Low Back Pain Treatment in Springfield, IL

Low back pain is one of the most common conditions we treat at the Springfield Wellness Center. Up to 80% of all people will suffer from low back pain at some point in their life and it’s the number one cause of disability in the United States. The reason why low back pain is so common is because the low back, the lumbar spine, undergoes the most amount of stress over the course of your lifetime.

It’s important to treat low back pain quickly because it can lead to degeneration down the road. We see a lot of people in the office that may have gotten into an accident or had an injury in high school that they don’t treat for 10 or 20 years, causing the effects to escalate over time making it much more difficult to fix.

There’s a difference between acute and chronic low back pain. Acute pain means something traumatic has happened and you can pinpoint the cause of the pain, usually within the first 72 hours of an injury. Chronic pain means you’ve been dealing with this problem for more than three months, at that point you may not even know what caused it in the first place.

There are a lot of different things that can create low back pain such as muscle problems, ligament issues, joint problems, and disc issues. While each one of these individually can lead to low back pain, it’s important to find the root cause of the problem. In our office, we make sure that we address all four of these potential problem areas by doing an exam to decide what’s actually causing the problem.

How We Treat Lower Back Pain In Springfield, IL

Spinal Decompression In Springfield, IL

There are multiple structures that can create low back pain. One of the most important is the spinal disc – the cushion between the individual vertebra. At Springfield Wellness Center, we use a technology called Spinal Decompression. This allows us to restore bulged discs – which can create not only low back pain, but pain that radiates down the leg – to their proper place.

Spinal Decompression works by tractioning the low back. This opens up the disc spaces creating negative pressure inside of the middle of the disc, which starts to pull the bulge away from the nerve. This is critical to relieving pain.

This is a great short term way to help with a bulging disc. Long term, we make sure that we combine this with chiropractic adjustments and therapeutic exercises to help strengthen the core so that the problem doesn’t persist.

Common Causes of Low Back Pain in Springfield, IL

Bulged Lumbar Discs

The spinal disc is the shock absorber or the cushion in between individual vertebrae. I describe discs like a jelly doughnut. The fibers that are around the outside of the disc are like the doughnut and the nucleus, which is a gelatinous material, is like the jelly of the doughnut.

Over time, the discs can wear down and dehydrate. When that happens those fibers begin to tear, especially if you have an injury, pick something up incorrectly, or get into an accident. If those fibers tear enough the gelatinous nucleus takes the path of least resistance and moves toward the outside of the disc, creating a bulge. That bulge puts pressure on the nerves that travel through the spine and that creates pain in your low back that can also radiate down your leg.

Herniated Lumbar Discs

Like with bulged discs, the outside fibers can begin to tear and the nucleus can start to move towards the outside of the disc. If the fibers tear enough, the nucleus can actually break through the exterior of the disc and sit on a nerve ending. Herniated discs tend to create more leg pain, then low back pain, and they also create more intense pain. When the disc ruptures, that takes the pressure off the low back area, but it creates a lot of pain down into the leg because the nucleus is out of the disc and sitting on the nerve.

A natural way for the herniated disc to resolve itself is a process called fago se cytosis – your body sees the nucleus as a foreign object so it will inflame to try to help eat up that nucleus and reabsorb it. If that doesn’t work, it can create pain that is usually enough to cause people to start to look into surgery. We try to treat herniated discs naturally, but after a certain course of treatment surgery may be the only option.

Degenerative Disc Disease

Degenerative Disc Disease is an age related condition where the discs begin to break down. (Obesity, smoking, and work that is hard on the spine can also contribute to Degenerative Disc Disease.) Similar to a bulging or herniated disc, as discs become dehydrated and break down they start to lose their natural height. A fully hydrated disc has height to create proper openings for the nerves to emerge from the spine and travel throughout the body. When the disc starts to shrink, the foramen – the holes that the nerves come out of – start to get smaller irritating the nerves. This is what creates that low back pain and potentially radiating pain.

Unfortunately, with Degenerative Disc Disease, whatever damage has been done can’t be reversed, but it can be slowed. This is why it’s so important to get treatment as soon as possible whenever you’re dealing with low back pain.

Spinal Stenosis

Spinal Stenosis can create a lot of significant symptoms, mainly because pressure can be put on the spinal cord as well as the adjacent nerves. Usually with Spinal Stenosis people will find that standing or walking can aggravate their pain and that resting, sitting down, or even bending forward can help relieve some of that pressure. Not only can it cause pain, but it can also cause weakness, numbness, or organ dysfunction – like your bladder or your gown. Those are emergency situations and you need to contact a medical doctor immediately.

Muscle Strain

Muscle strains are the most common causes of low back pain. They tend to be dull and achy, and the pain is intensified with movement or putting yourself into certain positions. Normally the pain stays localized in the lower back versus radiating into your legs or other areas. Muscle strains can be caused by sudden activity, over time with repetitive motion, poor posture, or weak core muscles.

Muscle strains usually resolve in four to six weeks, but we want to address them early if possible because, a lot of times, they are a symptom of a more root problem. This is why, at Springfield Wellness Center, we always try to attack the root cause of the problem versus just addressing the symptoms.

Sacroiliac Joint Dysfunction (SI Joint Pain)

The sacroiliac joint is where the sacrum – the triangle bone at the base of your spine – meets the pelvis. This joint isn’t built to move a lot and problems can be created by hypermobility, moving too much, or hypomobility, moving too little. 15-30% of all low back pain cases are caused by SI joint dysfunction. The SI joint works to absorb the shock between the upper body and the pelvis and legs. Causes of SI joint dysfunction are leg length discrepancies, pregnancy, giving birth, or repeatedly stressing the joints.

Facet Joint Dysfunction

Facet joints are the joints at the back of the spine where the vertebra meet. There’s cartilage inside of those joints that, over time, can start to break down and become inflamed. People that have facet joint dysfunction normally feel pain when they go into extension, meaning they lean back, or if they’re standing for long periods of time because that loads those joints.

Subluxation

Subluxation is the dysfunction that chiropractors are looking for and that they treat. Subluxation is dysfunction in the spine, or misalignment of the spine, which creates pressure on the nerves. The nerves are then what create the symptoms and the low back pain.

Specific chiropractic adjustments are the only solution to a subluxation. You can do all of the stretches and exercises that you want, but if a vertebra is stuck out of alignment or is not moving properly, until you get that motion back or correct the alignment, you’ll continue to have issues.

Frequently Asked Questions

When should I be worried about low back pain?

You should be worried about low back pain as soon as you start to feel pain in your low back. Low back pain is your body’s alarm system telling you that something is wrong. Usually pain is the last thing to show up and the first thing to leave, so we want to address it as soon as it starts so it doesn’t turn into more of a chronic issue.

What can I do to relieve my lower back pain in Springfield, Illinois?

We talked a lot about ways to relieve your low back pain in the sections above, but the BEST THING that you can do is to reach out to our office or another professional to get an exam and find out what exactly is causing the lower back pain. The cause of the low back pain will determine what’s going to help relieve it.

How do I know if my back pain is serious?

All back pain is serious. We don’t want any dysfunction happening in your spine or really in your body overall. If by ‘serious’ you mean a medical emergency, if you’re noticing any type of nerve issues – which can be tingling, numbness, weakness, inability to control your bladder or your bowels – those are a step above just general low back pain. That would be something where you need to consult with a professional.

What causes low back pain?

There are many causes of low back pain. It could be acute, like an injury or an accident. It could be something chronic or long term, like improper body mechanics, poor posture, or weak core muscles. t’s important to address not just what’s been going on in the last couple of days, but also what’s been going on over the last few weeks, months, or years.

How should I sleep with lower back pain?

The best way to sleep is on your back with your spine in a neutral position, meaning that it’s not too arched and it’s not pushed forward more than it should be. Having a pillow that allows you to keep your neck in a neutral position, as well as using a pillow underneath your knees to take any pressure off of your low back, even a small pillow in the small of your low back for support.

Sleeping on your side is next best, you just want to make sure that your pillows aren’t pushing your head to one side more than the other. So it’s in a neutral position, as well as having a pillow in between your knees to keep your hips from getting out of alignment.

Sleeping on your stomach is the least ideal situation when it comes to sleeping.

How do I tell if lower back pain is muscle or disc?

Normally with a muscle strain, the low back pain will be dull and achy. It may diffuse over both sides of the low back but it mainly stays within the lumbar region.

With a disc issue, you not only have low back pain, but you also can have radiation into the buttocks, the hip, or even into the leg or the foot. Discs tend to have more nerve involvement than a pulled muscle or muscle strain. The best thing to do would be to get it examined by a doctor that specializes in determining what the problem is.

How does a slipped disc feel?

A slipped disc is another way of saying a disc bulge. Normally you get low back pain as well as radiating pain wherever the nerve that’s being pressed is traveling. Depending on how badly the nerve is being pressed, the pain can run all the way down into the foot or the toes. Usually you can tell if a disc is pushing really hard against a nerve based on how far down the leg the pain travels. You also may feel more pain when you increase the pressure inside your body. So if you hold your breath or you sneeze, that can create more pressure inside of your body that can create more intense pain.

Why won’t my lower back pain go away?

The body is capable of self healing in a lot of situations. If you have chronic low back pain, however, it can point to a bigger problem. It could be something that’s been there for years and has just never met the threshold of creating pain. It could be a new injury or it could be something more serious. The only way to really know what’s going on is to seek out professional care.

Can a chiropractor in Springfield, Illinois help with lower back pain?

ABSOLUTELY. Low back lower back pain is the number one musculoskeletal condition that we treat at Springfield Wellness Center, and I would imagine most chiropractors in Springfield, Illinois, also treat low back pain. A Chiropractor should be the first person you go to because this is the thing that we specialize in and it’s always best to try a natural approach before you go the medical route.

What is better for lower back pain, chiropractor or massage?

It really depends on what is causing the lower back pain, but I always recommend going to a chiropractor first. They will be able to address or assess whether the problem is coming from the spine – the misalignment or dysfunction of the vertebrae putting pressure on nerves which is creating the muscle problems or if it’s just a muscle issue. If it’s just a muscle issue, then soft tissue and massage work will help quite a bit. If the tight muscle or the muscle spasm is being created as a symptom of pressure being put on the nerve at the spinal level, then until you take the pressure off the nerve at the spinal level the muscle will continue to be a problem. You may be able to get the muscle to relax or feel better in the short term, but if you don’t address the root cause it will continue to come back.

How can you tell if your spine is out of alignment?

The best way to determine if your spine is out of alignment is to seek help from a chiropractor because that’s what they are trained to address. If you are having some type of spinal issue, muscle tightness, spasms, or nerve pain, there usually will be a subluxation or a spinal misalignment. But, like I said, the best thing to do would be to visit a chiropractor and have them do a comprehensive exam.