At some point in time up to 80% of Americans will have low back pain. That is among the biggest reason people see doctors. When it is bad enough it is hard to get up and down or sleep or doing almost any of your normal activities of daily living. Sometimes there may be leg pain that comes along with it. If that is the case then there may be a disc involved. In other words maybe a disc bulge or herniation or simply inflamed.
Treating Low Back Pain
No matter how you look at it it is difficult to have low back pain and it is difficult to deal with as a patient and sometimes as a doctor. So how do we treat low back pain. The first thing most people do is take over the counter drugs looking for relief. Some may use ice or heat in an attempt to reduce pain. In the early stages of pain ice is more appropriate and in the later stages heat may be of more benefit.
Meds can provide some relief until it wears off of course the you are right back where you started. However using medications allow the problem to progress without you knowing, because you are medicated. A visit to your MD will result in meds, injections and of course physical therapy. Sometime this helps and sometimes it does not.
Does not matter what you think or believe. People used to “believe” the earth was flat too. Chiropractic adjustments restore mobility and function to the spine, relieving irritation to the nerves and helps restore integrity of the disc’s. This goes back to approximately 1972 when the efficacy of chiropractic became a matter of congressional record. So don’t wait until it is too late.
If you have low back consult a chiropractor first, do drugs second and surgery last. Once the pain is gone then do yourself a favor and take care of it with periodic checkups, you know like you take care of everything else. It’s easy peezy. If your pain returns with out incident or trauma, rest assured it just progressed.