What is Recommended for Relief of Lower Back Pain

Lower back pain is something everyone gets at some point to varying degrees. Some people will have a fall or some sort of trauma however lots, if not most people, will just slowly start to get a nagging ache in their lower back that grows over time with no obvious cause for it. If you are any of these then this is a guide on how Chiropractic care can help you.

I will try to keep this short and sweet but as you probably can imagine there are lots of elements to lower back pain, especially the not so obvious type. So to start off we should discuss the guidelines set out by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, or known as the NICE Guidelines, as this is what all medical and therapeutic services in the UK should abide to that includes the NHS and private services (NICE Guidelines Pathway Updated March 2021).

What the NICE Guidelines recommend for Lower Back Pain

The first step is to get the correct information on your lower back pain as well as information on how to manage it yourself. Chiropractic is in a very strong position to help you with this as we specialise in back and spine problems, yes we can help with other body parts and problems however back pain is our bread and butter.

The second step has many options and which one you take depends on how you would like to manage your problem. The different options are Exercise, Manual Therapy, Psychological Therapy, Pharmacological treatments or Specific treatments for sciatica aka surgical intervention.

How a Chiropractor can help with Lower Back Pain

• A Chiropractor is great at helping with exercise as we know various rehabilitation stretches and strengthening exercises to make sure you work on the specific groups of muscles to sort your problem, as you don’t want to be strengthening muscles that are overactive and stretching muscles that are under active.
• Where a Chiropractor can really help is within the manual therapy package as the guidelines state manipulations, mobilisations and soft tissue techniques are what is recommended. All 3 of these are what a chiropractor specialises in and can deliver to you in each session. By using these techniques the Chiropractor will help to get joints moving properly and relax muscles which reduces pressure/tension around the area and starts to reduce the pain but more importantly it helps to restore function.
• Chiropractic can also help with some of the psychological elements of lower back pain as having a specialist supporting you and telling you things are normal can have a major benefit to helping people recover. However, if you do require more intensive psychological therapies the Chiropractor can refer you to the appropriate specialists.
• What a Chiropractor can’t help with is prescribing you pharmacological treatments or surgical intervention as this is required though a medical practitioner. However we can recognise when these are required and can help you get referred to the correct specialist.

Now it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t inform you on what doesn’t work that way then you can make an informed choice on your care. The things the NICE Guidelines say to AVOID are: Acupuncture, Electrotherapy, Traction, Orthotics, Belts, Corsets, Spinal Injections, Disc Replacements and Spinal Fusion.

In summary Chiropractic is one of, if not the best choices you can make for lower back pain as we can give you advice and knowledge about your specific problem, physically help you with your specific problem, teach you how to exercise and manage your specific problem and if required refer you to the correct person to help you with your specific problem.

References

NICE Guidelines Pathway Updated March 2021: https://pathways.nice.org.uk/pathways/low-back-pain-and-sciatica#path=view%3A/pathways/low-back-pain-and-sciatica/managing-low-back-pain-and-sciatica.xml&content=view-node%3Anodes-manual-therapy-treatment-package