Lower Back Pain

If you’re anything like most of the Northern Beaches patients that we have coming in to see us at Curl Curl Chiropractic, you’ve already gone onto google and come up with a number of possible reasons why you’re experiencing lower back pain. You’ve probably heard of all sorts of scary diagnosis from a slipped disc, to cancer.

Another cause of confusion is “who can I see for my low back pain?”. You can see a number of different types of practitioners for low back pain. There a chiropractors, physiotherapists, acupuncturists, and osteopaths just to name a few.

It’s often very difficult to know exactly what has caused your lower back pain. This is because there is not always one specific reason why you’re suffering from back pain. At Curl Curl Chiropractic, we can normally identify a number of reasons why someone may be suffering from low back pain. Some common risk factors we notice amongst our Northern Beaches patients are:

• Poor posture
• Trauma, such as a specific fall or trip
• Standing, sitting or bending for too long
• Being overweight
• Lifting or pushing loads that are too heavy, or doing so in the wrong way

Sometimes there are other underlining causes for your lower back pain including:

• A disc bulge, or disc herniation, otherwise known as a slipped disc, may be putting pressure on a spinal nerve
• Spinal stenosis – a narrowing of the spinal canal where the spinal cord passes through
• Osteoarthritis – wear and tear within the joint
• Osteoporosis – A weakening of the bone where they become brittle and more likely to break
• Fracture – a crack or a break in your bone
• Spondylolisthesis – Where one of the spinal bones slips forwards on top of another
• Rheumatoid Arthritis – An inflammatory condition where your immune system causes inflammation of the lining of your joints and surrounding structures.
• Pregnancy – Pregnancy puts all sorts of extra pressure on the low back. Please visit our pregnancy section for more information on back pain associated with pregnancy and Webster’s technique.

The best way to diagnose low back pain is through a good history. When you come to Curl Curl Chiropractic on the Northern Beaches for your initial consultation, we will conduct a thorough history. From there, we will recommend what to do next. Ideally, we can proceed to treatment to help relieve your pain. Occasionally, we may need to do further investigation in order to diagnose your condition properly. These investigations may be:

• X-rays – x-rays are a picture of your bones. If you have a Medicare card, we are able to bulk bill your x-rays, so there is no cost to you.
• CT scan – or cat scan uses x-ray technology in order to create an image of the inside of your body.
• MRI – Magnetic Resonance Imaging uses magnets and radio waves to produce an image of the inside of the body.
• Blood tests – sometimes we will refer to a GP for a blood test to see if there is any underlying pathology

We recommend coming in to see us at Curl Curl Chiropractic on the Northern Beacher the outcomes as soon as possible with your low back pain. We often find that the sooner we commence treatment, as in the acute phase , the better the outcome. So if you are suffering from low back pain, please call us as soon as possible on (02) 9401 0114 to see how we can help you!

Self help for low back pain

If you’re suffering from lower back pain, there are some things that you can do to help.

• Try to stay active and continue your daily activities as much as possible. It is important to rest your back, but at Curl Curl Chiropractic, we recommend that you do active rest. Prolonged bed rest often makes the problem worse. There is strong evidence showing that keeping up some physical activity leads to a faster recovery and reduces the chance of the pain becoming a chronic injury.
• Avoid heavy lifting, especially with bending and twisting.
• Apply hot or cold packs onto your lower back, depending on whether it is acute or chronic.
• For further information on what else you can do, please give us a call at Curl Curl Chiropractic on (02) 9401 0114 for more specific things you can do for your back pain.

Preventing lower back pain

The best form of treatment is prevention when it comes to lower back pain. At Curl Curl Chiropractic, we are passionate about not just treating your pain, but also preventing your back pain from returning. Feel free to ask about our no-gap treatments for children under the school-age program!

Below are some things you can do to help prevent yourself from getting lower back pain:

• Bend from your knees and hips to prevent pressure on the lower back, especially when it comes to lifting heavy items. Also, keep the load that you’re lifting close to your body.
• Maintain a healthy weight.
• Take regular exercise. Pilates and yoga are fantastic forms of exercise that increase core stability. But if you don’t want to do that, walking and swimming are also great forms of exercise to help prevent lower back pain.
• Maintain a good posture as much as possible. Keep your shoulders back and down, and avoid slouching.
• Checkups with your chiropractor can also help prevent your chances of getting low back pain.