Does this sound familiar? I had a few days of back pain a year ago, but it went away. No big deal. Right?
Well actually it can be the start of a painful path if you don’t re-train your true core muscles. Earlier blogs described what muscles actually make up our ‘core’ including the transverse abdominals, multifidus, and pelvic floor muscles.
Unfortunately, these muscles become inhibited (shut down) under conditions of injury, inflammation, and pain. Yes, even just a few days of back pain can shut down your very important core stabilizing system. In fact, recurrence rate for low back pain (LBP) within a year is 30 percent IF you re-train your ‘core’ and 84% if you don’t (Hides, Jull, Richardson. Spine 2001, June 1; 26(11):E243-8).
So what does this mean? It means even if you have only had one episode of LBP you should consider seeing a skilled physical therapist to make sure you are recruiting your core muscles correctly and that you know how to re-train them. It may only be a one-time visit, but it could save you from recurrent episodes of LBP.
So tell your friends–and your doctors–because LBP is a huge epidemic in our country, and if we can stop it before it gets bad we can make a huge difference in the quality of life for many people.
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I find that Chiropractic care combined with physical therapy/exercises is another option one has when combatting back pain
Yes, manipulative treatments often utilized by chiropractors can be helpful in the treatment of low back pain. Manipulative treatment for low back pain has been found to be most successful when utilized in acute and sub-acute conditions with specific characteristics. In fact, I would refer the reader to an earlier blog entry that described a “clinical prediction rule” to assist in determining when a manipulation would be most effective. Trained Manual Physical Therapists are also able to perform manipulative treatments. While manipulation can be very effective for treatment of low back pain, re-training the core stabilizing system is key to preventing recurrence. Even if you have found other types of treatment that successfully ‘treat’ your low back pain including chiropractic, acupuncture, injections, etc., I would still strongly encourage someone to seek out a physical therapist that is skilled in core stabilization training. This is one large piece of the low back pain puzzle that we are learning more and more about all the time.