Low back pain is very common
Approximately 70% of the people we see in clinic will have low back pain of some sort. Whether that be long term/chronic pain (longer than 3 months in duration) or short term/acute pain. It is commonly referred to as having a ‘bad back’, ‘cricked back’ or ‘back spasms’. Other names include ‘lumbago’, ‘severe lower back pain’ and having a ‘dodgy back’. Whatever you call it, it’s very common.
In the past, I’ve had it and it’s likely that you will get it at some point in your life too. Commonly, low back pain can be associated with buttock and leg/foot pain, known as sciatica, but not always. However, people will often have pain in seemingly unrelated areas of their bodies, such as their neck and shoulder.
Osteopathy helps low back pain
I’ve seen acute and easy to fix cases and chronic, little to no chance of complete relief cases.
The majority of them have something in common, they tend to respond positively to Osteopathy.
It’s true to say that for those harder to help cases, the treatment does tend to take some time.
Overall though, Osteopathy does help and almost everyone can benefit from Osteopathic treatment.
Common exceptions
There are of course some exceptions, most notably are the direct treatment of the spine for:
- a severe disc herniation (inaccurately known as a ‘slipped disc’)
- a grade 3 or 4 Spondylolysthesis
- fracture of the spine (including Osteoporosis and cancer related)
- spinal ligament and muscles tears
- pain associated with visceral (internal organ) pathology
- Severe arthritis
But apart from that, most people will benefit from Osteopathy. In fact, we’ve a page where you can read about the benefits of Osteopathic treatment which you may find interesting.
Types of low back pain
So how do you find out what type of pain you have? Well it’s not always simple, but for an Osteopath it becomes a little clearer after we’ve taken your case history. Then after that, once we’ve completed a physical examination of your body’s spinal movements, it’s a lot clearer.
Sometimes though, diagnosis of a likely cause of your pain is much more difficult and a scan is needed. We may refer you to your G.P, although normally this is not necessary in the majority of cases.
Self diagnosing your pain via Google is potentially dangerous. Making the wrong self-diagnosis can then mean you do a stretch or exercise which is potentially dangerous for you. This can end up making things worse for you in the short term and maybe even in the long run. I’m not going to try and cover self diagnosis within this article.
I will however try to give you an idea of ‘safe-to-do’ stretches that you can try. This may get you by, in case you are unable to come in and see us at the moment. I will present a case scenario for you of a patient type who I commonly see. This person is fictional in themselves (no name or personal details pertain to anyone in particular). But it is an accurate representation of the sorts of people we see in clinic and their pain patterns that present to us.
A case study of low back pain
Mr X:
Mr X is a 28 year old office worker, who likes cycling and running at the weekends. He is fairly healthy (no junk food), doesn’t smoke and drinks only socially. He has no significant history of medical related problems and as a result take no medications. There is a history of falling off his bike about 10 years previously. He also broke his lower leg in the past, but he doesn’t get any pain from that at all.
Mr X presents to me with low back pain after waking up the day previously. He swears he can’t remember what he could have done to create it. Previously he had been on holiday for a week and he had been on a cycling break away with friends.
Exam
On examination he has some restrictions in his spinal movement at key areas of his spine which relate to the hip-flexor muscles. The lower joints that join his spine to his pelvis appear inflamed and relatively mobile. After further questioning, Mr X reports that he rarely stretches his hip-flexor muscles either before or after running/cycling.
Treatment
Treatment was offered after giving a brief description of what I thought was causing the pain and gaining his consent to continue. It consisted of gentle stretching of spinal muscles, mobilisation of joints and work to stretch the hip-flexor groups of muscles.
Homework
Homework for Mr X consisted of an ice pack (wrapped in a tea towel) applied to his low back at a site I showed him, for around 15 minutes. I advised to repeat this after a further 45 minutes wait. repeat this cycle until pain reduces. Also, I suggested some stretches to help reduce the tension in his hip-flexor muscles. It was suggested he do them daily when waking and during the day if possible and then again before bed. Furthermore, I recommended he not sleep on his front or back until he feels recovered, but instead sleeps on his side with his legs bent to 90 degrees. This advice would vary depending on the exact diagnosis in your case.
Do you need help for low back pain?
In case you’re interested in trying to see if your pain fits the scenario mentioned above here is a link to a couple of physical therapy guys who demonstrate some hip flexor stretches. Even though they’re not exactly as I would demonstrate them, they may help you so long as you remember to not arch your back as they do in some of the clips.
Remember, the only way to be sure you’re doing the right thing for your back, is to see me and get the likely cause of your pain diagnosed properly and in person.
If you would like to know if anything we do can help you then I recommend that you check out our Osteopathy pages and book an appointment so we can assess you as soon as is possible.
As always, thanks for reading and if you have any comments then be sure to leave them below and if you would like any more information then please don’t hesitate to get in touch.