Back pain

How back pain starts

Back pain has many causes. Something as simple as twisting the wrong way in bed can do it; so can work, chores at home, or a car accident or other fall. Relief from back pain is one of the most common reasons people come to a chiropractor.

The low back is where it happens most, but the middle of the back (the thoracic spine) and the neck hurt too. These injuries involve the vertebrae, the discs between them, and the muscles, ligaments, tendons and joints around them.

Muscles and discs

Muscle strain is behind a lot of low back pain: the long muscles that hold your spine upright, the erector spinae, can become inflamed and go into spasm. A disc that’s out of place can press on the joints, nerves, muscles and ligaments around it.

Most back pain is mechanical: it comes from how the parts of the back move and carry load, not from a serious disease.

Don’t wait it out for weeks

Rest, ice or heat and over-the-counter pain relievers settle many sore backs. But if the pain lasts more than a couple of weeks, the muscles guarding your back can weaken from disuse, which leaves you open to the next injury.

How we help

Gentle Activator adjustments help the joints of your back move well again. Rehabilitation and exercise programs then rebuild the strength that keeps them that way.

Get emergency care for back pain with numbness in the groin or legs, loss of bladder or bowel control, or a fever, or after a serious fall.