Lower back pain is a common reason why people seek out chiropractic care. Whether you have chronic low back pain or have a recent injury or illness, a ProCare Cedar Park chiropractor can help you do more than just manage your pain. Chiropractic care helps you to experience lasting pain relief by identifying the source of your lower back pain and restoring proper alignment in your whole spine. Lower back pain can be related to your spine, muscles, or nerves, and often times it is a combination of all three. With chiropractic care, you can experience healing and relief through all-natural, non-invasive techniques that are gentle and long-lasting.
Diagnosing Lower Back Pain
It is important to understand what is causing your lower back pain in order to properly treat it. Your Cedar Park chiropractor will use a combination of physical exam and diagnostic imaging tools to diagnose your lower back pain. A physical examination will involve inspecting your spine from your neck to your tailbone and inspecting where in your lower back that you experience the most pain. Diagnostic imaging tools like X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans can further help your chiropractor to get a clear picture of what is going on in your lower back that is causing you pain. Common types of injuries and issues that lead to lower back pain include muscle strains, herniated discs, sciatica, arthritis, and more.
Treating Lower Back Pain
When you see a chiropractor for lower back pain, you can rest assured that you will not be prescribed any medications or undergo and risky surgical procedures. In fact, chiropractors use all-natural, non-invasive treatments and techniques so you don’t have to worry about side effects or lengthy recovery times. Chiropractic care uses gentle adjustments, massage, stretches, and more to help your body naturally experience healing and recovery. Here are a few ways chiropractic can help to treat lower back pain:
Decrease Pain and Discomfort
Lower back pain can sometimes be so uncomfortable that it begins to affect your ability to participate in the activities you enjoy. This type of pain can even keep you from performing routine tasks without significant pain and discomfort, like driving, sitting or standing for too long, and more. Chiropractic care helps to decrease your pain and discomfort by finding the source of the pain. Determining whether you have a misalignment, a herniated disc, or another type of lower back injury helps your Cedar Park chiropractor know what treatments and techniques will be best for you.
Improve Posture
Whether you sit hunched over a computer for a large part of your day or work in a job that requires you to regularly lift things, poor posture with daily activities like this can put stress on your lower back. Even poor posture in your neck and shoulders can lead to lower back pain as your back muscles overcompensate to support added pressure. Poor sleeping habits can also lead to lower back pain, and your chiropractor can recommend better sleep positions to help you experience a more restful night’s sleep.
Increase Muscle Strength
When your muscles are weak, they are not able to support your back and spine as much as they could. Strengthening your muscles to support your back isn’t just about your back muscles, either. In fact, your core muscles in your abdomen are also key to helping you have better posture. Strong core muscles help prevent you from slouching so easily and also helps to better distribute pressure and stress across your whole back. Chiropractic care is more about just adjusting your spine; it is also about strengthening your muscles, joints, and other soft tissues so everything can work together as it should.
Recover Range of Motion
Chronic back pain or a pulled muscle in your lower back are just two ways your range of motion can decrease over time. The natural reaction to pain is to avoid that particular movement as much as possible so as to not re-experience the pain. With lower back pain, that may mean you try to do less twisting, turning, or bending. However, as these motions are part of a typical day, this can start to cause even more pain as the muscles in your lower back become stiff and lose range of motion. Chiropractic adjustments, massages, and stretches can help you to slowly regain your range of motion in ways that will not cause more pain.
At ProCare, our Cedar Park chiropractors want to help you experience lasting relief for your lower back pain. If you have a lower back injury or suffer from chronic lower back pain, call us or book online today to get started!
