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Where is this Pain Coming From? Nothing is showing on my X-Ray!!
During the last blog we started talking about the different types of pain. The first type of pain I discussed was Nerve Pain. Nerve pain usually feels like numbness, tingling, pins-and-needles, sharp shooting, burning, or weakness. Usually the nerve or nerves are compressed, pinched, stretched, or injured in some way. This can be a tight muscle squeezing the nerve. For example, a condition called “piriformis syndrome” is a muscle spasm in your buttocks that creates sciatica or pressure on your sciatic nerve. The source of the problem is not in the back at all. You might have numbness, or tingling in hands or arms, which can be from nerves being irritated in the neck or arm.
See previous blog for more info on Nerve Pain!
Now I will discuss Soft Tissue Pain…
Soft Tissue Pain
Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.
—Lance Armstrong
Muscle pain and fascial pain.
Symptoms include burning, sharp pain, deep ache, spasm, or tightness. Fascia is the connective tissue or membrane that covers the muscles or encases our muscles. Visualize it as the casing around meat in a string of sausage. Connective tissue is very important in that it allows your muscles to move freely, limiting friction and irritation. This connective tissue is sometimes damaged by repetitive strains or micro traumas, which lead to damaged or scarred fascia. These types of problems will not show up on any X-rays or MRIs, but are usually diagnosed by palpation by a trained professional who feels the symptomatic region, watches how you walk, evaluates your posture, and moves the affected body part to get clues from the dysfunctional region (another good reason your doctor should always feel the painful region). Many health-care providers, although well-meaning, do not have the knowledge or training to diagnose these issues. They usually have tunnel vision, and if there is no evidence of dysfunction and the X-rays or other tests come back normal, they might tell you there is nothing wrong even when there is an issue. I however am trained to find problems just like this.
For 10 days only, I’m running a very special offer .
What does this offer include? Everything I normally do in my new patient evaluation.
Just call here’s what you’ll get…
An in-depth consultation about your health and well-being where I will listen…really listen…to the details of your case. A complete neuromuscular examination, full set of specialized x-rays (if necessary), and a thorough analysis of your exam and x-ray findings so we can start mapping out your plan to being pain free.
You’ll get to see everything first hand and find out if this amazing treatment will be your solution to pain, like it has been for so many other patients.
Life is too short to let pain slow you down. Call now 325-695-9355.
Debilitating Nerve Pain
Different Types of Pain
Over the next few blogs I will discuss the different types of Pain you may have.
Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.
—Lance Armstrong
Nerve Pain
Nerve pain usually feels like numbness, tingling, pins-and-needles, sharp shooting, burning, or weakness. Usually the nerve or nerves are compressed, pinched, stretched, or injured in some way. This can be a tight muscle squeezing the nerve. For example, a condition called “piriformis syndrome” is a muscle spasm in your buttocks that creates sciatica or pressure on your sciatic nerve. The source of the problem is not in the back at all. You might have numbness, or tingling in hands or arms, which can be from nerves being irritated in the neck or arm.
There are small canals or openings in your spinal column that allow room for your nerves to live. These nerves are extensions from your spinal cord, and the nerves control the functions of your organs. Any pressure or inflammation around the nerves can create pain and dysfunction to the organ that it supplies. Several conditions can cause compression on nerves. These include stenosis, a narrowing of the canal due to arthritic or degenerative changes in the spine. You might have a disc herniation, a bulge that puts pressure on the nerve. You could have a disc or ligament that is torn or injured and the swelling is irritating the nerve. A vertebra in your spine can misalign or become out of proper position, putting pressure on a nerve. Nerves that are compressed long periods of time can be permanently damaged, leading to muscle weakness, a loss of muscle tone. A condition called “foot drop” is one in which the nerves, those that connect to the muscles that lift your foot while walking, are no longer functioning. Sometimes there’s compression in one area of a nerve and the far end of that nerve is where the patient feels the symptoms. To be clear, compression of the nerve might be in your back, but you can feel numbness, tingling, burning, or pain in your toes or feet. These can lead to peripheral neuropathy, which is a topic for another book.
SUCCESS CASE STUDY
Paul is a 55-year-old truck driver, who has been driving for 15 years. He came into the clinic with searing pain traveling down the back of his right leg. He was certain he had herniated a disc in his lower back. I asked him why he believed that, and he said that his coworker, who referred him to my clinic, had the same thing happen to him and it was a herniated disc putting pressure on his sciatic nerve. After examination and X-rays of his lower back, no real sign of any problems were found in his lower back. As I was examining his lower back, I saw a three-inch wallet in his right pocket. I asked Paul if he typically removed the wallet while he was driving or sitting, and he responded “no.” I removed the wallet and felt a muscle, called the piriformis, which is located in the buttocks right where the wallet was setting. He just about came off the table when I touched the area. “What the hell was that, Doc?” he asked. I think we found the problem. It is known as piriformis syndrome, a compression of the sciatic nerve due to irritation of the piriformis muscle that lives in the buttocks. The piriformis muscle was choking his sciatic nerve—the problem was not in his back at all. I have seen many medical providers misdiagnose or run up medical bills on MRIs of the lower back and other diagnostic tests, all of which come back normal. Many just think a patient must be exaggerating the symptoms, but it’s an issue in how some of these medical professionals are trained. Paul’s condition improved after six weeks of muscle balance therapy, pelvic realignment, electrical nerve stimulation to heal the nerve, and laser therapy. Oh, and removing his wallet while driving is key in not making the sciatic nerve mad again.
For 10 days only, I’m running a very special offer .
What does this offer include? Everything I normally do in my new patient evaluation.
Just call here’s what you’ll get…
An in-depth consultation about your health and well-being where I will listen…really listen…to the details of your case. A complete neuromuscular examination, full set of specialized x-rays (if necessary), and a thorough analysis of your exam and x-ray findings so we can start mapping out your plan to being pain free.
You’ll get to see everything first hand and find out if this amazing treatment will be your solution to pain, like it has been for so many other patients.
Life is too short to let pain slow you down. Call now 325-695-9355.
Your Chair Is Killing You?
Your Chair Is Killing You?
If you’re reading this sitting down—the position we all hold more than any other, for an average of 8.9 hours a day—stop and take stock of how your body feels. Is there an ache in your lower back? Are you experiencing light numbness in your buttocks and lower thigh? Are yo
u feeling a little down?
These symptoms are all so common, and they’re not good. They might well be caused by doing precisely what you’re doing—sitting. New research in the diverse fields of epidemiology, molecular biology, biomechanics, and physiology is converging toward a startling conclusion: Sitting is a public-health risk. And exercising doesn’t offset it. “People need to understand that the biomechanics of sitting are completely different from walking or exercising. Sitting too much is not the same as exercising too little. They do completely different things to the body.”University of Missouri microbiologist Marc Hamilton
In a 2005 article in Science magazine, Dr. James A. Levine, an obesity specialist at the Mayo Clinic, pinpointed why, despite similar diets, some people are fat and others aren’t. “We found that people with obesity have a natural predisposition to be attracted to the chair, and that’s true even after obese people lose weight,” Dr. Levine says. “What fascinates me is that humans evolved over 1.5 million years entirely on the ability to walk and move. And literally 150 years ago, 90 percent of human endeavor was still agricultural. In a tiny speck of time we’ve become chair-sentenced.”
Within a couple hours of sitting, healthy cholesterol plummets by 20 percent. So your posture and health of your spine are related to much more than back pain, it can affect the nerves that are protected by the spine or vertebrae, since these nerves help regulate every function of your body. There is a direct correlation between the health of your spine and the health of your entire body.
The chair you’re sitting in now is likely contributing to the problem. “Short of sitting on a spike, you can’t do much worse than a standard office chair,” says Galen Cranz, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
Generally speaking, the slight “S” shape of the spine serves you well. “If you think about a heavy weight on a C or S, which is going to collapse more easily? The C,” Cranz says. When you sit, the lower lumbar curve collapses, turning the spine’s natural S-shape into a C, hampering the abdominal and back musculature that supports the body. The body is left to slouch, and the lateral and oblique muscles grow weak and unable to support its weight.
This, in turn, causes problems with other parts of the body. When you’re sitting, you bear all that weight through the pelvis and spine, putting the highest pressure on your back discs. Judging by MRIs, even sitting with perfect posture causes serious pressure on your back.
Due to current lifestyles, many sit and work at a computer—I do not believe we were designed to do this. At the very least, take action by investing in a lumbar support or, better yet, an inflatable exercise ball to activate muscles in your lower back while you sit. (Do not sit on the ball in a slouched position.)
If you must sit on a chair, the best sitting alternative is perching in a half-standing position at barstool height that keeps weight on the legs and leaves the S-curve intact.
Limit or eliminate all culprits of bad posture—television watching, computer time, and excessive pressing exercises.
In summary, as you’ve come to realize, dealing with back pain can be a complicated undertaking. All the major anatomical parts—the nerves that are involved with the spine, the cartilage discs that protect the spine, and the postural muscles that support it—must be balanced to be healthy. When these functions are compromised or altered, inflammation, irritation, compression, and pain can result. And by this time, you should realize that treating only symptoms is not the answer. There is no magic potion to cure back pain, but let’s get one thing straight—you have quite a lot to gain by adopting healthy practices to take care of your back.
Why Didn’t My Doctor Tell Me All This Information?
You might wonder why your doctor has never told you about muscle imbalances or other potential causes of your back pain. Well, it could be several possible reasons. Health care has gotten so impersonal that some practitioners are just trying to see all their patients and be able to get home before dinnertime. Some medical schools tend to focus on treating symptoms, not causes. Many pharmaceutical companies are making billions of dollars in profits each year and might not be genuinely concerned with getting you out of pain. Many practices have hospital or group systems that restrict them from sending their patients anywhere but at their locations.
Most medical professionals work very hard and provide good services, but it is difficult to stay current with all of the new teachings and advances. Many insurance companies have a stranglehold on doctors and will only pay for certain things or place time restrictions on treatment and so a proper treatment plan does not get set up, let alone identifying the true cause of your pain. Fortunately for you, there are other approaches to resolving back pain that do not involve surgery or potentially harmful medications.
Here’s what some of the top medical researchers had to say about chiropractic…
“Manipulation [chiropractic adjustments], with or without exercise, improved symptoms more than medical care did after both 3 and 12 months.”– British Medical Journal
This means in just a matter of weeks you could be back on the golf course, enjoying your love life, or traveling again.
For 10 days only, I’m running a very special offer where you can find out how much this amazing treatment can help your back pain.
What does this offer include? Everything I normally do in my new patient evaluation.
Just call here’s what you’ll get…
An in-depth consultation about your health and well-being where I will listen…really listen…to the details of your case. A complete neuromuscular examination, full set of specialized x-rays (if necessary), and a thorough analysis of your exam and x-ray findings so we can start mapping out your plan to being pain free.
You’ll get to see everything first hand and find out if this amazing treatment will be your back pain solution, like it has been for so many other patients.
Life is too short to let pain slow you down. Call now 325-695-9355.
Monster Neck and Back Pain
Postural Syndromes That Can Turn into Monster Neck and Back Pain
Good posture equals a good day.
—Dr. Jake Morgan
Most people are unaware of the muscle imbalances that cause their lower back pain, symptoms including a dull, achy, tight feeling; sharp severe pain; or lack of mobility—all early signs of spinal problems that can lead to compressed disc, nerve irritation, blood flow restriction, or even limit the amount of oxygen you can inhale.
Your spine is the central support structure of your body. Your spinal cord carries the neurological lifeline from your brain to all other parts of your body. Your health really depends on the flow of energy through an unrestricted nervous system. When your spine suffers, your overall health can suffer too. When you respect your spine by taking good care of it, your spine serves you well by offering its strength and flexibility for a long time to come.
How Do I Know if I Have Muscle Imbalances or Postural Imbalances?
The easiest way I can explain good posture to you is to have you imagine looking at the left or right side of your body in a full-length mirror. The first step is to visualize dime-size dots at the center of your ankle, knee, hip, waist, rib cage, shoulder, neck, ear, and head. The next step is to connect the dots.
When all the dots align in a straight line, you have the least amount of pressure on your discs and joints. When the line connecting the dots is not straight, there will be pain or discomfort.
Here is an easy way to remember this: Straight line, less pain! Hunched up, more pain! Think about those two sentences during your day. Check your body position at least once an hour. Ask yourself, “How is my posture? Do I need to straighten up?”
Please realize that it’s actually easier to stand up straight than it is to stand crooked or hunched. You use more muscles when you hunch up your back. It’s similar when we consider smiling or frowning. We use fewer muscles to smile than we do to frown. I believe that means we were meant to be happy! So stand up tall, and smile.
A Healthy Spine Equals a Balanced Spine
- Upper Cross Syndrome—refers to the postural imbalances of the upper portion of your body, including the neck, upper back, chest, and shoulders
- Lower Cross Syndrome—refers to the postural imbalances of the lower portion of your body, including the lower back, abdomen, hips, knees, ankles, and feet
In your mind, picture your spine as a sailboat mast stabilized and balanced by wire stays. Wires are in the rear of the mast, which represents the musculature in your back, and mast stabilized by wires in the front, your abdominal muscles. A muscle imbalance can create a tug-of-war on your back. Due to your lifestyle, whether repetitive or sedentary, imbalance creates some muscles to become very tight, which pulls and tugs on the spine. The opposite set of muscles get turned off due to a neurological process called “reciprocal inhibition.” For example, when you contract your bicep (the muscle on the front of your arm) your triceps, the muscle on the back of the arm is turned off—it’s how your body is designed to coordinate movement. Your muscles, when out of balance, do not properly support your back. This principle applies to your shoulders, neck, knees, hips, ankles, and wrists.
Let’s look at a couple of things some people do on a daily basis that can contribute to this muscular imbalance: long periods of sitting; working multiple hours on a computer; long-haul trucking; repeated bending at the waist, such as in construction work; talking on the telephone with your head bent to one side or the other; carrying a heavy purse or backpack around your neck or shoulder; carrying a baby on one hip or the other, causing the hips to be uneven or rotated; or exercising improperly. Oh, and one more thing, take that darn wallet out of your back pocket. One of the worst things you can do is sit on a wallet and create uneven pressure on your pelvis and lower back, creating improper alignment in the spine—then one day you bend forward and have severe lower back pain, or a gradual increase of sciatica or pinched nerve. Again, these changes occur over time. If not corrected, this can lead to permanent postural deformities and a lifetime of chronic pain.
Look in the Mirror at Your Posture
Do this self-assessment exercise, standing in front of a full-length mirror:
- Does your head tilt to the left or right?
- Is one shoulder higher than the other?
- Is one pant leg longer than the other?
- Now turn to the side, and have someone tell you if your neck is in front of your shoulders. Is it? If so, this is called “anterior head posture.”
- Now look at the bottoms of your shoes or boots that you wear daily. Do they have areas that are more worn out than other areas of your shoe?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions, these are direct examples of postural syndromes. To fix postural problems, your goal is to balance these predictable muscle and spinal postural positions.
Postural pain can be a small problem that is more of a nuisance…or it can be very debilitating. You might have more than one symptom, and I know I sound like a broken record, but you must always determine why or what is the reason for pain—not just, “I have pain here, so let’s fix this one spot.” I have found in my practice that 90 percent of people have structural problems that develop over years before pain arises. So I want you to look in the mirror: Do you have a slouched or slumped upper back and rounded shoulders? Look at your lower back—does your abdomen protrude? Is one leg longer than the other? Does one pant leg fit longer than the other? Have someone help you check.
As you now know, these distortion patterns, along with various muscular and joint imbalances that created your pain, interrupt your life. It can take months, usually years, to develop, and the true cause is the habitual nature of pain. Your body is a programmable system—when you perform any task repeatedly over time, it becomes a habit. For example, fitness is the body forming habits so you can increase endurance or speed for running.
It takes approximately 90 to 120 days to change human physiology, so the goal is to create new muscle and joint memory. Once you have adopted the various lower back or pelvis distortion patterns, the muscular and joint imbalances are set—after continued practice, they suddenly become a habit. Your body believes these to be “normal.” Once your body accepts these as normal, it then stops trying to correct or remove them. These patterns are now ingrained in your spine and pelvis, and over time pain will develop. This is the main reason most back pain treatments fail—they don’t change the habits.
If you don’t identify the underlying cause, or have symptom-based treatment, pain eases temporarily but then returns again…and the cycle continues. To change and break habits, keep targeting the area initially for 90 days. If you only work on muscles, and not the joints or pelvic imbalances, chasing symptoms or temporary pain relief only, then habits will remain. To get long-term back pain relief, you must balance your muscles, joints, and pelvic distortions, and break any unhealthy habits that have formed. You must form new habits and train your body to become and remain pain-free. This can be achieved only if you learn to help treat yourself.
For 10 days only, I’m running a very special offer where you can find out if you are a candidate for chiropractic care.
What does this offer include?
Everything I normally do in my new patient evaluation. You’ll get…
- An in-depth consultation about your health and well-being where I will listen…really listen…to the details of your case.
- A complete neuromuscular examination, full set of specialized x-rays, review of your MRI, and a thorough analysis of your findings so we can design your plan to being pain free.
The normal price for this type of evaluation, including x-rays, is $225 so you’re saving a considerable amount by taking me up on this offer.
Call today and we can get you scheduled for your consultation, exam and x-rays as soon as there’s an opening.
When you call, tell the receptionist you’d like to come in for the Back Pain Evaluation so she get you on the schedule and make sure you receive proper credit for this special offer.
Sincerely,
Back Pain Is Not Just “Old Age!
Old Injuries Come Back to Haunt You—Back Pain Is Not Just “Old Age”
Your back takes a beating during your lifetime. Most back pain occurs due to two major categories: 1) micro or macro trauma or 2) too much stress to the back. This can include repetitive strains, such as sitting, or prior trauma or injures to the back, like a fall, auto collision, or any type of accident. But many people believe their pain and decline are from “normal aging,” so they believe it’s normal to have back pain. This simply is not true. Just because it is common does not make it normal. If that were true, all 360 joints in your body would hurt since your whole body is the same age.
The majority of problems or conditions in the spine are due to new or old injuries, categorized as macro trauma (for example, that skiing accident that hurt your back, lifting a too-heavy bag of dog food, or falling off a ladder). Other back conditions result from micro trauma—postural strain is one, such as sitting for six to eight hours daily; compressing your spine while looking down or at a computer at work for the last five years; exercising the wrong way; repetitive movements, like picking up your kids; or an occupation that requires a lot of bending or twisting. Many people can relate to one or two macro traumas to the back in life, and it is very difficult to avoid micro trauma. So it is usually a combination of events that have an effect on your back, and it can affect multiple sensitive structures. Trauma in either form—macro or micro—and muscle imbalances are the most common reasons for lower back pain.
Lack of Stimulation or Nutrients Can Break Down Your Back
We have talked about excess strain, as well as mechanical injuries from our past, but a sometimes overlooked reason for back pain is a deficiency, too little of something. This can be include having too little nutrients in your body, too little water in your diet, or too much coffee or other diuretics that deplete fluids and can lead to toxic buildup in the body. You must be adequately hydrated at all times, as the majority of the discs, your cushions, in your spine are made up of water. Too little vitamins or minerals, due to a poor diet lacking in fruits and vegetables, can put a stress on the joints, muscles, and nerves of your back.
Lack of stimulation of your back is related to not enough movement in the form of exercise that helps keep your muscles toned and joints lubricated. Too little movement of your joints stagnates the fluids that lubricate them. This will stagnate and limit nutrients, oxygen, and blood supply to the cartilage of your joints in your back, potentially leading to inflammation, as well as early onset of arthritis and pain. We all know that the obesity problem we have in the United States of America is partially the result of sedentary jobs and poor dietary habits, all of which contribute to multiple health problems, such as diabetes, heart disease, and so forth. So as you already know, it is time to get moving!
If you have back pain call today and we can get you scheduled for your consultation, exam and x-rays as soon as there’s an opening.
When you call, tell the receptionist you’d like to come in for the Back Pain Evaluation so she get you on the schedule and make sure you receive proper credit for this special offer.
Sincerely,