Vaughan, ON – New Video Answers this Commonly Asked Question, “Why is My Back Pain Not Getting Better?”
Hey! It’s Dr. Walter Salubro here from Back to Health Chiropractic Centre. I’m a chiropractor in Vaughan and the chiropractor who wrote this book, Back to Health by Choice: How To Relieve Pain, Conquer Stress, and Supercharge Your Health the Chiropractic Way.
And if you have back pain, I want to give you couple tips on helping you get through back pain struggles, especially if you had chronic back pain and have tried therapies or drugs or different things and still have the problem.
There’s a couple of things we need to get when it comes to resolving back pain. And the number one thing is having a proper diagnosis—truly discovering the reason why you have back pain. And one of the most common reasons for back pain is because of a musculoskeletal problem, usually along the spine.
So let me explain. So here’s a model of the low back. Low back is made up of five bones. They’re called vertebrae and in between each bone are discs. They act like shock absorbers. And we know from research in science that the spine needs to have a certain shape from the front, which is straight and have a certain shape from the side, which is curvy and then the back, low back in this case, it’s elliptical in shape.
And there are lots of structure that relates to the spine, which makes the back very, very complex. So there are the bones, the discs, there’s nerves that come out from the side, both sides of the spine. And on the inside is the spinal cord, which connects brain to the body.
So you can imagine how important the spinal column is because it protects your nervous system, your spinal cord, your connection between brain and body, which controls everything—not only how your body functions but also how your body repairs and heals. And that’s key.
So when back pain is involved, there is usually four main structures along the spine that are affected. That will give you insights to why people get back pain, why you get back pain, and why it’s important to discover what’s causing it and getting it corrected. So let me explain through this model here.
So here’s another segment of the spine. It’s a spinal model. So you have the bones, discs, muscles, nerves and what attaches the muscles to the bones are called tendons. So when there’s a spinal misalignment, and I have to basically shift the spine so you can see that. So let’s say the spine is shifting like this; it’s out of alignment. A few things happen.
You notice here, at the disc, it’s being compressed. So when the spine is being shifted, the disc is being compressed. Okay. The muscles are being stretched out. The tendons that attach the muscles are being stretched out and the joint capsule over here on the back is also being stretched out. So four structures are involved along the spine.
There is the disc, which is being disrupted and injured. There are the muscles that attach the vertebra that are being stretched out. There are the tendons that attach the muscles to the vertebra that are being stretched out as well. And then there’s the capsule, which is this ligamentous material that closes the joints, that keeps it in place.
So whenever there’s a spinal misalignment or subluxation, that will trigger information to the brain that something is off. So all those structures—the discs, the muscles, the tendon, the capsules of the joints that are on your spine—when there’s a spinal misalignment, so it should be straight from the front, curvy from the side—when there’s a spinal misalignment that’s out of alignment, that’s not good, that’s called the spinal misalignment or subluxation.
Those four structures—discs, muscles, tendons and capsule—will be disrupted and it will send messages to the brain that something is off. Now the brain will try to correct it posturally, causing muscle spasms to try to realign that, causing signals of there has been injury there. So inflammation is being triggered to try to heal the area.
So when there’s inflammation, typically along the joint capsules, and the disc areas, those are highly pain sensitive structures, chemical mediators are released that are noxious to the tissues and there’s swelling in that area. So it’s very, very painful. And that’s why back pain is a big problem because it’s painful and if the cause is due to a misalignment of the spine, subluxation, then it’s important that it gets properly diagnosed. That’s very important.
So as a chiropractor, my objective is to discover if the back pain that you come in with is caused from the spine and these structures. Because if it is, then it’s a chiropractic case and it’s something that we can help correct.
So the second important thing, other than discovering what the true problem is, is to actually finally correct it. And there’s a lot of ways to relieve back pain. In fact, I’m writing a new book that’s called Back Pain Resource Guide. I’ll talk about that in a moment. And I’ll have a lot of tips in there on how to relieve back pain at home and get through back discomfort. But what’s key is to correct the underlying problem that’s causing the back pain.
If it’s a distortion on your spine, causing distortion on the structures that are triggering inflammation and pain, that needs to be corrected. And that’s what chiropractic does, it helps correct those spinal misalignment problems to relieve the distortion on those four structures, decrease the inflammatory process naturally, and then the brain now has an opportunity to send healing messages to that part of the spine or the back.
Now, let me give you a case report. This is a very, very recent brief case report to illustrate this. I had a patient that came in this week. This man, he had back pain for several months to a year and not only was the back aching and hurting, but the pain was traveling down the leg as well. And he’s been to a physiotherapist. He’s been to massage. He’s been to exercise, tried yoga, tried drugs and medications and sometimes they’ve helped, those treatments, and sometimes it made things little worse. That happens sometimes. But the key is that the problem never got resolved.
So they were finally referred to my office. And we did a full checkup, range of motion, stress scan on the nervous system, posture check, we did a lot of things. Checked the spine for shifts and subluxations. And this is what I’ve discovered, really interesting actually; here is another model of the spine, same idea, spine, right? This one here has the pelvic bones, right? So this person’s subluxation was where the pelvis was actually rotated backwards. There was a rotation in the pelvis backwards.
Now, I identified that through specific tests that we do. And then I gave this person an adjustment the same day. And I’ve essentially corrected that misalignment. And I told him how to do some things at home to help relieve that. A day went by, I called the patient the next day and asked him how he did with the adjustments and how the back is feeling. And this is what the patient said, is that, “This is the first time in the last six to twelve months after doing all these therapies that I’ve done that I finally got immediate relief of their low back pain.” Why? Why that happened?
Two reasons. One, because the problem was discovered. And two, because it was corrected properly. Now, we need to do more work on this person to continue the correction, maintain it and do some rehabilitative work, exercises to help strengthen the core, and all that to prevent injuries in the future. But that illustrates how important it is to discover the main problem properly and then correct it. And if it’s a spinal problem, that’s a chiropractic case that we can work with.
So I hope you found that useful and valuable. If you liked it, please give some thumbs up. Give some comments below. I love to answer your questions. Share this with a family member or friend that may find this useful too, especially if they have back pain. And also, I want to tell you about something exciting I am working on. It’s a book that I am writing. It is called The Back Pain Resource Guide.
I am releasing it in the New Year and if you want some input into that book, and you have a question about back pain, let me know. Click on the link on this video. That link will take you to a form where you can actually ask your question, submit it with your email address. And what I’ll do is I’m going to compile all these questions and make sure I don’t leave anything out in my book, which is called Back Pain Resource Guide.
So I’ll put those answers into that question. So it actually serves the needs that people and readers want when it comes to back pain relief. So be sure to click on that link. Leave me your response and in exchange, I’m going to give you a free copy of the book when it’s released in the New Year. I’ll give it to you by email just for your contribution to the back pain resource guide.
Hope you found this useful. Give me some thumbs up, like, share with your family and friends and leave some comments below. And don’t forget to leave your question on that link provided in this post.
This is Dr. Walter Salubro and I’ll talk to you again soon.
