Degenerative Spondylolisthesis

Lower back pain from degenerative spondylolisthesis can interfere with your day-to-day life. Try these 2 tips to help minimize the pain.

http://www.spine-health.com/blog/how-minimize-lower-back-pain-caused-degenerative-spondylolisthesis

3 Lesser Known Causes of Lower Back Pain

Find out about 3 common causes of lower back pain that often go overlooked.

http://www.spine-health.com/blog/3-lesser-known-causes-lower-back-pain

Could STRESS be causing your back pain?

Could stress be the cause of your lower back pain? Read on to find out.

http://www.spine-health.com/blog/could-my-back-pain-be-caused-stress

Heat Therapy for Lower Back Pain

Find out how to effectively use heat therapy to relieve your lower back pain.

http://www.spine-health.com/blog/how-use-heat-lower-back-pain-relief

6 Overlooked Remedies for Lower Back Pain Relief

For many people there is no single or certain cure for lower back pain; it often takes a process of trial and error to find what works best for you.

http://www.spine-health.com/blog/6-overlooked-remedies-lower-back-pain-relief?source=3tab

VIDEO: Chiropractic Lower Back Adjustments

Chiropractic can be an effective nonsurgical treatment option for many types of low back pain, including those associated with facet joint or sacroiliac joint dysfunction and disc problems. Chiropractic manipulation is a common therapeutic treatment designed to increase function and decrease pain and nerve irritability. Here's a video explaining what it looks like and how it works.

http://www.spine-health.com/video/chiropractic-adjustment-lumbar-spine-low-back-video

Exercise and Chiropractic Therapy

Cardiovascular and strengthening exercises combined with chiropractic care are important in the management of low back pain

If a patient has a history of heart problems, it is important for the patient to consult with not only the doctor of chiropractic but their primary care physician to be certain that they can tolerate cardiovascular fitness-promoting activities. Specific instructions are given by the chiropractor with respect to proper exercise for the patient's condition before beginning any exercise program.

In general, a reasonable amount of exercise performed daily and utilizing enjoyable activities is recommended for patients undergoing chiropractic treatment.

Exercise Benefits

Many studies have reported the importance of exercises in managing acute and chronic low back pain, strengthening the low back, preventing and keeping back patients working, and to improve quality of life. The strength of the abdominal muscles was also found to be able to differentiate between those with vs. without chronic LBP.

Overall and when combined with chiropractic care, aerobic exercise helps promote proper digestion, keeps the muscles in proper tone and promotes better circulation. Walking briskly around the block at least once or twice is a convenient and popular activity.
Also, many forms of work and/or household tasks can function as an exercise program. The important point is to exercise!

Types of Exercises

There are many applicable back exercises that are available for patients also undergoing chiropractic care for lower back pain. One can classify the chiropractic patient into a flexion or extension biased category to determine the variety that is best for that patient. For example:

- If a patient feels best when bending over (flexion biased), exercises that promote low back flexion such as pulling the knees to the chest, posterior pelvic tilts, bending forward from a sitting position and others are usually helpful.

- If a patient is least symptomatic in extension, especially if leg pain centralizes or diminishes (extension biased), prone press- up type exercises usually yield the best results.

Other exercises that can help reduce lower back pain include:

-Strengthening of the pelvic (trunk) stabilizing muscles

-Stretching of the hamstrings, adductors, and other overly short or tight postural muscles

-Proprioceptive or balance promoting.

Benefits of Back and Abdominal Exercise

Weak and/or overly tight supporting muscles can have painful spasms and suffer injuries themselves,
which then prevent them from supporting the spine as needed. Compromised muscles can also lead to problems with bone structure of the spine due to poor posture from the weak muscles, thereby creating an increased risk of back pain/ injury.

Consequently, developing combined strength in stomach muscles and back muscles can:

- Reduce the likelihood of back pain episodes

- Reduce the severity of back pain

- Protect against injury by responding efficiently to stresses

- Help avoid back surgery in some cases

- Facilitate healing from a back problem or after spine surgery

- Improve posture.

Reported Efficacy of Exercise in Chiropractic Care

According to the Scientific Commission of the Council on Chiropractic Guidelines and Practice Parameters (CCGPP):

- Strong evidence supports exercise as being at least as effective as other non-surgical treatments for chronic low back pain

- Moderate evidence supports use of a graded-activity exercise program in occupational settings for subacute lower back pain

- Some evidence shows that exercises are no more effective than other nonsurgical treatments for acute lower back pain.

As with any chiropractic treatment, it is important for chiropractors to perform a focused reevaluation of an exercise program following its initial therapeutic trial to determine its effectiveness. Using spinal range of motion as a measurement of the effectiveness of exercise is just one way in which chiropractors can make such determinations.

Learn more about exercise and back pain. Visit http://www.spine-health.com/wellness/exercise/back-exercises

Could my back pain be a spinal tumor?

Could my back pain be a spinal tumor?

Gonzalo and Kathryn’s metastatic spinal tumors caused them excruciating pain and inability to do daily activates. Then they had their spinal tumor treated with STAR. Hear their stories and how they got their life back.


Click to hear Gonzalo's story


Click to hear Kathryn's Story

Back pain is commonly the symptom that patients notice first when cancer has spread to cause tumors in the spine.

However, some people with metastatic spinal tumors do not have symptoms.

Who is most at risk for metastatic spinal tumors?

If you:

• Have a primary cancer elsewhere in the body
• Are experiencing sudden onset of unexplained back pain (mild to severe)
• Are experiencing neurological problems (such as weakness or numbness of the arms or legs or a change in normal bowel or bladder habits)
• Are experiencing loss of appetite, unplanned weight loss, nausea, vomiting, or fever, chills or shakes.
  
  

...then, you may be at risk for, or have, a metastatic spinal tumor.

Learn More and Download a Free Information Kit

The spine is the most common site for bone metastases, with studies showing that metastatic spinal tumors will develop in between 10% and 40% of all cancer patients, with even higher rates in elderly patients.¹

There are an estimated 160,000 people living with painful metastatic spinal tumors.² Are you, or could you be, one of them?  Are you a caregiver for someone who may be at risk?

Next: Take Action

• Receive information about spinal tumors and the t-RFA/STAR procedure
• Get a discussion guide about STAR to take to your doctor
• Find a STAR physician in your area

References

1. Cardoso ER, et al. Percutaneous tumor curettage and interstitial delivery of samarium-153 coupled with kyphoplasty for treatment of vertebral metastases. J. Neurosurg Spine 2009;10:336-342.
2. Constans, et al., J Neurosurg 59:111-118, 1983; Gokaslan, et al., J Neurosurg 89:599-609, 1998; Wong, et al., Spine 15:1, 1-4.

Easy Do-It-Yourself Ice Massage Therapy

To do ice massage therapy, a regular ice cube may be used, but it’s better to use a larger piece of ice. One easy way to do this is to freeze water in a paper or Styrofoam cup, then peel the top inch or two of the cup to expose the ice surface. Read more about how to use ice massage for back pain relief.

Treatment plans, insomnia, and anatomy of the sacroiliac joint

A chiropractic treatment plan will try to reduce pain and restore normal joint function and muscle balance in the short term and restore functional independence and normal activity in the long term.

http://www.spine-health.com/treatment/chiropractic/chiropractic-treatment-plan

Without sufficient sleep, aches and pains become more prominent. And many chronic pains can make it more difficult to get to sleep and stay asleep. This loop can make recovery more difficult unless sleep issues are addressed as part of a treatment program.

http://www.spine-health.com/video/insomnia-and-back-pain

The sacroiliac joint connects the sacrum with the pelvis on each side of the lower spine and it transmits all the forces of the upper body to the pelvis and legs.

http://www.spine-health.com/conditions/spine-anatomy/sacroiliac-joint-anatomy