Back pain causes a chain of events that aren’t too pretty. As a practicing Denver chiropractor, I’ve seen more than my fair share of people brought to their knees, literally, due to back pain. It’s one form of pain that you just can’t tough out.

The body is one contiguous unit. It must be treated as such. If you chase the pain trying to get back pain relief, far too often you’ll come up empty. The pain you experience in a certain spinal area, say the lower back, may not be the primary area that’s injured. For instance, middle back pain causes muscle spasms, which can cause the lower back, or even neck and shoulders to overwork by compensating.

Here are a few more obscure back pain causes…

Did you know that an inflammatory diet, the ‘Standard American Diet’ (S.A.D) can contribute to pain and discomfort? Did you know that one of the most common side effects of statin drugs is muscle and joint pain?

Yep.

Kidney pain causes a referral of soreness or deep ache to the lower back. Depending on the kidney, it could cause left lower back pain or right lower back pain.

Upper back pain causes the thoracolumbar muscles to spasm, which can have an effect all the way down to the pelvis. Range of motion now becomes compromised, which, in turn, can cause the piriformis muscle, located near the buttock, to spasm. And guess what? The sciatic nerve runs right through the middle of the piriformis muscle! This is known as Piriformis Syndrome. This can cause hip and leg pain or sciatica. Sciatica causes the leg to experience pain, numbing and/or tingling.

A herniated disc (disk), can also contribute to back and leg pain.

Back pain causes tender trigger points and trigger points can be treated with manual therapy techniques. Unbeknown to many, the best chiropractor can offer much more than just a spinal adjustment. Sometimes a chiropractic adjustment is not the therapy you need. Solving chronic pain is almost always a matter of good clinical detective work. With all of the ‘crumbs’ in place, the doctor and patient can follow the clues to locate the cause of the pain in your back. It makes the remedy much easier.

Horses and zebras both leave similar tracks, but they’re VERY different from each other!

Physiatrists, physical therapists and chiropractors are all well trained in providing tips for a spinal strengthening routine.  If your primary care doctor is not up to speed on neuromuscular medicine and is immersed in only allopathic methods, you may need to add someone else to your health care team, as these types of muscle, tendon and soft tissue injuries are quite common.

FYI – If your back pain causes you to experience an inability to be able to stop or initiate urination or defecation… that’s a 911. These are nerve and spinal cord related effects of a ruptured disc causing what’s known as Cauda Equina Syndrome.

If you’ve been experiencing lower back pain, take a few minutes to read this through and consider the sources that may be hurting you.

Certain nerves control certain functions in the body. Pain is only one of the functions. Certain nerves carry certain messages. Pain is what’s called a nociceptive signal sent to the brain in response to an even that could be painful.  Not all nociceptive signals are reproduced in the brain as pain though.  Sometimes the signal can be nociceptive, but the amplitude of the signal isn’t high enough to register as pain.  In this case it might only be a dull ache or nothing at all.  Take for instance a sports injury like cutting a finger in a football game and not feeling it; nociceptive thresholds can change due to your activity or due to such day to day things stress.

Lower back pain left alone too long may turn into things like sciatica or numbing and tingling in the leg, which could be sign of a herniated or bulging disc (disk). A lot of times I see improper foot bio-mechanics as the causative factor in chronic LBP. ‘Causative’ meaning THE primary reason for pain in the lower back, sacroiliac joints or hip pain or piriformis syndrome.

Many times a person may injure their low back and not notice the pain till that evening… or the next day. It’s possible that the injury was a muscle strain in this case and when activity decreases the muscle and the pain threshold ‘relax’ enough to notice the nociception to the point that the brain registers the signal as pain.

Bending forward and pulling weeds in the garden is a pretty common task, but if done for too long it can be similar to a lifting injury.  If you hear a ‘pop’ in your spine, it’s likely you over did it. Maybe a ligament injury or herniated disc. Maybe the pop was a strained muscle or a joint dysfunctionly moving.  Back off of your activity and rest immediately until you can be checked.  Letting an injury recover right away is always best – no matter how big or small the injury may seem.  Eventually, injuries will always catch up with us if we ignore them. Symptoms is your body’s way of communicating with you about it’s well-being…pay attention.

Lower back pain affects 80% of Americans at some point in their working lives.  All professions are susceptible too…office managers, receptionists, laborers, drivers, and CEO’s.  Injuries can be chronic in nature such as poor ergonomics.  Chairs with little support aren’t necessarily bad.  The important thing to consider is how well it fits you. Even the best chair with good support ‘steals’ the job of supporting your spine from your core spinal muscles.  Is support bad, no. The point is to maintain a level of fitness that is synonymous with your lifestyle so that YOUR spine can support itself and do what you ask of it.

DRX9000 spinal decompression treatment for sciatica, back pain and herniated and bulging discs is quite simply a pain relieving, alternative treatment for patients who experience chronic back and leg pain or chronic neck and arm pain.

The DRX9000 (which treats the lumbar spine for lower back conditions) and the DRX9000C (which treats the cervical spine for neck and arm pain) are forms of treatment referred to as “non-surgical spinal decompression therapy.”

Spinal decompression therapy is an effective treatment option for the management of pain and disability for patients who are suffering from lower back pain, leg pain and/or sciatica and nerve or joint and soft tissue pain generated from the discs in the low back or neck.

The application of treatment with the DRX9000 is designed to apply decompression forces to compressed and degenerative structures of the spine.

Non-surgical spinal decompression treatment involves a series of rhythmic, intermittent and alternating stretching and relaxation cycles. The gentle forces are targeted to the injured spinal areas which aim to relieve the pain and symptoms associated with herniated discs, bulging discs, sciatica and facet syndromes (like facet arthritis).

We offer this therapy in the Denver, Colorado metro area. DRX9000 spinal decompression is available at our Lakewood chiropractic clinic.

Therapeutic laser for pain relief and tissue healing has become a ‘go-to’ alternative treatment modality for chronic pain syndromes in our chiropractic clinic in Lakewood.

In fact, it’s hard to imagine practicing without it. I’ve used it with great success for the treatment of acute injuries such as recently sprained ankles, as well as chronic conditions like low back disc herniations and carpal tunnel syndrome.

As a chiropractor and complimentary and alternative practitioner, I’m always to willing to research and? explore new natural healing methods. Nothing is stopping medical doctors from doing the same but it’s peculiar how many just don’t.

So, while most of mainstream medicine remains on the sidelines, there are some practitioners of sports medicine, who are highly motivated to find new ways to heal soft-tissue injuries by using such treatments as laser therapy.

Here’s an interesting story I found that flew under the radar regarding sports injuries and laser therapy…

In the week before the Super Bowl, Boston based registered nurse Ellen Spicuzza treated more than 10 Patriot players with laser therapy for soft tissue injuries.

“A couple of days prior to the Super Bowl weekend, I treated Patriot wide receiver David Givens, who had a ‘locked-up’ hamstring,” she said. She applied laser therapy over?the “belly” of his hamstring muscle for about five minutes, she said.

“The laser released it.” Spicuzza, an independent nurse/physical therapist in Boston, usually treats Patriot players’ injuries with medical massage. For the Super Bowl, she, for the first time, used low level laser therapy on the athletes’ most troublesome pain spots.

Spicuzza was skeptical before being introduced to laser therapy, “I am not into gimmicks,” she said.?“I didn’t think it would help.” She changed her mind after seeing how fast the laser therapy expedited healing of some of the players’ pain and soreness. “I don’t think the improved ?recoveries were a coincidence,” Spicuzza said. “It did help. I used it on a flared-up sciatic nerve, and the player had relief soon after treatment.”

What will really catch on, whether it’s in the NFL or the local PTA, is the fact that therapeutic laser not only relieves pain but speeds up healing time in a number of tough to treat conditions…naturally.

Cortisone Injections vs. Laser Therapy

Cortisone Injections (also know as Corticosteroid Injections or Cortisol Injections) can be effective at reducing pain associated with inflammation. Cortisone is an anti-inflammatory medication that mimics the effects of a naturally existing hormone in our bodies known as Cortisol. Cortisol is released by the body during times of emotional stress or injury. Most spine injections, back pain injections, and arthritis injections involve corticosteroids. Prolotherapy is a type of injection but does not use corticosteroids.

TOP 5 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

BEFORE GETTING CORTISONE INJECTIONS

#1: By Blocking the Inflammation You May Also Slow the Healing

Blocking inflammation often provides significant, albeit temporary, pain relief. However, inflammation is the primary healing mechanism of the body. Inhibiting the inflammatory process with cortisone injections or anti-inflammatory medications (Advil, Motrin, Ibuprofen, Aleve, etc.) can delay or even stop the healing process.

Delayed healing of injured tissue usually leads to the over-accumulation of scar tissue and weakening of the muscles, ligaments and tendons. This can make the injured tissue more susceptible to injury in the future.

Why Laser Therapy May Be an Great Alternative to Cortisone Injections…

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Fibromyalgia Treatment and Oxygen Deprivation

As a Denver CAM doctor, I do not treat fibromyalgia solely a musculoskeletal disorder- because it isn’t solely a musculoskeletal disorder.

Fibromyalgia is far more neurologically based than muscularly based. It’s just that your muscles feel most of the pain. Most of the Fibromyalgia diagnoses that I see come from Rheumatologists. A Rhueumatologist, by definition, is a  doctor that specializes in disorders of joints and soft tissues- not nerves.

In this article I will bring some evidence to the table that may cause you to question whether Fibromyalgia is more of a joint and soft tissue disorder or, as I and others feel it is, a neurological disorder.

Plenty of new research shows that a Fibromyalgia diagnosis is far more likely to be of a neurological origin then a rheumatic one.  The term rheumatology originates from the Greek word rheuma, meaning “that which flows as a river or stream,” and the suffix -ology, meaning “the study of.” (Which is ironic to me since nerves and blood seem to flow like a river much more than joints).

Most of my Fibromyalgia patients are chronically tired. But what actually get tired is your brain.

“Nerve Exhaustion” is a phrase I’ve coined that I feel accurately describes what happens in Fibromyalgia.

One of the unique treatment approaches I employ for fibromyalgia patients is the use of oxygen therapy.

Listen to what noted Professor of Medicine MAJID ALI, M.D. has to say about the four major symptoms of Fibromyalgia sufferers……

4 Major Symptoms of Fibromyalgia

• Persistent muscle pain and weakness. Explanation: Oxygen deprivation contributes to muscle pain.

• Disabling fatigue. Explanation: Oxygen deprivation in tissue can lead to fatigue and exhaustion.

• Brain fog (problems of mood, memory, and implementation). Explanation: Oxygen deprivation in brain cells lead to brain fog and dysfunction.

• Air hunger. Explanation: Oxygen deprivation within the cells causes a craving for air.

I do not take the treatment or diagnosis of Fibromyalgia lightly and you should steer clear of anyone who thinks otherwise. A recent study uncovered evidence that a Fibromyalgia diagnosis can be far more damaging than you may realize.

In The Journal of Neuroscience, a study revealed that the brain can be prematurely aging in Fibromyalgia patients.

And what may be more important is that they found that the longer the individual had been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, the more gray matter they had lost.

“Accumulating evidence now suggests that fibromyalgia may be associated with central nervous system dysfunction.”

The brain matter loss was more than 9 times the normal aging!

Other studies also point to a possible explanation for the decreased gray matter in these disorders. It may be atrophy caused by excitotoxicity or exposure to inflammatory processes (Apkarian et al., 2004). In reviewing the above studies it’s remarkable that in Fibromyalgia patients, gray matter loss occurred predominately in regions of the brain that are most related to stress.

Stress can be managed and I believe it MUST be managed for you to get better. The above research should be all you need to be motivated to adopt some kind of stress management protocol that works for you.

The road to recovery IS often long and difficult. But there IS a road to recovery. I can assure you it’s bumpy but there IS a road- you just may not have found it yet.

My grandfather once told me,

“No matter how far you’ve gone down the wrong road, turn around… it’s the WRONG road!”

If what the above mentioned studies are saying in terms of brain aging is true, then every moment that you don’t get help counts against you.

The pursuit of health should be paramount in your habits and actions. I know it’s hard, but you have Fibromyalgia, so you’ve proven you can do hard. Fibromyalgia pain is hard.

Denver Fibromyalgia Treatment

With the addition of oxygen therapy to my Fibromyalgia syndrome treatment protocols I’ve noticed a marked improvement when other methods were not causing patients to get better. When it comes to what this CAM  doctor thinks about Fibromyalgia treatment in Denver…I say never give up.

Journal of Neuroscience April 11, 2007 • 27(15):4004 – 4007 www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/abstract/27/15/4004

What causes back pain? Besides the common causes of back pain like lifting something too heavy or shoveling 10 inches of spring snow from an 80 foot driveway (been there, done that), here are insights about what causes back pain that you may not have thought of.

#1 Smoking.

Sorry, no sugar coating here. If you smoke, quit. Smoking reduces the amount of oxygen in the blood which can contribute to hypertension which affects all tissues including the health of muscles and discs. Smoking doubles the risk of a person suffering from severe back pain, according to statistics presented at a medical conference on back pain held in Haifa, Israel (2000). The study showed that smokers have twice the risk of suffering from back pain when compared to non-smokers.

After examining existing research, Finnish researchers concluded smoking is “modestly” associated with the risk of low back pain.

SOURCE: The American Journal of Medicine, January 2010.

It is thought that suggests that smoking leads to malnutrition of the disc which in turn renders it more vulnerable to mechanical stress.

British Society for Rheumatology 1993

#2 Prolonged Sitting

Dr. Eben Davis, a San Francisco chiropractor and repetitive injury specialist wrote a very insightful and poignant article entitled “What’s the best office chair for your back?”

Dr. Davis writes, “Sitting for long periods, especially in the office chairs that most of us use and consider ergonomically correct, can lead to a cascade of bad things, including back pain, neck pain, and even obesity.”  Dr. Alf Nachelson , in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, reports In all cases, pressures were highest in the sitting position, about 30 per cent less in the standing position, and about 50 per cent less in the reclining than in the sitting position.

One back pain tip I teach my patients trying to prevent back pain is that the body doesn’t like ANY position for too long… even a good one!

What does this mean? Move.

Change positions. Motion is health. A river doesn’t get stagnant. Just like a stagnant pond, your muscles, joints and discs that don’t move can accumulate metabolic waste and become stagnant when you sit too long.

In my ergonomics class I actually teach 7 different standing positions. Most people never give it a second thought.

#3 Head Forward Posture

Used to be that the phrase “head forward posture” was a description. Now its actually a diagnosis!

Forward head posture is a clinical finding that has been identified in numerous studies (1-6) as a significant factor in not only back pain but a number of  musculoskeletal pain syndromes. I think more than any other factor regarding posture a forward head syndrome has the greatest capabilities of doing the most long term damage and causes back pain. The dangers of forward head posture is that it creates a “domino effect” by shifting the head forward. When the head shifts forward the center of gravity gets thrown off and in order to compensate, the upper body drifts backward to compensate for the upper body shift, making the hips and pelvis tilt forward.

The forward head position can be the cause of not only the head, neck and TMJ problems,but also mid back and low back problems.” (7)

Mom was right… “SIT UP STRAIGHT!”

1. Mennell JM. The Musculoskeletal System: Differential Diagnosis from Symptoms and Physical Signs. Gaithersburg, Maryland: Aspen Publishers, Inc., 1992, pp. 126-33.
2. Donatelli R, Wooden M. Orthopaedic Physical Therapy. New York: Churchill Livingstone Inc., 1989.
3. Cailliet R. Soft Tissue Pain and Disability. Philadelphia: FA Davis Co., 1977.
4. Haughie LJ, Fiebert IM, Roach KE. Relationship of forward head posture and cervical backward bending to neck pain. J Manual Manipulative Ther 1995;3:91-7.
5. Greenfield B, Catlin PA, Coats PW, et al. Posture in patients with shoulder overuse injuries and healthy individuals. JOSPT 1995;21:287-95.
6. Griegel-Morris P, Larson K, Mueller-Klaus K, Oatis CA. Incidence of common postural abnormalities in the cervical shoulder, and thoracic regions and their association with pain in two age groups of healthy subjects. Phys Ther 1992;72:425-31
7. “The danger of forward head posture, Jung Yun”

I think more than any other factor regarding posture a forward head syndrome has the greatest possibility of doing the most long term damage and it is most certain that it contributes and causes back pain.

DO NOT LEAVE ICE ON TOO LONG after an injury!

Listen to this story…

Researchers at the Dept. of Accident and Emergency Medicine at Southern General Hospital in Glasgow and Accident and Emergency Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock, Scotland, made news of a case of a P.E. teacher who used a bag of frozen potatoes to get rid of pain in her foot. She let the bag sit on her foot for at least 40 minutes and the pain actually went away… temporarily! The report says the foot became discolored and the pain returned- with a vengeance. The woman lost feeling in a few of her toes. She was diagnosed with frostbite, then underwent surgery to treat the permanent nerve damage in two of her toes.

Maybe you’ve heard that after an acute injury, it’s best to ice the area for at least 20 minutes at a time. Maybe you did it for the same reasons as her.  It’s possible you’ve also heard that icing reduces inflammation.

It can.

But do you know why?

Don’t take my word for it, let’s  investigate the “20 minutes concept.” I want you to do a little experiment.

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How can I get quick back pain relief? The million dollar question.

Most of the time mother nature just doesn’t comply with that request.

But…she can be persuaded!

The art of being a sports chiropractor in Denver demands that I continue to strive for better ways to help people get back to their sport or everyday activities as soon as they safely can.

I want to introduce to you a great machine that you’ve probably never heard about or seen before that I use. Many times I’ve been able to find the right combination for people in pain to produce minor miracles.

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What’s the best lower back exercise? Drum roll please…

There isn’t one- but here’s what you really need to know to help get rid of low back pain.

There are literally hundreds of exercises and treatments for lower back pain. Some require expensive equipment, some are moves adapted from yoga or maybe it’s a lower back stretch or stress reduction technique. Plenty of things can be done at home. And when it comes down to it, you’re the one that has to choose what to do to help manage your pain.

How?

By listening to your body. One of the major virtues in life is to learn how to listen to the inner wisdom of your body. I mean really listen. Memorize the following rules, they’ll teach you how to choose the best lower back exercise.

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