Back Pain - What Causes It?
In the past 13 years helping so many people at Core Wellness Centres, I cannot tell you how many times I have heard this question:-
What caused my back pain?
Living in a world of “cause and effect”. There certainly is a cause to back pain. I feel the most important thing to understand is that if the problem is chronic and been there for years it is highly likely that its not just “one” thing that caused your back pain.
The honest answer is that the cause of back pain is different for every person but whats consistent is that its rarely one cause but multiple stresses that come together accumulating to create what we know as “back pain”. I like to call this the “perfect storm”.
For example lets take a typical office worker:-
Sitting for 8+ hours a day
Minimal exercise and movement
Regularly overweight - creating excessive stress and inflammation
Inflammatory diet
Emotional stress
Faulty ergonomics and posture at work
Dehydration
Sleep deprived - inhibiting recovery time
This is just one simple example of how back pain can have multiple ‘lifestyle’causes. Of course there are ‘acute’ situations where there can be one cause such as a car accident like a whiplash but the majority of times with chronic low back pain our lifestyle is the cause. Over time if this is not corrected it leads us to spinal misalignment issues and eventually degenerative joint disease which can been seen on spinal x-rays.
At Core Wellness Centres in Epsom we pride ourself on addressing the cause of your back pain. If it is lifestyle contributing factors we work with you to change and improve these. Maybe its your alignment and posture, maybe you are overweight, or could it be due to weakness in your core strength. All factors must be addressed for you to achieve a long term resolution with your back. If you have suffered with back pain yourself it is important to know that although the cause can be similar it is often uniquely different for every person. Its really important when you see a professional whether it’s a GP, chiropractor, physiotherapist or osteopath that they address the root cause of the underlining condition and you are clear on how they exactly can help you.
The cause is stress!
In one sentence the cause of back pain is down to STRESS! But stress comes in three dimensions:-
1) Physical Stress
2) Mental Stress
3) Biochemical Stress
The most common focus for back pain is physical stress. This comes in two types of trauma to our spine.
MACRO TRAUMA - E.G - Car Accident, Ski Injury, Fall,
MICRO TRAUMA - E.G. - Posture, Sitting, Phone use causing “Text Neck”
But we cannot neglect the other type of stresses emotional and biochemical. Both these stresses can impact our healing ability and also cause back pain. For example just think if you are stressed, how does your neck and shoulders feel? Tight? Tense? Does it give you headaches?
Discovering diagnosis and addressing root cause.
So if you have been struggling with back pain for a long time. It is highly likely that we can help. My first recommendation would be to find yourself a professional that is going to discover the problem in hand and then work with you to address the root cause.
In order to do this it is important to have a thorough examination that will discover the problem in hand. Chiropractors at Core Wellness Centres utilise the following to understand more about the back pain in hand:-
So if you have been struggling with your back. It is highly likely we could help. If you are not near our wellness centre in Epsom then please reach out and I will personally find you a recommended professional to help you!
If you are uncertain, I am happy to jump on a phone call with you (01372745772) or if preferred book a free 10 minute consultation with one of our chiropractors.
Dr Joe-James Tilley , D.C. AFMCP