Your back is a complicated matrix of bones, joints, discs, ligaments, muscles, and nerves. It plays an essential role in helping you move, stand upright, and breathe. The primary support structure in the back is the spine. Your spine is what allows you to move freely. Your spine also protects your spinal cord, ensuring that your brain is connected to the rest of your body.
Your back—and all its components, which connect the entire body together—is the reason you are alive and moving.
Here are some painful statistics:
- Half of all working Americans admit to having back pain symptoms each year.
- Experts estimate that 80% of the population will experience a back problem.
- Back pain is one of the most common reasons for missing work.
- Back Pain is the second most common reason for doctor visits.
- Americans spend at least $50 billion each year on back pain.
- Most cases of back pain are mechanical or non-organic—meaning they are not caused by serious conditions and are mostly preventable and fixable!
Back pain is pervasive, and most people consider it a normal part of life, especially as one ages. I challenge that perspective. Back pain is not normal, and it doesn’t need to be a part of aging. The truth is: People have a choice.
Think of pain as an alarm system. Acute pain is like the home security system in your house. It screams as soon as someone breaks a window, alerting you that someone is about to steal all your stuff. Chronic pain is more like a smoke detector. It starts screeching in the middle of the night after a hidden fire smolders and grows from a small spark. In both cases, we want to silence the alarm as soon as possible! But what if you just went back to bed after you turned off the alarm and did nothing about the intruder or the fire?
This is how most people treat pain. Turn it off. Silence it. Ignore its root cause and what is happening to their house—to their bodies. Pain is a signal that one or more structures in your body have been damaged, are misaligned, or are not working properly. Pain is your body’s cry for help. For acute pain, it is immediate, and the cause is known. The alarm system is going off because an intruder broke a window and is robbing you. Chronic pain is different. For someone with chronic back pain, the dysfunction was present long before the pain started. You may not even know where it’s coming from. It could have come from a fall or car wreck. Most often, though, it’s something small or seemingly unrelated that caused the initial problem—picking up a pencil, emotional stress, poor eating habits. Whatever the root cause, when back pain finally presents in these cases, it usually means the root cause was boiling under the surface for a long time. Poor posture, motion restrictions, arthritis, nerve problems, organ dysfunction, abnormal spinal curves…these are problems we see as a result of letting the root cause fester.
In the medical world, they treat the symptoms. Arthritis in the spine, while painful, is a symptom of joint dysfunction in the spine. It is not the cause of joint dysfunction. Digestive issues and other organ issues may be from poor nerve input. Back pain can be caused by organs dysfunction. Drugs, steroid injections, nerve ablation, surgeries, and other interventions are aimed at shutting down the alarm system. They miss the chance to heal the root cause altogether. As a result, people suffer. Or, they continue to “feel good” while their health deteriorates.
At Rising Chiropractic, I see people like this every day. It is heart breaking that so many progress to the point of debilitating chronic pain. People give up so much to live with their pain and dysfunction, accepting it as normal. They turned off the alarm and their house burned down. The intruder has all their valuables now. The pain has taken over their lives.
As a chiropractor, I also know that most back pain (and other chronic pain) is preventable and fixable. Maintaining a healthy spine and nervous system from an early age (from birth!) reduces the chances of back problems occurring, and recovery is typically easier. Even after years of fighting with the pain, every person has the potential to regain control over their lives. It won’t be a drug or an injection or a surgery that saves their life, though. Surgery is not the only way. Those don’t work…no matter what the MD and Big Pharma says. It will come from addressing the root cause of the back pain. Turning off the alarm and grabbing the fire extinguisher. Kicking the intruder out of the house. Reconnecting the brain and the body, repairing the spine and the nerves. Restoring the home to it’s former beauty. Helping each and every person regain the life they deserve through regular chiropractic adjustments.
- A life full of pain or a life full of health? It’s your choice.
- Silencing symptoms or healing the root cause? It’s your choice.
- Invasive medical procedures that don’t work or gentle chiropractic care with no side effects. It’s your choice.
- Wasting time and money on your sickness or investing in your health? It’s your choice.
I hope you choose wisely.
