7/28/2019 Low Back Pain Nov Dec 08

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Living Naturally | November/December 2008 13

Low Back PainBy the therapists at MyoRehab

Have you ever suered with low backpain? I you have youre not alone.At some point in our lives, every

one o us will experience back pain. It willinterere with work, recreation, daily activi-ties and more.

Americans spend approximately $50 bil-lion each year to relieve back pain. It is themost common cause o work-related disabil-ity and a leading cause o missed work.

Ater headache, back pain is the secondmost common pain complaint in the UnitedStates. For many, back pain resolves within aew days. For others, pain is persistent, last-ing or years.

Acute or short-term back pain can persistor a ew days to several weeks. Tis is usu-ally the result o muscle overload or a mi-nor sprain. Acute back pain usually ollowsa sports injury, unaccustomed work aroundthe house, or a sudden jolt resulting rom acar accident, all or near all.

Symptoms oten include muscle pain,limited range o motion bending orward orturning at the waist, or inability to stand up-right. Pain may radiate (or be reerred) romthe low back to another area o the body. Ilet untreated, acute back pain will becomechronic.

Chronic back pain is defned as pain per-sisting or more than 3 months. At this stage,i the source is not identifed and properlytreated, degenerative processes begin to de-velop including arthritis, bulging or herniat-ed disks and depression. Clearly, the longerpain persists, the worse it becomes.

Acute back pain oten becomes chronicwhen we hold the belie, Itll just go awayon its own. We mask the problem withover-the-counter pain remedies or prescrip-tion medication while waiting or the painto just disappear. By the time we realizethe pain hasnt resolved, it has exceededthree months duration, transitioning to thechronic stage. Sound amiliar?

Another cause o transitioning acute backpain to chronic is ineective treatments tar-geting symptoms, usually just the pain site,while ailing to properly identiy the rootcause. Such is oten the case with pain pro-duced by Myoascial rigger Points (riggerPoints or short) resulting rom sot tissueinjuries.

rigger Points are hypersensitive, sel-sustained contraction knots that developin muscle. Tey cause a shortening in thelength o the muscle called a taut bandwhich in turn restricts range o motion.When these knots (or taut bands that har-bor them) are stimulated by contracting orstretching, pain is produced and reerred inpredictable patterns away rom the riggerPoint.

More than 85% o the time, rigger Pointsare not ound at the site o the pain! And,they dont show up on x-rays or an MRI.Ineective treatments usually result romtreating the site o the pain when the sourceis actually elsewhere.

ake a moment to look at the illustration;the X identifes the location o the riggerPoint while the red area defnes the resultingreerred pain. Note the vertical back painshown in illustration A. Te pain is beingreerred rom a rigger Point at the ront othe spine ound in the psoas muscle (pro-nounced so-as).

In illustration B, the horizontal painacross the mid and low back is reerred roma rigger Point in the rectus abdominis alsoat the ront o the body. In both cases, pa-tients with pain patterns such as these aretypically treated at the back where the painis and not at the source, the rigger Pointat the ront o the body. While treating theback or back pain makes sense or tempo-rary relie, treating the source o pain alwaysprovides permanent pain relie.

Consider the case o a typical patient;

Chris, a realtor with no history o traumasuered unrelenting low back pain whiledriving and low back and buttock painwhile seated at her computer.

She managed her pain or years with apopular pain reliever and various treatmentsaimed at her low back which never providedlasting relie. Variations o her pain onlycontributed to the pain mystery.

At MyoRehab, our team approach em-ploying postural analysis and orthopedictests provided a very clear understanding othe problem. For our certifed therapists, thevariations o her pain patterns told the resto the story.

Muscles close to the spine (IllustrationC) holding her upright in her chair har-bored rigger Points producing pain at thelow back and buttocks. While seated in hercar, her abdominal muscles were shortened,stimulating rigger Points that producedhorizontal low back pain (Illustration B).

Ater years o needless suering and con-siderable expense, treatment o the source oher pain fnally provided permanent relie.A specifc home exercise routine will preventher pain rom ever returning. For Chris,temporary relie was no longer an option.

Are you being treated at your low back orlow back pain that hasnt gone away yet? Itemporary relie is no longer an option oryou, give us a call at 505-872-3100 and setup an appointment.

Come to MyoRehab and fnd out howour eam Approach can work or you.

Providing a Team Approach to pain relief since 1994

MyoRehab