Author: cajunchiro3939

Low back pain (LBP) can be localized and contained to only the low back area or, it can radiate pain down the leg. This distinction is important as the former, LBP only, is often less complicated and carries a more favorable prognosis for complete recovery. In fact, a large part of our history and examination…

When patients present with low back pain, it is not uncommon for pain to arise from areas other than the low back, such as the hip. There are many tissues in the low back and hip region that are susceptible to injury with have overlapping pain pathways that often make it challenging to isolate the…

When people think of chiropractic, they immediately think of low back pain and are often surprised to find out that chiropractic can benefit many conditions such as carpal tunnel syndrome, tennis elbow, rotator cuff tears, as well as hip, knee, and ankle conditions. There is also research support for manipulation (a key component of chiropractic)…

Scoliosis is a curvature of the spine that is shaped like a “C” or an “S” when looking at the person from behind. I’m sure you’ve noticed when you’re at a beach, at a swimming pool, or walking in an airport, some people have a high shoulder, walk with a bit of a limp if…

Patient education is a very important aspect of caring for our patients. In fact, it can be one of the most important aspects of care. For example, when patients present with a brand new injury and pain levels are off the map, it’s quite common for that acute suffering patient to inappropriately think that, “I’m…

Low back pain can arise from many conditions, one of which is a mouthful: spondylolisthesis. The term was coined in 1854 from the Greek words, “spondylo” for vertebrae and “olisthesis” for slip. These “slips” most commonly occur in the low back, 90% at L5 and 9% at L4. According to www.spinehealth.com and others, the most…

Low back pain can emanate from many anatomical locations (as well as a combination of locations), which always makes it interesting when a patient asks, “…doc, where in my back is my pain coming from?”  In context of an office visit, we take an accurate history and perform our physical exam to try to reproduce…

Scoliosis is a term used to describe a curvature of the spine that is not “normal.” The normal curves of the spine include an inward curve in the low back and neck and an outward curve in the mid-back when looking at the person from the side (“sagittal plane”). However, there should NOT be any…

You may think it’s odd to discuss low back pain (LBP) from the perspective of spinal fusion because as chiropractors, we do not perform surgery and so, why discuss it?  It is important that we discuss research such as this so we can make the informed treatment decisions with our patients after we’ve considered all…

Have you ever been told (or at least heard it said): if you could just drop a few pounds, your low back pain would improve?  It’s pretty well accepted that excess weight contributes to low back pain. So, if that’s the case, which dietary approach is “…the best?” Even though weight loss is very important,…