Back pain: It’s one of the most common physical ailments, but that doesn’t make it any easier to deal with. Pain in the back can range from mild to severe, and in many cases can prevent sufferers from doing things that they love or need to do. Back pain is the single leading cause of work disability worldwide, and it can be just as damaging to a person’s personal life as it can be to his or her career.
What causes back pain? How can you prevent it? And if you’re already suffering from back pain, how can you treat it? That’s what we’re here to talk about today.
What Causes Back Pain
Back pain is a condition, but it’s better understood as a symptom than as an illness or injury. The underlying cause of back pain can be one or more of a wide range of conditions.
Of course, some of these conditions are more common than others. One all-too-common cause of back pain is obesity. Back pain, neck pain, and even headaches can be caused by weight and nutrition issues. Your spinal cord is designed to keep you standing up straight, but the amount of food that you eat could make that job harder. Weight loss, by contrast, can make it easier.
Eating a healthier diet and exercising regularly can help you battle back to a healthy BMI can help your back out. In some severe cases, operations like gastric bypass surgery may be helpful.
Gastric bypass surgery bypasses the stomach and allows a smaller amount of food to be digested in a small stomach pouch. The small stomach pouch holds less food than the stomach, of course (especially given that stomachs can grow large with overeating). Gastric bypass surgery attaches this stomach pouch to the intestine. Variations and alternatives to gastric bypass surgery include gastric restrictive surgery and sleeve gastrectomy.
Another major determining factor in back pain is posture. As any chiropractor will tell you, standing and sitting up straight can do wonders for your back. Poor posture, on the other hand, will strain your back, cause pain, and even extend your recovery time and harm your physical therapy goals. Chronic pain may indicate poor posture, so be sure to practice standing and sitting properly.
Muscle injuries are often the cause of lower back pain. Such injuries can be related to weight or posture.
Treating Back Pain
Preventing back pain is a worthy goal, but many of us will find that it’s too late for that. If you’re already suffering from back pain of any kind—whether it be chronic or new pain, upper or lower back pain, and so on—take action. Find pain relief by turning to experts for chiropractic treatment.
Chiropractors train for years to master spine treatments. They’re experts in spinal manipulation, manual adjusting, and massage therapy. A good chiropractor will also know when such measures are sufficient—and when medication, more aggressive therapies, or even surgery under general anesthesia may be a better option (for some of these therapies, a good chiropractic medical team may send you elsewhere—chiropractors do a lot, but not everything).
And finding a chiropractic healthcare provider isn’t too tough these days. Any reputable healthcare provider will have a web site for you to find, and you’ll also be able to locate trusted chiropractors through referrals from other doctors (like your primary care doctor, who you can get in touch with over the phone).
Be sure to look for a local expert; if you live in New York City and don’t choose a nearby NYC chiropractor, then you may be less likely to stick to your appointments and get the treatment that you need. A local New York City chiropractor will be the obvious and convenient choice, and there are plenty of such practices with appointments available today.
Lastly, be prepared to do the work. Treatments like spinal decompression therapy are powerful indeed, but you’ll still need to commit to physical therapy. If you’re willing to stick to the program, you’ll likely find that sports medicine and chiropractic practices have come a long way over the years. Back pain, joint pain, and muscle pain are all things that can be addressed through modern physical therapy treatments that are available today.
