Your back pain can be cared for by Vancouver’s Zenaptic Chiropractic. Dr. Troy Dreiling offers chiropractic care for all types of back pain and you can get started with a free consultation. Simply call us to get started.
According to the American Chiropractic Association, 31 million Americans are living with back pain at any point in time. While chiropractors treat more than just back pain, this is one of the leading reasons that patients visit our office, as people are often seeking relief from this pervasive condition.
Back Pain Causes
Low, mid and upper back pain can be caused by a variety of factors, and it is important to identify the underlying cause of the pain in order to come up with the most appropriate treatment plan.
- Lumbar herniated disc. When a spinal disc degenerates, the inner core can leak through the out portion of the disc, resulting in a herniation. The main symptom associated with this type of back injury is sciatica, which involves pain that travels to the foot, leg, and buttock, and it is typically only felt on one side of the body.
- Degenerative disc disease. When the lumbar discs found between the vertebrae start to break down, a damaged disc can result in instability and inflammation in the lower back. This can lead to low back pain, muscle spasms, and back pain that tends to worsen with sitting.
- Isthmic spondylolisthesis. Isthmic spondylolisthesis will occur when a vertebra of the lower back moves forward and onto the disc space found below it. Symptoms include pain that radiates into the buttocks and thighs, a tired feeling in the legs, and pain that improves with sitting.
- Sacroiliac joint disease. This condition can occur if there is too little or too much movement of the sacroiliac joint, which connects the sacrum to the hip on each side. Symptoms include pain in the lower back and hips, back pain that worsens when sitting, but might feel better when reclining, and the need to change positions frequently in order to relieve pain.
- Back muscle strain. A strain of the back muscle or ligament is one of the top causes of acute low back pain. This may be caused by twisting, lifting a very heavy object, or a sudden movement that results in stretching of the ligaments of muscles. Symptoms include difficulty standing or walking, dull and aching pain, and potentially severe muscle spasms.
Whether you have been suffering from low back pain for a while or it just started, chiropractic care can help.
Call (360) 260-6903 to set up a free consultation.
Low Back Pain
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Hey, it’s Dr. Troy here, for low back pain chiropractic care.
A lot of our patients come in they suffer from low back pain and I found over the years many people with back pain have had chronic back pain on and off at higher or lesser intensities over many many years. Then we have some that just had their first episode and some of those tend to respond pretty quickly.
A lot of times we’ll see people with low back pain and they could have disc issues, they could have facet issues, muscle issues and then the biggest thing is joint dysfunction which interferes with nerve flow.
So what we try to do is find out what are the pain generators? What’s causing the low back pain?
Then we lay out a corrective course of care to correct those things which could include massage therapy it could include exercise, rehab, stretching protocols. It could include chiropractic adjustments whether they’re with a hand adjustment or with an instrument which is very light. We also have a DRX9000, which the goal with that is to reduce disc issues.
People that might be facing surgery, have leg pain, sciatica, disc problems, this can help relieve many of those patients who have even tried traditional chiropractic or acupuncture or cortisone shots or looking at surgery.
So there’s a lot of different treatment options at Zenaptic Chiropractic. If you’re suffering from low back pain consultation is always free, we accept insurance.
We would be happy to schedule you a time to see if one of our doctors here at Zenaptic would be able to get you back on track.
We say at Zenaptic, it’s where pain-free living begins (360) 260-6903.
Low Back Pain Chiropractic Case Study
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I actually had my back go out when I was working. It was my lower back but he found that my neck was actually the issue and it wasn’t allowing everything to go through down to my lower back.
It started out as a negative six, it’s supposed to be 45. We’ve done a couple of x-rays since and now I’m on the positive side of the spectrum and still going.
That’s great. So how are you? Your numbers are good but how are you feeling?
Feeling a lot better. I will say this, if I didn’t if I wasn’t able to even come in every other week I wouldn’t be able to function. I see that periods of time where I do have to go away for a while and it’ll be like a month or something like that and my back is all messed up until I can come back and be readjusted.
Wow. So what advice would you give your friends about chiropractic care?
I have given them advice to go seek out a good chiropractor. Make sure to do your Yelp stuff and verify that they are actually good and yeah stay on it because it really does, you don’t know how bad your back is until you get it adjusted and then it’s like night and day. It’s really just like turning everything back on, it’s like whoa, feels much better now.
Low Back Pain Exercises
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Hey, it’s Dr. Troy here, the Vancouver chiropractor.
If you’re experiencing low back pain there’s a lot of home remedies you can do. I want to give you a few pointers that we give our patients who have back pain, sciatic pain. These are some really great foundational exercises that can help strengthen the postural muscles that help bring strength to your foundation.
So a lot of times people who sit, they drive maybe, the repetitive construction workers they’ve got joint dysfunction. What happens is if the joints are not firing right, the nerves aren’t firing right, the muscles can become atrophied so you lose strength and then you don’t fire them properly. So, I want to take you through about three or four exercises that we teach all of our patients in our office to do at home in addition to getting adjusted if that’s what they’re doing. These exercises, we’ve found if people do them consistently every day they’ll resolve many many many back pain issues.
The first thing we want to do, most people when they bend forward they’re not using the right postural muscles so I want to demonstrate. When we do this most, people are spending their day like this whether it’s driving sitting at a computer, so the neck, upper back, everything gets tight and then that translates into the low back pain. The goal here is we want to arch the back, so we’re going to put a nice curve in there and we’re going to lock that in so it’s going to be nice and tight.
The other way to do this is you bring your shoulder blades back kind of like your water skiing or doing a row; so you squeeze your shoulder blades together you know arch your back and when you do that you’re going to hinge right here at your hips so you should feel this in your hamstrings, in your butt, and your low backs not going to round forward like this. Okay, so, we’re extending, squeeze our shoulder blades together and we’re going to come down where it’s comfortable. Some people can only go here but if we come all the way down we hold that for ten seconds, you should feel your low back muscles light up, so we’re going to go here hold it for 10 seconds. The next move is we’re going to go straight out and hold that for 10 seconds and then we’re going to come up hold that for 10 seconds and that’s one repetition. We recommend doing it three times and it should take you four, five, six minutes.
I’ll walk through it again. We’re gonna bring our shoulders back, we’re going to bend forward, another modification of this is you can bring your arms straight back with your thumbs up that’s going to help open up the chest, the pecs or just like that you hold that for 10 seconds we’re going to bring our arms straight out and hold that for 10 seconds, then let’s bring it up again just like that hold it for 10 seconds turn our thumbs down then bring your arms up a little bit more.
We found this exercise works really well for people who have had low back injuries in the past. It helps get the joints moving, get them functioning better so they get stronger and they are able to support themselves and gravity better with less pain and more mobility.
If that doesn’t work for you I’d be happy to do a consultation in our office with you. One our doctors at Zenaptic Chiropractic would be happy to take care of you. (360) 260-6903 is the number, this is Dr. Troy the Vancouver chiropractor.
Mid Back Pain
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Hello, it’s Dr. Troy here for mid-back pain chiropractic care in beautiful Vancouver Washington.
Today I want to talk about mid-back pain.
A lot of people today suffer from back pain issues especially mid-back pain. The mid-back basically starts at the lower part of your neck where the upper ribs attach to your spine and then go all the way down to the lower part of your ribs. So, a little bit lower if you’re a woman, where the bra clip would go that’s pretty much what we call the mid back or the dorsals.
Let’s talk about some of the things that can happen or that you can feel if you’ve got mid-back issues.
A lot of people who suffer from mid-back pain sit a lot, they have bad posture, they might be on a computer a lot, they drive a lot, they’re in airplanes a lot. What can happen is the vertebra and the joints in the spine can lock up they malfunction, they create swelling which triggers pain in that can kind of cause a whole host of problems.
A lot of our patients will complain of burning, numbness, weakness, tightness, feeling achy, fatigued feeling in between the shoulder blades mid-back area that might even radiate into the shoulders. Some of our patients have reported with mid-back pain they get rib pain that might radiate around into the front. I’ve even had some patients say, “I thought I was having a heart attack we went to the hospital they couldn’t find anything wrong.” It was actually a spinal misalignment which was putting pressure on the nerves that radiate around into the front of the ribs.
We’ve also seen breathing problems. I had a guy just the other day he said, “You know I’ve been here a couple years ago and I had really bad stomach issues”, it was a nine out of ten and he said, “I was pretty good for about two years and now it came back I went to the inner chronologist, gastroenterologist and they scoped me and they couldn’t find anything wrong.” Then he said, “You know what I remember? I went to a chiropractor they adjusted my mid-back and my stomach problem cleared up.” That’s why you came back to see us.
So, these are some common ailments that we see that specific chiropractic care can help address. There are some specific exercises we can teach you to help open up the dorsals or the mid-back so that you feel better, you function better and we always say at Zenaptic Chiropractic is where pain-free living begins.
Free consultation (360) 260-6903, our providers are willing and able to help.
Mid Back Pain Exercises
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Hey, it’s Dr. Troy here the Vancouver chiropractor.I want to give you some mid-back stretching and exercise tips if you’re experiencing mid-back pain, pain between your shoulders, tightness, burning.
I want to give you some mid-back stretching and exercise tips if you’re experiencing mid-back pain, pain between your shoulders, tightness, burning.
You know a lot of people have a desk job or they drive for a living so there’s a lot of sitting. Young kids now they’re texting or on the computer and so the mid-back gets out of balance structurally. One of the things you can do at home is really focus on extending.
One of the exercises we recommend is to put your head into extension, bring your shoulders back and extend and squeeze in between your shoulder blades. So, you should fire the muscles in between your shoulder blades and postural and you hold that for five to ten seconds. If you squeeze your shoulder blades together and extend your head you’ll feel it light up in there. So that’s a really good exercise for helping with mid back. Also, extending your head and holding it for five to ten seconds as far as you can comfortably without pain is another really good exercise we give a lot of patience.
The other thing that you can do for mid-back pain is you can get a foam roller. Foam rollers are about this big, they’re anywhere from 12 to 18 inches around and you put that in between your shoulder blades and you roll up and down on it on the floor. An exercise ball is another great way to get us into extension.
Most mid-back pain that we’ve seen comes from, we don’t spend enough time in extension or too much in flexion where everything gets tired and fatigue, starts to ache and burn in the back.
If that doesn’t help you we’d be happy to do a consultation at Zenaptic Chiropractic. (360) 260-6903 is the number and any of our doctors would be happy to see you and see if we can get you back on track with your health. This is Dr. Troy the Vancouver chiropractor.
Upper Back Pain
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Hey, it’s Dr. Troy here.
Today I want to talk about upper back pain chiropractic care.
A lot of people come to our office and say their upper pain is really tight. It’s burning, they have tension in between their shoulder blades, they can’t turn or use their shoulder very well and can potentially have numbness or tingling in their hands.
The upper back is basically between your shoulder blades up to the base of your neck, that is what we would consider your upper back. And so what happens?
A lot of times people will be sitting at their desk and they have this forward head posture and the muscles in their upper back are over stressed and strained. Now the pressure of that builds onto the joints, the discs and then the muscles get fatigued because gravity is pulling this 112-pound bowling ball forward.
So, first you have to analyze, do they have forward head posture? And also, do they have joints that aren’t moving properly? If the joints don’t move properly the nutrients can’t come in, waste can’t come out, there is an irritant in there that causes inflammation and the inflammation is pain.
There are specific extension exercises, fulcrums, wedging that people can lay on, there is traction that they can do to help open up that upper back, take the pressure and stress off the muscles and ligaments so they feel better.
Specifically, chiropractic adjustments to help restore joint function, nerve flow, even massage therapy can be beneficial for helping people who have upper back pain.
If you’re suffering from it, any of our providers here will be happy to work with you to see if we can get you back on track.
Zenaptic Chiropractic, where pain-free living begins. (360) 260-6903.
Upper Back Pain Exercises
Transcription
It’s Dr. Troy here the Vancouver chiropractor.
I want to give you some upper back stretches and exercises you can do if you’re experiencing upper back pain, burning, tightness, stiffness, achiness.
As you know a lot of people in society spend a lot of time sitting like I am and they’re sitting in a chair, I’m exaggerating this but this is how they come into our office. They look like this, they’re hunched forward they say my upper back hurts it’s tied it’s burning maybe there’s tingling or numbness in their hand.
Here’s something simple you could do when you’re at work. You sit in your chair and you extend comfortably. You try to extend that upper back over the fulcrum of your chair, you just hang out there for 5, 10, 15, 20 seconds. This is a really good exercise just to help take the stress off the postural muscles.
The other thing you can do to help, if you really want to open it up, you can bring your elbows up and open up your chest. You could do this even without the chair but you extend, bring your chest up bring it back as far as you can, open that chest wall up because when we’re rounded forward this is going to get tight. You want to open this up squeeze and your shoulder blades together to help strengthen those postural muscles because you got to hold that 12-pound bowling ball up with those muscles. This really helps get you back in more of a neutral position.
A lot of people experience shoulder pain, neck pain, upper back pain, hand numbness and tingling due to their head being forward. They lose the cervical curve which irritates the nerves that go into the extremity. Those are a couple things you can do at home or at work or in the car, even in the shower to help relieve some pressure and stress in your upper back.
An exercise ball works really well where you extend over it or a foam roller where you’re rolling up and down your spine and get yourself more into extension through your mid-back. A lot of doctors say the mid-back is just an extension of a curve in your neck so the more we can put that extended curve in the better, especially long term as you get older and more mature in life.
If that doesn’t help relieve your pain chiropractic might be the answer. Call our office we’d be happy to schedule a consultation (360) 260-6903. This is Dr. Troy, the Vancouver chiropractor.
Back Pain Analysis and Treatment
To start an analysis of your back pain, your chiropractor will begin by getting an up-to-date medical history, including reviewing your symptoms, physical activities, and work. A physical exam will also be performed in order to rule out potentially serious causes of your low back pain. If your pain lasts for six weeks or longer, a diagnostic test may be used to better understand the cause of your pain:
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- Spinal X-ray. A spinal X-ray will take a picture of the spine, and it can find diseases or injuries that affect the joints or discs in the spine. This may include bone spurs, disc disease, infections, or fractures.
- MRI. An MRI can discover changes in the spine to better identify the cause of low back pain.
- CT Scan. A CT scan will take a more detailed look at the spine, and it can find herniated discs, fractures, and narrowing of the spinal canal.
- A chiropractic adjustment, which may also be referred to as a spinal manipulation, manual manipulation, or chiropractic manipulation, is the common therapeutic treatment plan for lower back pain. Adjustments typically involve:
- A high velocity arm thrust that is applied onto a vertebra
- An accompanying and audible release of gas caused by the release of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and oxygen, which releases pressure in the joint
- A sensation of relief
- The goal of this type of chiropractic treatment is to reduce subluxation while increasing range of motion, improving function, and reducing nerve irritability.
While spinal adjustments can be useful in the treatment of lower back pain, they aren’t the only procedures that chiropractors can employ to help with symptoms, as there are many other drug-free approaches to dealing with pain: - Mobilization. Chiropractic mobilization will refer to low velocity movement, manipulation, and stretching of the muscles and joints, with the objective of improving range of motion in those areas.
- Massage. Massage can be used on the soft tissues in order to reduce inflammation and swelling associated with back pain while improving circulation. This can promote quicker healing.
- Exercise. Flexion, or extension based exercises, can improve mobility in the lower back, as can exercise that strengthen the pelvic stabilizing muscles.
Back Pain FAQ
Are chiropractic adjustments for low, middle, and upper back pain safe?
Chiropractic care is known for being one of the safest non-invasive and drug free therapies available for the treatment of back and neck problems. When performed by a licensed chiropractor, spinal adjustments are extremely safe.
Can you treat a slipped disc?
Technically, it isn’t possible for a disc to slip. A disc is a pad of cartilage that is found between the spinal bones, and because of the way it is attached to the vertebrae, both above and below, it can’t “slip.” However, injury or trauma to the spine can cause a disc to herniate, bulge, or tear. This can be very painful, as pressure will be put onto the spinal cord and adjacent nerve roots. Chiropractic care can be very successful at treating these conditions and can help patients to avoid dangerous pain medications and an unnecessary surgery.
Summary
We offer a variety of chiropractic techniques aimed to improve your low back pain, regardless of whether your discomfort is caused by degenerative disc disease, a herniation, a back strain, or any other condition. Not only can we provide chiropractic adjustments to relieve your pain, but we can also offer other chiropractic solutions to improve your quality of life.
If you are living with back pain, today is the day to take the first step in feeling good again. If you are in the central or downtown Vancouver, Washington area, please call us to set up your free consultation.
