Back pain may begin in any of the structures in the back. These include muscles and nerves as well as misaligned lumbar spinal vertebrae and the cushioning intervertebral disks in between. Back pain may also come from regions near the back, like the hip, pelvis and knee or even the ankle.

Back pain can significantly impact your daily life, hampering many everyday activities.

Common Causes:

• Poor posture / spinal alignment
• Inactivity, including prolonged sitting
• Trauma
• Repetitive Poor Movement
• Poor Lifting Technique
• Sports Injuries
• Pregnancy
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Acute Back Pain

Most sudden attacks of acute back pain are the result of misaligned vertebra with either overstretched muscles (strains) or ligaments (sprains). The pain may be most severe immediately after injury, or it may worsen gradually over a few hours. Early treatment may avoid the deterioration in mobility associated with delayed treatment.

Back Muscle Sprain and Strain

Misaligned vertebra due to muscle strains and lumbar sprains are the most common causes of low back pain. A low back muscle strain occurs when the muscle fibers are abnormally stretched or torn. A lumbar sprain occurs when the ligaments, the tough bands of tissue that hold bones together, are torn from their attachments. Treatment with shock waves and spinal manipulation together helps to resolve these problems quickly.

Back Muscle Cramp

Back cramp is an involuntary and forcibly contracted muscle that does not relax. Cramps can affect any muscle under your voluntary control (skeletal muscle). Muscles that span two joints are most prone to cramping. In addition to appropriate supplements and stretching active treatment for repeated cramps may include shock wave treatment with spinal manipulation to improve tone and increase circulation.

Backache and Stiffness

Stiffness and tightness in the back is most often due to changes in the muscles which affect spinal alignment. More than 80% of neck and back problems are a result of tight, achy muscles brought on by years of bad posture causing changes in spinal alignment . Additionally, joint stiffness and pain, could mean you are at risk for spinal degenerative osteoarthritis. Poor posture and a sedentary lifestyle have shown to increase the risk of the condition in later years.

Sciatica (Shooting Pain in Legs from Lower Back)

Sciatica or sciatic neuritis is a set of symptoms including pain that may be caused by general compression and/or irritation of one of five nerve roots that give rise to the sciatic nerve, or by compression or irritation of the sciatic nerve itself. The pain is felt in the lower back, buttock, and/or various parts of the leg and foot. In addition to pain, there may be numbness, muscular weakness, pins and needles or tingling and difficulty in moving or controlling the leg.

Slipped Disc

A spinal disc herniation prolapsed intervertebral disc, informally and misleadingly called a “slipped disc”, is a medical condition affecting the spine, in which a tear in the outer, fibrous ring (annulus fibrosus) of an intervertebral disc (discus intervertebralis) allows the soft, central portion (nucleus pulposus) to bulge out. Tears are almost always posterior-ipsilateral in the disc ring and may result in the release of inflammatory chemical mediators which may directly cause severe pain, even in the absence of nerve root compression. Chiropractic spinal manipulation has proven effective with this condition and when combined with shock wave therapy, improvements occur relatively quickly.

Back Pain from Trigger Points

Trigger points are isolated focal points located in a taut band of skeletal muscle.  When touched, these trigger point produce pain that may be felt in a location far from the actual point.  Trigger point pain often accompanies chronic musculoskeletal disorders or mimic more serious conditions for example trigger points in the back muscles like quadratus lumborum or errector spinae may mimic a slipped disc problem and refer pain in a similar distribution.