Category: Back Pain & Sciatica
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Low Back Pain: What Are Your Treatment Goals?
Low back pain (LBP) has been a challenge to treat for centuries and evidence exists that back pain has been a concern since the origins of man. Chiropractic offers one of the most patient satisfying and fastest treatment approaches available. But, when you go to a chiropractor, there seems to be a lot of different…
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Low Back Pain or Hip Osteoarthritis: Which One is it?
Low back pain (LBP) can have many causes. The primary goal of the chiropractic physician is to identify the main pain generator(s) and manage the patient accordingly. This requires a careful history, examination, and often, a low back/pelvic x-ray. So, how does this work? When first presenting for care, the patient tells us about their…
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Low Back and Leg Pain – Is it Sciatica?
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…
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Is Spinal Manipulation an Effective Treatment for Low Back Pain?
Yes: Evidence Shows Benefit in Most Patients JAMES J. ARNOLD, DO, and SHANNON R. EHLERINGER, DO, David Grant Medical Center, Travis Air Force Base, California Am Fam Physician. 2012 Apr 15;85(8):756-758. This is one in a series of pro/con editorials discussing controversial issues in family medicine. Manual manipulation of the spine has been used by clinicians for thousands…
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Is It My Low Back Or My Hip?
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…
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Maintenance Chiropractic for Chronic Low Back Pain
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)…
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Inversion Therapy For Disc Disease
In an article published in the journal Disability and Rehabilitation, the authors compared patients with back pain due to disc disease that had physical therapy only, and physical therapy PLUS INVERSION therapy. The found that the patients that had PT PLUS INVERSION had less need for back surgery than the patients that had physical therapy…
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Low Back Pain & Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis
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…
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Low Back Pain & Patient Education
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…
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Low Back Pain: Spondylolisthesis
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…