It is estimated that, on average, 577 million people experience lower back pain at any given time. Although there is limited understanding of what causes this condition, age, weight, and postural habits play a huge role in spinal health and lower back pain.
Many lower back pain treatments involve medications and other invasive procedures that often come with certain side effects. This is where chiropractic care comes in as a non-invasive and sustainable method to relieve acute and chronic back pain with no absolute side effects. Here is how it works.
Spinal Manipulation
This is one of the core techniques of chiropractic care, which causes a popping or cracking sound, known as joint cavitation. It is done by applying pressure to the spine, hips, and other body parts. Generally, it is the first step in chiropractic therapy, followed by other methods, even when treating lower back pain.
For this method, your chiropractor will turn and press your body to bring the spine back into a healthy alignment. They may do this with tools, bands, or other devices. Spinal manipulation reduces pain and improves the functions of lower back pain with more flexibility. This includes making it easy for you to do simple tasks like walking, standing, and household tasks without significant pain or discomfort.
Spinal Traction
This is another technique to treat lower back pain through a special traction device to gently stretch the neck, spine, and vertebrae. This decompresses the spinal discs and reduces nerve pressure to relieve pain. The effects of the treatment method are almost instant for people with lower back pain.
Normally your lower back handles many movements throughout the day and is the common spot in your body to go through pinched nerves and pulled ligaments. Spinal traction works just fine in opening up your lower back to relieve this constant pressure and pain.
Soft Tissue Therapy
The soft tissues that surround and support your bones, joints, and organs play a major role in your overall spinal health and its effects on the rest of the body, including the lower back. Soft tissue therapy under chiropractic care improves circulation and oxygen supply to these soft tissues. This improvement reduces swelling, inflammation, and tension in areas of the body, like the lower back, which causes pain. Therapeutic massage, deep tissue massage, muscle energy technique, trigger points release acupuncture, and cupping are some methods that your physiotherapist or chiropractor may use for soft tissue therapy.
Movement and Mobilisation
This is another non-invasive and gentle alternative to spinal manipulation that can relieve pain in your lower back. It has almost the same effects as spinal manipulation, but instead of using a quick, firm pressure, spinal mobilisation uses slow and subtle pressure to mobilise the joints and relieve tension.
This method increases the passive range of motions in different joints around the body, especially the spine. It can also improve your blood flow and adapt the nervous system, reducing pain signals and triggers while increasing your pain thresholds (the point at which you become aware of the pain).
Following this procedure, your chiropractor may also guide you through stretches and movement techniques to practise at home to improve the effectiveness of the treatment.
