Personalised Back Pain Treatment On King William Street

Personalised Back Pain Treatment On King William Street

Back pain without personalised treatment can be debilitating. Your back pain may be the reason for taking time off work and even life. Not only that, back pain can indirectly cause nausea and GI (gastrointestinal illness) issues, headaches, and aggravate some mental health conditions–especially due to chronic pain. Back pain can impact every aspect of your life, a detriment to your body, mind, and soul.

Limitation of movement because of back pain and the resultant time off work costs ourselves living wages and our economy millions of dollars each year; so, what do we do about back pain? The key to getting over this pain lies in prevention and in seeking treatment for back pain early.

What is the difference between acute and chronic back pain? 

Acute back pain occurs suddenly because of an injury, while chronic back pain develops slowly over time. Chronic pain conditions increase the risk of acute injuries. 

One of the major reasons that back pain is common is the tendency for people to be less active than in previous generations. Back pain in people younger than 30 is on the rise and back pain in the over 50s age bracket is the most common.

Physio Treatment For Back Pain

If you are experiencing acute or chronic back pain do not despair. At City Physiotherapy & Sports Injury Clinic Adelaide, your physiotherapists are skilled and optimistic about assisting you in your recovery.

Physiotherapy treatment will help you even if you have degenerative spinal changes, have had chronic back pain or other back conditions for a long time, or are older; the best time to start is now.

At City Physiotherapy, your physiotherapist will assess you, treat your symptoms and primarily address any factors that either cause or are contributing to your pain. Common treatments can involve:

• Back pain treatment
• Hands-on physiotherapy like spinal joint mobilisations, soft tissue release, nerve mobilisations
• Headache treatment
• Remedial massage
• Therapeutic exercises like prescriptive exercises, rehabilitation of weakened muscles, Pilates, and core muscle activation 
• Dry needling 
• Potential referral for radiological scans 
• Other therapeutic modalities

What causes back pain?

Spinal Discs

A ruptured disc, commonly referred to as a slipped disc or a bulging disc, is one reason for acute lower back pain. Between each of the spinal vertebrae are spinal discs that function as shock absorbers. As a normal part of the ageing process, your discs can develop cracks in their outer more fibrous layers. 

These cracks can push out the softer gelatinous central part of the disc. The disc can then bulge, placing pressure on the spinal nerves. The ruptured disc material will cause irritation and an inflammatory response around the nerve, resulting in back pain and referred pain into your gluteal muscles or down your leg from your back.

Spinal Joints

Your spinal joints are the joints between each of your spinal vertebrae and the joints to the right and left of each spinal vertebra. If these become stiff and immobile, you will notice that your back is not as mobile or as flexible as it used to be. These joints can also suffer from spinal wear and tear or degenerative changes with age or previous injury. 

All spinal joints need to move through their full range of motion for the synovial fluid, which acts as nutrition for the joints, to spread over the entire joint surface. If your spinal joints are stiff, they are not receiving synovial fluid or joint nutrition and will degenerate more rapidly. 

Muscles

The muscles in your back can become painful for several reasons. Tight muscles, weak muscles or overactive muscles can all contribute to causing back pain.

Tight Glutes, Piriformis, Erector Spinea and Quadratus Lumborum are the main common muscular culprits.

Other causes of back pain

Obesity, dehydration, lifting heavy weights, sitting too long, long-haul driving, age, sports injuries or impact injuries can all contribute to or cause you to experience low back pain. 

Hormonal changes and fluctuations during and post pregnancy, at various times throughout the menstrual cycle and perimenopause, menopausal and postmenopausal women can also often experience back pain that physiotherapy interventions such as dry needling, holistic physiotherapy, education, exercises and hands on treatments can assist.

Cumulative traumatic experiences throughout life can also lead to back pain. From physical traumas to sustained periods of stress and everything in between, trauma leaves its imprint within our bodies in our nervous system and as such physiotherapy is well placed to assist our patients to commence this healing journey.

What are the common symptoms of back pain?

• Dull, aching pain in the lower, middle, or upper back
• Sharp or shooting pain that may radiate to the buttocks, legs, or feet
• Stiffness and reduced flexibility in the back
• Muscle spasms in the back
• Pain that worsens with movement, lifting, or bending
• Difficulty standing up straight or maintaining a proper posture
• Chronic or acute pain episodes
• Constant or intermittent pain

Commonly, pain in your back can cause you difficulty with sitting, standing, or moving from sitting to standing. This pain can also interrupt your sleep. The inflammatory response to some back pain can cause the pain in your back to become worse in the mornings. Difficulty leaving bed or being unable to perform normal daily movements or work is a typical consequence.

Some back pain sufferers can also experience nerve pain or nerve impingement (pinched nerves), pins and needles, numbness, tingling, spinal deviations or spinal listing to one side, bladder and bowel dysfunction, weakness, loss of balance, loss of function, loss of spinal range of movement or loss of spinal reflexes.

Teaching you how to regain safe movement and explaining what you can and shouldn’t do to keep your spinal pain away is our guiding philosophy for restoring a pain-free or pain-reduced existence to you. Being positive about what you can do and the progress you make on the road back from back pain is also an essential factor in your recovery from pain in your back.

What Symptoms or Conditions Cause Back Pain?

• Sciatica: Radiating pain down the leg through pressure on the sciatic nerve.
• Muscle Weakness: Loss of strength in the back or associated muscle groups.
• Numbness and Tingling: Sensation changes in the legs or feet.
• Reduced Mobility: Difficulty walking or performing daily activities.
• Sleep Disturbances: Back pain can disrupt sleep patterns.
• Emotional Distress: Anxiety and depression can exacerbate chronic back pain.
• Weight Gain: Inactivity as a consequence of pain can lead to weight gain.
• Reduced Quality of Life: Back pain can limit participation in social and recreational activities.
• Spinal Deformities: Prolonged untreated back pain can lead to spinal deformities.
• Bladder or Bowel Dysfunction: Rare, but severe cases of back pain may affect bladder or bowel control.
• Complications of Pain Medication: Long-term use of pain medication can lead to other health issues.
• Work-Related Problems: Difficulty in performing job tasks or absenteeism.
• Joint Problems: Compensation for back pain can lead to joint issues in other parts of the body.
• Cardiovascular Problems: Lack of physical activity owing to back pain can increase the risk of heart problems.
• Pregnancy: Back pain or backaches are common during pregnancy, especially in the early stages as your body is adjusting.

Are These Symptoms and Conditions Caused By Back Pain?

• Nausea: Nausea can result from severe back pain, especially if it is causing significant discomfort and distress.
• Stomach Pain: Back pain relates to gastrointestinal discomfort but it is usually not the direct cause of stomach pain.
• Constipation: While back pain may lead to changes in mobility and activity levels that can indirectly affect bowel function, it’s typically not a direct cause of constipation.
• Cancer: Some types of cancer can metastasize to the spine, causing back pain, but cancer itself is a separate medical condition.
• Headaches: Back pain and headaches can coexist, through muscle tension or stress, but one does not directly cause the other.
• Dizziness: Dizziness can occur in response to severe pain, but back pain itself is not a direct cause of dizziness.
• Vomiting: Severe pain can trigger a vomiting response in some individuals, but vomiting is not a direct symptom of back pain.
• COVID-19: COVID-19 primarily presents with respiratory and flu-like symptoms, and while it can lead to generalised body discomfort, it doesn’t directly cause typical back pain.
• Bloating: Bloating can occur alongside back pain, but they are usually separate symptoms with different underlying causes.

Back Pain City Physio

Types of Back Pain

General Back Pain

Back pain is one of the most common musculoskeletal presentations in any private practice physiotherapy clinic. Unfortunately, our modern lifestyle includes extended periods of sitting, placing increased stress on our backs.

It is important to realise and remember that backs are not as fragile as you might think they are. Intervertebral discs have strong layers of connective tissue wrapping around them holding everything in place. However, imaging performed on the back typically shows some amount of degenerative change.

Middle Back Pain

Anatomically, the middle back refers to the thoracic spine or t-spine. This region is unique in its function because it connects with the ribs and allows for movement when breathing and rotation of the trunk. Increased ranges of motion in the middle back mean that posture determines whether muscular imbalance and tightness increase. 

Thus, postural habits keep the thoracic spine healthy and postural types of pain occur when habits are poor. As compression in the spine leads to the stagnation of synovial fluid within the joints, and poor posture often contributes to this compression, a physiotherapist can effectively mobilise the middle back to provide relief and improve mobility.

Pain in the thoracic region can stem from under the shoulder blades. Figuring out where your pain comes from becomes confusing when the causes indirectly connect to the symptoms.

Our therapists are experienced and confident in mobilising and manipulating your stiff and painful thoracic spine to help you regain full pain-free movement.

Low Back Pain

Low Back Pain is the most common type of pain experienced by our population. There are three distinct presentations of low back pain. People often combine features of each presentation, but problems typically separate into three different groups.

Disc Injuries

Disc injuries occur regularly and can be quite a stressful and painful situation. Disc injuries will usually only become painful one or two days after the original aggravation and will give off sharp pains which causes extensive tightness in the lower back. 

Your physiotherapist will help you on a path to recovery by encouraging disc mobility, avoiding aggravating positions such as sitting, releasing soft tissue, taping for support and giving strengthening exercises once ready. The most important step in your recovery is not to panic, as lots of people make full recoveries from pains like yours.

Joint Pain

Not only does the spine comprise the large joints between the neighbouring vertebra, but it also has two smaller joints on either side. These joints are just like any other in the body and produce pain if they are not functioning correctly. The joints, called posterior intervertebral joints or facet joints, commonly cause pain during twisting, bending backwards and bending sideways. Treatment of these joints usually requires your physiotherapist to use specialised techniques to help the joint regain movement while releasing tight soft tissue structures around the sore joint.

Nerve Pain

Nerve pain is the third type of lower back pain and is usually the result of one or both of the other sources of pain. Discs can irritate nerves if they press on the nerve while exiting the spinal column, while tightness in the attached muscles usually indirectly affects nerves through posterior intervertebral joints.

Nerve pain will usually feel like sharp burning pain and can travel in a certain direction along the line of a nerve. Nerve pain can be distressing, however, we urge you to seek help from your trained physiotherapist at City Physiotherapy who can help relieve your pain through a variety of techniques.

Sciatica

Sciatica is pain caused by irritation of the sciatic nerve that runs from the lower back, through the buttock, down the back of the leg and into the side of the foot. Irritation occurs most commonly in one of two places; at the exit of the nerve from the spinal cord or in the buttock by a muscle called piriformis.

If you experience this pain, it will feel like a sharp or burning sensation that can shoot down your leg. This may get worse when you sit, bend over, or cross your legs.

Your physiotherapist at City Physiotherapy will help to determine the source of irritation of the nerve and help to relieve your pain. Dry needling and/or trigger point release are especially effective in giving immediate results from piriformis-triggered sciatic pain. Sciatic pain caused by spinal irritation can take longer to dissipate however our therapists are very experienced in retraining lower backs to restore movement which allows for happier non-irritated nerves!

Contact City Physio Today 

If you have tight and tender glutes or a sore lower back, you are at risk of back pain. Why not help yourself prevent this pain from becoming severe by booking a session with us BEFORE the pain starts? Here at City Physio, Adelaide, we are committed to helping you be the best version of yourself. 

We can assess you to determine the source of your pain, the best treatments for you, and how to prevent back pain. 

Book an assessment of your back and spine from one of our physiotherapists online today! Start your journey towards recovery and wellness with City Physiotherapy Adelaide.

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