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.

Practitioners who treat low back pain have to consider the various causes of lower back pain.  The list of common causes of spinal pain include, a bulging or herniated disc, degenerative disc disease, spinal nerve impingement, kidney stones, central canal stenosis (spinal stenosis), and strained or sprained muscles and ligaments.

Spinal specialists such as chiropractic doctors are trained to identify and/or treat such conditions.  An evaluation is needed to diagnose the source of back pain and this leads to a treatment plan that is appropriate to address the cause of the condition. We have numerous option for treatment in our Lakewood, CO chiropractic clinic.

The approach in a chiropractic clinic as far as using different therapy modalities include manipulation therapy, electric muscle stimulation, core exercise, decompression therapy, physical therapy, ATM2 (Active Therapeutic Movement), class IV LASER, heat or ice therapy, and massage.

Musculoskeletal conditions such as a strained ligament will heal within 6 weeks depending on severity.  A muscle strain, though just as painful as a ligament injury, will usually heal in less time.

When treating an intervertebral disc herniation back surgery may be recommended.  But before surgery, one should consider the use of nonsurgical alternatives.  Non-surgical spinal decompression therapy can provide lasting results and relieve the pain in your low back.

It’s important though to see a trained spinal decompression clinician or physician for decompression treatments.  Though orthopedic doctors can treat a disc bulge with surgery a chiropractor can be your best advocate in eliminating pain non-surgically.

DRX9000 decompression is the most advanced technology in the field of spinal decompression.  We were one of the first Denver chiropractors to offer spinal decompression and have learned a lot about the non-surgical management of low back pain. A ruptured disc can raise havoc in your personal or professional life, cause premature degeneration and just plain debilitate a person.

Here is a great article by San Francisco chiropractor, Dr. Eben Davis, entitled, “Herniated Discs “CAN” Be Repaired Without Surgery!”

It’s estimated by the ACA (American Chiropractic Association) that 80% of Americans will have to deal with low back pain at some point in their lives.  Releasing a pinched nerve is the first step in becoming pain free and that’s exactly what a decompression technology does to a bulging disc causing sciatica or low back pain.

We’re here to help.

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.

For the past several years herniated disc treatment with non-surgical spinal decompression has been my treatment of choice for bulging and herniated discs.

Since the introduction of non-surgical spinal decompression to our clinic, we’ve helped hundreds of patients from Lakewood, Littleton and the entire Denver, Colorado metro area. And as safe and effective  that non-surgical spinal decompression is, unfortunately, there have been people we haven’t been able to help as well. It’s a ‘double tough’ condition.

If there’s one absolute that I can conclude from my experience it’s this- you can’t ‘tough out’ a herniated disc.

Prior to the addition of the DRX9000 Spinal Decompression machine, in our clinic we predominantly utilized conservative and specific chiropractic care, a back pain relief machine called the ATM2, lifestyle modifications (including case specific stretches and/or exercises) and physical and manual therapy.

But sometimes this approach just plain fell short.

By utilizing clinical discretion and adding spinal decompression therapy when appropriate we’ve dramatically increased our success rate in providing treatment for herniated disc pain sufferers to help them get ‘back in the game.’

Of course, sometimes surgery ends up being inevitable, but more often than not the non-surgical spinal decompression approach is very effective at relieving sciatica, leg and arm pain and/or neck and low back pain caused by herniated or bulging discs.

That’s been my experience anyway.

One of the main reasons I like spinal decompression therapy is that not only is it capable of relieving your pain, it’s capable of making the tissues that are causing the pain healthier.

If you think you may have a bulging disc or a herniated disc (or you’ve already been diagnosed with one) and you want to explore alternatives to back surgery and you live in Lakewood, Littleton, Denver or the surrounding area, call our clinic and set up a consultation with me to go over your individual case- each person has unique needs.

Note: If you want to know more about the DRX9000 and spinal decompression therapy you can go here for DRX9000 reviews. Here’s another DRX9000 review by a top radiologist.