Why do I get back pain?

We aim to answer this question for you with the combined approach of chiropractic and physiotherapy working together.

We pay particular attention to when you first got back pain and what treatments you have tried before.

It is so important to know your whole story in order to understand what is wrong and then help you to get better.

Back pain is a combination of mechanical factors such as how the joints and muscles of your spine are functioning, inflammation of the soft tissues and lifestyle factors. This is affected by your posture, general health and physical fitness as well as attitudes and beliefs often brought on by anxiety and stress.

Misconceptions and concern about what you think is the problem can prevent recovery.

Usually acute or short duration back pain gets better quickly but it is important to see someone early for reassurance and advice to prevent it becoming chronic. Manual therapy or manipulation and exercises are recommended treatments.

Chronic long term recurring back pain requires working out the cause and what the patient can do to help themselves. Manual therapy and manipulation may help once a diagnosis has been made or an exercise programme specially designed for the condition. Sometimes the nervous system which is so complex learns the pain which has been demonstrated by functional MRI brain scans and this requires careful cognitive advice and pain management. Regular care is sometimes beneficial to keep the problem under control and to help you to self manage.

More complex problems may require imaging in the form of MRI scan and in some cases Quantitative Fluoroscopy scanning to identify a specific mechanical problem in order to decide if manipulation or exercise stabilisation will help or further intervention in the form of spinal injections or stabilisation surgery.

Professor Alan Breen who founded this clinic runs the Biomechanics Research department at the AECC (see links on our website)…….which has pioneered this work and we can assess patients this way with upright MRI and QF studies.

Here at SalisburyChiroPhysio we are fortunate to have this close multidisciplinary relationship to be able to help more complex patients in this way.