I would guess that at one point or another you have had some type of pain or spasm in your back. This is a pretty safe assumption. I would bet that you have also had some kind of problem that was brought on by something very small. Let me give you an example. You wake up in the morning and walk into the bathroom and as you go to squeeze the toothpaste out of the tube you drop the lid on the floor. So you bend down to pick it up and zap, lightning sharp ache shoots up your spinal column and back down again. You try to stand up straight but for some reason it feels like someone is pressing against your back causing you to hunch over and making it impossible to straighten up.

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When a tear takes place in the outer ring of the disc allowing the soft nucleus of the disc to bulge out, it is known as a herniated or slipped disc. Inflammation may result in the area as well as pain. Treatments for a herniated disc, tear, protrusion or bulge often consist of anti-inflammatory medication to alleviate pain and swelling.

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A Spinal Decompression Success Story

“I would Definitely recommend this treatment program to others as I now have a quality of life that was lacking prior to this treatment. I am able to walk and go shopping without fearing pain.” Y.C.

“I am so profoundly grateful that the words thank you dont seem nearly enough.  But they are all I have and I say them genuinely.  If it were not for you, your perseverence, your confidence, and your optimsim, I would probably still be lying in bed feeling sorry for myself.  Instead, I have started running again, and biking and hiking and my life seems rich again.  From the very bottom of my heart, Thank You.  You gave me back my life, and that is no small gift.  I am eternally grateful. K.M.

This sounds like a no brainer, I know, but I often get asked by my patients whats the best rest position when your lower back hurts.   it’s almost impossible to do anything without using your back. And when your muscles are strained, you need to allow them to rest and recover. The best position for an injured or achy back is lying down on either your back or side, with the curves of your spine aligned in their natural position. Try lying down on a firm surface like a carpeted floor. You can relax your back by placing a couple of pillows or a chair under your knees. If on your side, place the pillows between the knees instead of under them. For your neck’s comfort, roll up a small hand towel and place it under your neck to give it a break, too.

Here are five back exercises you can do at work to reduce the stress of long hours of sitting:
 
1.  Bird-Dog - Place both hands and knees squarely on the ground.  While keeping your abs tight and your pelvis neutral (no excessive arching or sagging), slowly lift the opposite arm and leg off the ground.  Extend both of them out while holding your head straight.  While lifting the arm and leg, squeeze your glut and do not allow your hips to tilt.  They should be square with the ground.  Do slow reps (10) at 2 -3 sets, two or three times per week.  You can simplify this by lifting only the leg.
 
2.  Swimmers - Lay flat on the floor on your stomach.  Fully extend your arms and legs.  While keeping your forehead flat on the ground, slowly lift the opposite arm and leg off the ground.  Do not bend the knee, imagine someone trying to pull your shoe off your foot as you lift the leg.  Your hips should be pressed on the ground and your gluts should be tighten.  Do not kick the leg up.  (The movement is similar to the doggie bridges)  Do 10 reps slowly at 2 - 3 sets, two or three times per week. 
 
3.  Figure 4 Stretch - Lay on your back.  Cross one leg over the other as if you were sitting at a table.  Reach through your legs and bring the crossed-leg position towards your chest.  You will feel this on the outside of your gluts.  Hold this stretch for 20-30 seconds, do 3-5 times on each side.
 

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A recent study, “Perceived Benefit of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) for Back Pain” (Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, May – June 2010, Vol. 23 No.3), found the majority of respondents receiving CAM for back pain reported great benefit from the various treatments.

Overall, 60 percent of those surveyed who had at least one CAM therapy in the last 12 months found remarkable relief using the top six CAM modalities; chiropractic care, massage, yoga/tai chi/qi Cong, acupuncture, herbal therapies, and relaxation techniques — with chiropractic care the most popular choice.

With back pain cited as the second leading reason for ambulatory visits in the U.S., the survey aimed to explore all promising CAM therapies — offering 17 possible choices. Chiropractic care was the favored approach at 74 percent, with massage a distant second at 22 percent of all CAM options.

“What we are seeing with these studies is compelling evidence that there is a light at the end of the tunnel for back pain sufferers — more and more, that light is chiropractic care and other CAM approaches” advises Gerard Clum, DC, Foundation for Chiropractic Progress spokesperson and president of Life Chiropractic College West.

While survey results were remarkable, only 24 percent of respondents who received CAM stated that their conventional medical practitioner suggested the use of CAM for back pain. Others turned to CAM treatments because they felt “conventional medicine would not help,” when dealing with severe back pain.

“Back pain sufferers should be made aware of all treatment options, especially alternatives that have been scientifically proven to provide relief,” says Clum. “While chiropractic care has in the past been considered alternative there is now a case to be made for making it the first choice for patients and in the process making interventions like injections and surgery the alternative approach.”

If you or someone you know who suffers from back pain and would like to have a chiropractic assessment of back pain, do not hesitate to contact our office at 604-990-6676 or for more information go to www.grandechiro.com.

Back to School Backpack Safety tips
 
As students are getting ready to head back to school in just a few weeks, it’s important for parents to realize the importance of backpack safety. Low quality backpacks and/or improper backpack techniques can cause serious short-term and potentially long-term back and spinal problems.

For this reason, the Canadian Chiropractic Association has generated a backpack safety checklist for parents:

1.  Is the backpack the correct size for your child – The backpack should never be wider or longer than your child’s torso, and the pack should not hang more than 4 inches below the waistline. A backpack that hangs too low increases the weight on the shoulders, causing your child to lean forward when walking. Also, a bigger bag is not necessarily better. The more room there is in a backpack, the more your child will carry and the heavier the backpack will be.

2.  Does the backpack have two wide, padded shoulder straps – Non-padded straps are uncomfortable and can dig into your childís shoulders. Also, two shoulder straps are better than one. Lugging a heavy backpack by one strap can cause a disproportionate shift of weight to one side, leading to neck and muscle spasms, as well as low-back pain.

3.  Are the shoulder straps adjustable – The shoulder straps should be adjustable so the backpack can be fitted to your child’s body. Straps that are too loose can cause the backpack to dangle uncomfortably and cause spinal misalignment and pain.

4.  Does the backpack have a padded back – A padded back not only provides increased comfort, but also protects your child from being poked by sharp edges on school supplies (pencils, rulers, notebooks, etc.) inside the pack.

5.  Is there a waist belt – Many backpacks have a waist belt that can be snugly buckled around the childís waist. These belts can distribute the weight of a heavy load from the back and shoulders to the hips and torso.

6.  Does the pack have several compartments – A backpack with individualized compartments helps position the contents most effectively. Make sure that pointy or bulky objects are packed away from the area that will rest on your child’s back, and try to place the heaviest items closet to the body.

We encourage parents to contact our office should their child or teen report any discomfort, especially one related to backpack use. Early treatment and prevention is key.  You can reach us at 604-990-6676 or www.grandechiro.com

Understanding why you are feeling pain

Famous Southern author William Faulkner once said, “Given the choice between the experience of pain and nothing, I would choose pain.”

Although pain is a part of life, few of us would choose it. In fact, most of us do whatever we can to be as pain-free as possible. Although “No pain, no gain!” was a mantra in the 1980s, it doesn’t seem to be now.

Quite often I hear people say that they don’t exercise (or that they stopped) because “It hurts!” When they have pain from activity, they believe exercise is actually making things worse and they quit. Ironically, many studies show that movement is one of the most effective methods to reduce, eliminate, and manage pain. The evidence is clear that exercise IS medicine and that, in fact, the lack of movement, activity, and exercise is the cause of many of the aches and pains that people have.

The key is knowing what to do — and what not to do. The right kind or exercise can make you feel better — and the wrong kind can make you worse.  We need to start with a basic understanding of physical pain. With some minor overlap, physical pain can grouped into some basic types.

Acute Pain is new pain and it typically results from an injury. Pain is our body’s messenger. It gets our attention so we take care of the problem. Acute pain is part of the natural healing process that the body goes through — much as it does when we cut a finger and bleed. When the bleeding stops, the blood clots, then a scab is formed over the cut. Underneath the scab, scaring and new tissue are laid down. (The same healing process occurs on the inside.) When you take care of a cut correctly, it heals quickly and with minimal long-term scaring. If you don’t care for the cut properly, it takes longer to heal and you may end up with a ugly mark.

Chemical Pain is created as a part of the inflammation process that comes with injury. Again, it’s part of the healing process. Along with bleeding on the inside, the body releases chemicals that irritate the surrounding structures and receptors in surrounding tissues. Bleeding and swelling make it worse — adding a mechanical element to chemical pain. This is the kind of pain that responds to certain medications designed to control this reaction within the body. Chemical pain is evident when a pain is acute — and this type of pain is less responsive to treatment as it becomes more chronic in nature.

Mechanical Pain is response pain. Bend your finger back, it hurts. Stub your toe and it hurts, too. When we put pressure against something, the receptors in the skin and other structures transmit the information back to brain as pain. It’s a protective response that’s critical to our survival. Otherwise, we would go around bending our fingers back and stubbing our toes and without being aware of it — and, pretty soon, our fingers and toes wouldn’t work very well! The tricky part of mechanical pain is that “pressure” is always there. Gravity is a constant force pushing down on us and all our muscles and joints in our postures and positions at rest, work, and play. Most physical pain is mechanical in nature.

Chronic Pain is old pain that’s been around for at least three months. Quite often, chronic pain is related to an event or to acute pain that did not heal completely. Chronic pain can also develop over time when an underlying issue is not addressed. Once pain is chronic, it may never go away completely. Here’s why. The longer a pain persists, the more “hard wired” into the nervous system it becomes. This communication link is so effective that even when the original physical problem has been resolved, the pain pathways continue to transmit pain signals they had been. In our practice, the clients that are the hardest to help are those who have let something linger too long before trying to address the problem. Often, we are still able to help them, but not as quickly and easily as if they’d received proper attention when the initial systems occurred.


Bottom line. There are several very different types of pain — and each one an important messenger. Did you know that research indicates that “knowledge” or education is one of the most effective treatments we have in health care? Studies show that patients feel better and get better — just knowing what the problem is and having someone to take the time to explain it to them.

If you or someone you know suffers from chronic low back pain or sciatica, contact our office for a complementary assessment of their condition to see if they qualify as a candidate for the spinal decompression Therapy. Contact us at 604-984-4601 or visit www.vanspinaldecompression.com

If you’ve endured some difficulties in your life before you got a chronic back condition you may be in luck as far as your prognosis goes. The key here is some - as in falling between no life adversity and a lot of it. A new study, to be published in the September issue of Pain surveyed 396 adult chronic back pain sufferers. They found that people who have met with some life challenge prior to a back problem reported better function and less use of the health care system for their back pain than the others.

So what constitutes some adversity? Study participants said they had dealt with illness, violence, death of a loved one or friend, relationship and social stress or disaster.  The researchers explain the link in terms of resilience. They suggest those who previously dealt with some life difficulties had developed a useful degree of it.

Resilience. Hmmm. Maybe they’re on to something here.