 | | Meet Doctor Hobson | | | Lower back and leg pains are often related. In most cases the cause is biomechanical, meaning the muscles and joints are not working the way they should. This can occur because of trauma such as sprain or strain, or can slowly develop through neglect or inactivity. When ever there is pain in the lower back there is usually muscle tightness. These muscles span the joints of the lower back called lumbar vertebra. Because of this muscle tightness, the motion of the lumbar spine will become restricted, developing joint fixations. These fixations produce narrowing and congestion in the small openings where the spinal nerve roots exit the spine. This abnormal nerve pressure irritates the nerve and produces pain.
| | Lumbosacral joint dysfunction, one of the diagnostic terms for this problem, is quite a common condition which often causes lower back pain which can radiate into the hips and down the legs, a condition called sciatica. Sciatic pains are often described as a tooth achy feeling down the back of the buttock, and into the legs of one or both sides. Sciatica can also present as numbing or tingling feelings in the legs. These sciatic nerve irritations may also produce a condition called motor deficit, causing weakness in the legs and lower back which may cause the leg to give out from under you. | |
| Lumbosacral joint dysfunction is often misdiagnosed by doctors who are not trained in the understanding of biomechanical relationships. In such cases, this lack of training would cause the doctor to suspect, disc disease, bone disease, infection, regional inflammation or spastic muscles to be the cause where anti-inflammatory, analgesic mediations or muscle relaxes are usually prescribed to alleviate the symptoms. In the majority of lower back and leg pains, these treatment protocols do not address the actual cause of the problem. They may temporarily alleviate some of the symptoms, but do not fix the problem!
Treatment
To effectively treat this problem, the health care provider must first accurately diagnose the cause of the problem. If the condition is biomechanical, caused by dysfunctional joints, muscles and nerves from the lower back, then therapy designed to restore normal function to this region is necessary to resolve the problem. Chiropractic health care is the only field of medicine specifically trained to diagnose and treat such conditions. Chiropractors are licensed as primary care physicians who are also trained to recognize and diagnose disc, bone, infectious, and muscular diseases in the body. If these conditions are present, your chiropractor will treat accordingly, or refer to the appropriate health care provider for appropriate treatment. Chiropractic treatments for spinal dysfunction will usually consist of spinal manipulation therapy, physical therapy, and specifically prescribed home rehabilitation exercises to restore normal function and good health to the lower back.
Complications
If fixations of the spine are allowed to persist without appropriate care, regional degenerative pathology may develop such as degenerative discs,osteoarthritis, and muscle and tendon contractures. If such conditions already exist in the area of complaint, progress is often slower. See diagrams to help explain your symptoms Return to resource center | |
