Mechanical Lower Back Pain

Mechanical Lower Back Pain

There are three types of lower back pain; sprain/stains, mechanical, and compressive. 85% of Americans will suffer some form of mechanical lower back pain sometime in their lifetimes. It is by far the most common and the most disabling.

Mechanical back problems often have multiple problems of the muscles, ligaments, discs, and facet joints. It is also most common in ages 25-60. A lot of studies believe that the problem is cumulative trauma mostly from work related problems. I don’t buy that, I believe it is more likely related to deconditioning of the body as we age. Most Americans sit all day which is the worst position for your back and puts more stress on the lower back area then most other activities. The more will sit the more our core muscles weaken which is supposed to support and hold the spine. I think this is exactly what happened to me when I hurt my back. I have no history of trauma and all I did was take a nap on the couch and roll off. Well everyone knows that rolling off a couch should not cause severe back pain, but it did. The question for me is why it did. My conclusion over the years I allowed myself to get out of shape and my muscles that support the spine (core muscles) had also become weak. This had happened over many years and probably many decades. When I twisted to get off of the couch these muscles did not support the spine and it moved pinching a nerve.

With mechanical types of injuries it is my opinion that physical medicine (such as chiropractic) is much more effective than treating it with pharmacological medicine and research has continually shown this to be true. So you can take all the medications that you want, but until you address some of these underlying mechanical and strength and weakness problems the pain will most like return.