Why Does My Back Hurt?

By Shandon Thompson, DC, CCSP

The spinal column is an incredible piece of engineering. It protects a vital structure, your spine, and does so allowing an admirable degree of flexibility through the stacking of individual, interlocking bones.

It works like a sophisticated machine. However, like ANY machine, it's not invincible to constant pounding and abuse. Even though the spinal column is an amazingly resilient structure it is nonsense to think that it can be jostled around every day and not sustain cumulative damage that affects how our spine functions.

Think about all the abuses your back has been through, from falling off your first bicycle, playing sports, hours of sitting at school, then work, perhaps falling off multiple pub stools in college, and then there's lifting things that you know you shouldn't I could go on but you get the point. No wonder many of us wind up at 40 feeling like we're 60.

Those cumulative injuries manifest as short tissue, weak muscle and spinal joints that have lost their capacity to move or move properly. This causes pain and poor mobility.

Every injury leaves some degree of scar tissue. Scar tissue is not as resilient as the tissue it is repairing. It leaves a part somewhat “repaired”, but often less capable of enduring the next trauma. This is why the degree of muscle and joint complaints becomes more profound as we age; and why your dad warned that you would start “falling apart” when you hit your 40's.

All this is magnified if you smoke, don't eat well, do not exercise regularly, or you are subjected to chronic stress.

Chiropractic doctors maximize and extend the quality of life to your spine by restoring proper motion and integrity to your spine. Simply put, they do this by providing greater flexibility to the short stuff (muscles, joints, and ligaments), strengthening the weak stuff and mobilizing the stuck stuff. In so doing, the spine functions more like it did some years earlier.

As time wears on we all expect some deterioration to occur with our cars, our eyes, our hips, our teeth; and understand intuitively that perhaps these things could use some occasional repair and preventive maintenance. Yet, for some the idea of getting the same help for your spine is often overlooked. Don't let time and deterioration catch up to you. Take action now and consult a chiropractic doctor before you feel like you're well beyond your years and can't participate in your favorite activities.

If you are hesitant about chiropractic because you have concerns about having your back “twisted, cracked, pushed on” or whatever other term you have heard, there are doctors who utilize other techniques, such as a Pro-adjuster. The Pro-adjuster is a computerized system that detects and corrects spinal joint motion problems using a gentle tapping. Chiropractic is very safe and highly effective. Many chiropractic doctors work closely with other specialists to make the appropriate referral when needed. So don't wait until it's too late to get your quality of life back. Consult your chiropractic doctor today.