go away temporarily, this does nothing to address the underlying cause of the problem.  While many people are reluctant to seek medical help, avoiding treat

Pain Research & Management (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

ment can not only cause the injury to become more chronic over time, but there is also the problem of drug dependence which can lead to problems of its own.

Research has shown that pain caused by tissue inflammation often does not surface for several days or even weeks following an accident. Additionally, it is not uncommon for either muscle groups or bone position to be radically altered following an accident, where pain does not present itself for as long as several months. A spinal vertebra that is out of place may even place pressure on the surrounding nerves and in so doing mask trauma which will later manifest as chronic pain.

While I can understand the public’s aversion to surgical intervention, chiropractic is a health care profession dedicated to the non-surgical treatment of disorders of the nervous system and/or musculoskeletal system.  Chiropractors use hands-on spinal manipulation and other alternative treatments that are designed to help the body heal itself without surgical intervention or medication. Manipulation is used to restore mobility to joints restricted by tissue injury caused by a traumatic event, such as falling, or repetitive stress, such as sitting without proper back support.  Other treatments can include the use of ultrasound, electro-stimulation and even therapeutic lasers, all of which can be used to reduce back pain and inflammation.

More importantly, not only do chiropractors offer treatment designed to bring the body back into balance, but they also offer lifestyle enhancing regimens such as:

·         Exercise. Various cardiovascular, stretching and strengthening exercises may be prescribed by chiropractors to decrease lower back pain, increase strength and restore range of motion.  Chiropractors may also have patients do exercises that strengthen weak and under or overstimulated muscles of the trunk and pelvis.

·         Ergonomics. During the course of chiropractic care, the chiropractor may recommend some procedures that can be employed at home or at work. It isn’t uncommon for a chiropractor to uncover an occupational hazard as the underlying cause of a patient’s pain.  Modification of an activity or appliance can sometimes relieve the problem and lead to a complete recovery.

·          Patient education. After consulting with a patient, a chiropractor may advise a variety of lifestyle modifications, including diet and nutritional programs, self-care and coping strategies that could be of great value to a patient experiencing lower back pain.

The important thing to note is that the healing process can start with a simple call to arrange a free consultation with a licensed and qualified chiropractor.  The evaluation will not only begin the process that can help alleviate pain without the use of medication, but it will also help you get your body back in balance so that you can get on with your life.  And that’s the most precious gift of all.

Dr.’s Steven Warfield and Dr. Dave Edenfield offer the most advanced treatments for back pain, sciatica, neck pain, whiplash and headaches. They also treat auto accident victims with state-of-the-art technologies.
If you or anyone you know suffers from herniated discs, degenerative discs or spinal stenosis,  visit http://www.lakewoodchiropracticjax.com/

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Making the Pain Go Away

By Dr. Dave Edenfield

Living with pain is no easy task, especially if it reduces mobility or interferes with one’s livelihood.  Unfortunately for all too many people, chronic pain has become a way of life.  In order to get through the day, many people rely on painkillers to make the pain go away, if only for a few hours.  While a short term fix, these products only mask the problem.  They don’t alleviate the underlying issue.  Plus, the use of prescription pain killers can do more harm than good in the long run, causing the user to exacerbate the injury, become dependent upon painkillers or worse.

English: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Druid Hills CDP in unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia as seen from Emory University (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A recent report by the Center for Disease Control stated that, “An unknown number of patients were given potentially contaminated steroid injections, with a rising number of those injected now showing symptoms of fungal meningitis, While no original source of the outbreak has been 

found, the CDC has determined that all infected patients identified thus far have received preservative-free (PF) methylprednisolone acetate (80mg/ml) from among the three lots voluntarily recalled by the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Massachusetts, on September 26, 2012."

While the threat of tainted medications is bothersome to say the least, there is an even a bigger threat to public health, that is the fact that during the past twenty years the use of prescription painkillers has risen dramatically. 

Increase in U.S. Retail Drug Purchases, 1997-2005 (Amount Sold in Grams)
Drug	1997	1999	2001	2003	2005	Change*
Oxycodone	4,449,559	9,717,597	19,947,287	26,655,149	30,628,971	588%
Methadone	518,736	965,389	1,893,322	3,683,878	5,362,813	934%
Fentanyl base	74,085	107,158	186,082	317,197	387,926	423%
Morphine	5,922,870	6,804,933	8,810,755	12,303,954	15,054,842	154%
Hydrocodone	8,699,309	12,102,623	15,597,209	21,106,646	25,803,541	197%
Hydromorphone	241,806	292,585	400,639	579,370	781,284	224%
Source: Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Automated Reports and Consolidated Orders System. Revised Aug. 1, 2007.  * Percentage change in amounts sold from 1997 to 2005.

What most people do not realize is that the best route to reducing or eliminating pain in their daily lives is to treat the problem and not the symptoms.  Masking the pain can lead to even greater damage that could ultimately lead to a surgical solution.  However, there are non-surgical chiropractic treatments that can both reduce discomfort while working to reduce or even correct the underlying causes of chronic pain. 

Chiropractic treatments typically focus on, but are not limited to, care of:

·         Mid and lower back pain

·         Neck pain

·         Joint pain in the arms and legs

·         Headaches

@chiropractic I Voted (Photo credit: planetc1)

Chiropractors typically treat conditions involving back pain and/or neck pain through “hands-on” adjustments of the spine and surrounding structures.  They believe that as a result of overuse the spinal column can become stressed.  This results in imbalances that can lead to pain, dysfunction and disease. 

 Employing spinal manipulation along with other proven forms of therapy, chiropractors can also bring other tools to bear to alleviate pain, such as electric muscle stimulation, ultrasound and even laser therapy. 

Laser Therapy uses red and infrared light for the relief of pain, to accelerate healing and decrease inflammation. When the light source is placed against the skin, the photons penetrate several centimeters and get absorbed by the mitochondria, the energy producing part of a cell. This energy fuels many positive physiological responses resulting in the restoration of normal cell morphology and function.  Unlike many physical therapy treatments that mask pain or only address the symptoms of disease, Laser Therapy treats the underlying condition to promote healing. This means that the treatments are effective and the benefits of laser Therapy are long lasting.

If you or someone you know is experiencing chronic pain, feel free to show them this blog and let them know that there are other remedies available that will do more to make the pain go away than simply using medications to mask the symptoms.  Through chiropractic care there is hope for long term pain relief.

Dr. Dave Edenfield is part of the team of doctors and therapists at http://www.lakewoodchiropracticjax.com/who are dedicated to helping the public lead a healthy, pain-free life. 

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