Quite often encountered in the practice of a massage therapist, Lower Back Pain is a rather complex medical concept, which includes a huge variety of conditions and is caused by numerous, often directly opposite, reasons.

In the scientific, practical, and popular literature, a considerable number of articles are devoted to Lower Back Pain, some of which are quite easy to find. Therefore, I will not rewrite them, multiplying the mass of useless content, but will focus on useful and not entirely obvious points.

For example, from the first paragraph, which talks about the variety of causes and forms of Lower Back Pain, one can draw a quite simple conclusion (despite the obviousness of such, few people do it) that there is no Lower Back Pain and this name is meaningless.

Therefore, the phrase often found in advertising such as: “using our method, we easily and successfully cure Lower Back Pain” is essentially a lie. There is no single and universal method to deal with Lower Back Pain.

Lower Back Pain are dozens, if not hundreds, of different conditions that are not related to each other in any way. They are nominally united by a feeling of pain in the lower back. But it is there that there are a lot of different anatomical structures that are capable of producing pain.

CAUSES

As shown above, there is a huge variety of causes of Lower Back Pain. Simply rehearsal the causes of Lower Back Pain will do little for the nonspecialist. At the same time, many attempts have been made to somehow classify the causes themselves. We will go from the other side and unscientifically and very conditionally divide all the reasons into two groups, which we will conditionally call:

  • COMPLEX causes and
  • SIMPLE causes

СOMPLEX causes will include those that require serious medical treatment. SIMPLE ones are such causes that it is quite possible to cope with on your own, without a doctor.

One of the previous articles discussed structural and functional changes in musculoskeletal disorders. These terms allow us to understand the essence of complex and simple causes. Complex ones are those that are related to structural changes, while simple ones are the initial functional changes. There is no 100% match, but you can catch the essence.

Several obvious conclusions follow from the foregoing.

  • If you have Lower Back Pain due to “complex” causes and are already developing structural changes, it is worth contacting doctors for diagnosis and treatment.
  • In all cases of Lower Back Pain, COMPLEX causes must be ruled out first.
  • If the Lower Back Pain cause is SIMPLE, which you can deal with on your own, this does not mean at all that such a condition can be ignored and treatment can be postponed.

EXAMPLES.

  • Wearing too tight shoes for a long time can lead to a change in the joint of the big toe with the development of a bunion. You can prevent this at the very beginning by eliminating tight shoes, but if the process has begun, then only a surgical operation can help.
  • If you have to sit in an incorrect position for a long time and do not correct your posture and do not do exercises, you may well get structural changes in the spine, which will be very difficult to correct.

WHAT TO DO?

In an ideal world, a visit to a doctor with LOWER BACK PAIN should entail a comprehensive examination involving modern medical arsenal and equipment (now we understand that this is necessary to exclude serious, structural causes) and the selection of individual treatment

In the real world, on your first visit, you’ll be prescribed Tylenol, told not to dance too much, and kicked out of the office.

Chiropractors should do this, but they are very busy with their own goals and most likely will not bother with your specific problems either. They will crack some of your bones and advise you to come in more often. This is their income.

The typical massage therapist, alas, does not have the necessary knowledge to identify and share the causes.

This is the uniqueness of my approach and my massage clinic. In addition to the Massage Therapy Diploma, I have a foreign Medical Doctor Diploma and years of doctoral practice. I cannot practice treatment and make diagnoses in Canada. But nothing prevents me from thinking and using previously acquired knowledge in order to understand the essence of the problem and suggest the most optimal way to get healthy.

PRACTICALLY

  1. Listen to your body, and try to understand what exactly causes Lower Back Pain and what makes it worse. It’s not that hard if you listen and observe.
  2. Assess the dominant nature of the pain: acute, dull, where exactly the pain is localized, where it radiates, etc.
  3. With this data, come to me for a consultation and together we will work out the most effective way to get rid of pain.