Causes of Back Pain

You need two separate, but interlinked diagnoses to properly answer this question.

Structural Diagnosis: This means identifying which tissue or tissues are causing your pain. Is it your Facet Joints, Sacroiliac Joints, Discs, Ligaments, Muscles, or Nerves? Could it be a combination of all of these or some of these? This is hard to figure out, which is why you can rely on our expert clinicians to help. We have over 30 years of experience helping people just like you find the answer to this question.

Functional Diagnosis: It isn’t good enough just to figure out which tissue(s) are responsible for your pain. Often the difference between getting better or not lies in determining if your back is the culprit or the victim. This means going the extra step of diagnosing if your back is in pain because it is under more stress and strain due to compensation from something else not functioning properly.

The Cure

Did you know that there are only a few treatments that science has proved to help relieve your back pain? Our Chiropractors, Physiotherapists, Osteopathic Manual Therapists and Massage Therapists specialize in these treatments.

It is important for you to know that all of the various treatments for back pain can be separated into two categories: Passive treatments and Active treatments. Passive treatments mean things that are done to you. Examples are things like Manual therapies (joint manipulation, soft tissue mobilizations and massage), dry needling, acupuncture, modalities, medications, injections and even surgery. Active treatments mean things you can do to help yourself. Examples include learning about your pain and injury, pain-relieving strategies, Spine-sparing strategies and Exercise-based rehabilitation.

We use science to help determine the perfect blend of passive and active treatments that will help you the most. That’s right, it is a combination of both passive and active treatments. Any good care plan doesn’t just end with what we can do for you. We are big believers in finding out what you can do to help yourself.

Did we mention that National Spine & Wellness’s co-founder, Dr. McMorland, wrote the book on curing your back pain? We believe that through better knowledge, you can make better choices. Better choices mean better results. As you go through your treatment plan with us, we empower you with the knowledge and tools to become independent in the maintenance of your health.

Don’t tell Me I Need to do More Exercises!

It is no secret that core stability, and movement in general is a good idea and plays an integral role in helping people recover from and prevent back pain.

Unfortunately, all too often, despite best efforts, the exercises do not help. Sometimes, they can even make the pain worse. There may be a good reason for this.

If you have ever worked with a computer, you may have heard the expression “garbage in, garbage out.” If the input into the system is poor, then the output will be just as poor. The same holds true for the human body.

If you are experiencing pain or if the muscles, bones, and joints of the back are not functioning correctly then the nerves coming from the back give this input back to the brain (“Garbage in”). In response, the brain has to compensate by sending signals back down that change the way your muscles control your movement (“Garbage out”). The resulting poor movement control results in frustration because either you don’t get anywhere with your back exercises, or you even feel that your pain is getting worse. If this sounds familiar, the good news is there is a fix. You will likely need to be examined by a qualified healthcare professional to see if this is the case.

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