Fort Collins Back Pain Relief

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Chiropractic Care for Fort Collins Back Pain Sufferers

Each year, millions of people in the United States suffer from some form of back pain.  In fact, numerous studies have shown that close to half of all Americans are affected by back pain each year.  Not only is back pain among the most common reasons people give for missing work but also one of the most frequent reasons for emergency room visits.

• Of the 1.8 million disabilities that Americans experience each year, almost 1/4 are related to back injuries.
• Back pain causes more people to miss work than any other condition other than the common cold.
• Back pain is the #1 work related complaint.
• 80% of all back problems can be prevented

The vast majority of all back problems are mechanical in nature, which basically means they are not caused by a more serious underlying condition—conditions such as a fracture, cancer or infection—and those suffering from mechanical back conditions could all potentially benefit from chiropractic care.

Common Causes of Back Injuries

• Less than 5% of all back injuries can be attributed to a single causal factor.
• 95% are the result of cumulative damage over a long period of time.

1. Heavy lifting, especially repetitive heavy lifting over a long period of time.
2. Lifting objects with awkward and/or odd shapes.
3. Twisting at the waist, especially damaging when lifting and/or holding a heavy object.  Common problem activities include reaching, unloading, packing, or shoveling.
4. Working in awkward, uncomfortable positions (careening, kneeing, tasks that require you to bend over for a long period of time)
5. Sitting or standing too long in one position (sitting can be very hard on the low back).
6. Slips or falls
7. Poor posture
8. Other contributing factors: Poor physical condition, extra weight, overdoing it, and mental and/or physical stress

Why do back injuries occur?

First of all the spine is made up of 24 moveable bones called vertebrae.  These vertebrae are stacked up on top of each other.  Between each one of the vertebrae are discs connecting the vertebrae, holding them together almost like guide wires holding a telephone pole.  There is more stability with the ligaments.  Muscles are also attached to the vertebrae by tendons.  Your muscles are responsible for moving the vertebrae enabling the spine to bend and twist, as well as stabilize the spine during lifting.

The vertebrae are stacked on top of each other and form a long protective tube called the spinal canal.  The purpose of the spinal canal is to allow the spinal cord that extends down from the brain to travel from the base of the skull all the way to the tailbone.  Nerves branch out from the spinal cord and exit through spaces between the vertebrae.  The nerves connect to every cell, tissue, organ and system in the body and carry signals from the brain to the body and from the body back to the brain.  Even minor changes to the vertebrae, ligaments, muscles or tendons can irritate or damage the nerves exiting the spine and potentially cause pain or inhibit the function of the body parts the nerves control.  Often times nerve irritation will occur without pain as only 10% of the nervous system has the ability to sense pain.

When a vertebrae slips out of its normal alignment or has lost its normal motion it is called a vertebral subluxation.  When subluxations occur instead of the nerves having plenty of room to exit from the spinal cord through the tunnels (vertebral foramen), the tunnels get smaller.   When the nerve tunnels get smaller the nerves get irritated and nerve signals are altered causing the body parts the nerves control to lose their proper function.

Some Research about Subluxation and Degeneration

• “The effects of abnormal posture on the neuromusculoskeletal system may be vast because of gravitational stresses and asymmetrical muscle forces imparted to the components of the human structure responsible for the maintenance of erect posture (bones, muscles, ligaments, tendons etc.).”
• “Altered alignment of the spinal column is known to cause bone, disk, ligament and myofascial (muscle tissue) degeneration.”
• “Postural abnormalities, if allowed to stand long enough, will cause adaptive changes in the architecture of the affected soft tissue structures, resulting in pain and disability (or asymptomatic degeneration and disability) with likely long-term scaring and degenerative changes.”

What Do Chiropractors Do?

Chiropractic is primarily aimed at restoring proper mechanics to the spine which will, in turn, influence the function of the nervous system.  Chiropractors work at correcting and maintaining the normal function of the spine using spinal adjustments to re-align the misaligned vertebrae and to restore normal motion to restricted joints.  Along with correcting subluxations, chiropractors specializing in spinal corrective care work to correct postural abnormalities, restore normal spinal curves, and rehabilitate the muscles, ligaments, tendons and other soft tissues that support the spine.

Research On The Effectiveness of Chiropractic in Treating Back Pain

The Lancet, July 28, 1990:  Comparison of chiropractic and out patient treatment

• The article “showed a strong and clear advantage for patients with chiropractic.”
• The advantage for chiropractic over conventional hospital treatment was “not a trivial amount” and “reflects the difference between having mild pain, the ability to lift weight without extra pain, and the ability to sit for more than one hour, compared with moderate pain, the ability to lift heavy weights only if they are conveniently positioned, and being unable to sit for more than 30 minutes.”
• “Chiropractic treatment should be taken seriously by conventional medicine, which means both doctors and physiotherapists.”
• Physiotherapists need to shake off years of prejudice and get on board with the skills that chiropractors have developed so successfully.”

What does the Research Say?

• Consumer Report rated satisfaction with back pain treatment.  In their review, Chiropractors got the highest score with 59% satisfaction.  PTs where second with 55%, Acupuncturist had 53%, Physician Specialists 44% and Primary Care Physicians came in last with 34%.  “Relief for aching backs” CONSUMER REPORTS 2009
• FIFTY VOLUNTEERS with high blood pressure and a misaligned vertebrae volunteered for the trial.  Half got adjusted and half got a placebo adjustment.  After 8 weeks, the placebo group got a slight improvement and the group that got adjustments had substantial improvement in blood pressure, far surpassing what is usually seen in tests of single blood pressure medicines. Harvard Heart Letter June 2007
• ASTHMA PATIENTS MAY BENEFIT FROM SPINAL MANIPULATION In a study published in 2002, only those patients who received spinal manipulation showed significant improvement in asthma symptoms, depression and anxiety.  Also reported was the fact that biochemical and physiological changes that were not necessarily expected from spinal manipulation, did, in fact occur.  And that these changes show that the effect of spinal manipulation is far more reaching than commonly believed.  Dr Hayek  FCER 2002
• “People under lifetime chiropractic care are 200% more resistant to disease than those who had never been adjusted and 400% more resistant to disease than someone with cancer.  Subluxations decrease the genetic potential of the human species.”  - RON PERO, Ph.D., Chief of Cancer Research at NYU School of Medicine
• “Nerve fibers go into virtually every organ of the immune system.  We found that if you took the nerves away from the spleen or lymph nodes, you virtually stopped immune responses in their tracks.” – David Felton, M.D., Ph.D, Universiy of Rochester School of Medicine.

HEALTH CARE COST SAVINGS?

An insurance company did an experiment in one of their HMOs.  They used chiropractors as primary care physicians.  Data was tracked for 70,274 member months.  A report analyzing the cost from 1999-2005 showed the following:

• 60.2% decrease in hospital admissions
• 59% less hospital days
• 62% less out patient surgeries and procedures
• 85% less pharmaceutical cost

It is clear that chiropractic is one of the safest and most effective methods of not only treating back pain but at restoring the normal function of the spine and nervous system.  Visit Square ONE for help with your back pain.  Check out our other blogs for information on headaches, sciatica or other conditions.

Chiropractic is the number one form of natural health care.