Low Back Pain Treatment in Escondido, CA

How We Treat Lower Back Pain In Escondido, CA

Comprehensive Consultation and Examination

Corrective Spinal Care Of California treats lower back pain with a comprehensive history. One of the most common things we hear from patients is that no one has really listened to them before. Our job is to make sure that we get a complete history and understand exactly what’s going on with you.

Next, we will do a thorough examination, which includes chiropractic, orthopedic, neurological, and postural examinations. These exams aim to discover exactly what’s going wrong and get to the root of your issue. More often than not, the pain is just a symptom of a problem. The pain indicates a problem elsewhere in the body. By looking at your body as a whole, not just the sum of its parts, we can get to the root of the problem – spinal misalignment, muscle imbalance, joint degeneration – and find a permanent solution to your issue.

Digital X-rays

Having a clear picture or blueprint of your spine is essential before starting lower back pain treatment. We take standing digital X-rays to detect prior injuries, abnormalities, improper biomechanics, or degeneration that may be contributing to your lower back pain. X-rays can even share with us conditions like osteoporosis, tumors, arthritis, spinal misalignments, and fractures. If your problem is not a chiropractic problem, we will refer you to the specialist necessary.

By seeing your particular spinal mechanics, our chiropractors can pinpoint the exact cause of your problem. This is crucial for designing an effective treatment plan specifically for you.

Modern digital X-ray technology uses minimal amounts of radiation. The diagnostic benefits of digital X-rays greatly outweigh the risks. X-ray technology is a safe and invaluable method for corrective care chiropractors to stop lower back pain. With digital X-rays, we can decide the best treatment for your particular needs. When a corrective care plan is finished, we take additional digital X-rays and compare them to the initial set. Here, we can see if we corrected the underlying problem once and for all, so you don’t have to continue dealing with this for years to come.

Specific Chiropractic Care in Escondido, CA

New patients often tell us that our treatment and care plans are different from those of the other chiropractors and therapists they’ve been to. Specificity and science are crucial ingredients to our success. Most spinal issues are caused by a subluxation, where vertebrae in the spine have become misaligned and can’t move properly with the other vertebra. When that happens, nerves can become irritated, eventually leading to symptoms like lower back pain, leg pain, tight musculature, and even herniated discs.

Our goal with corrective chiropractic care is to remove any subluxations causing pressure on the nerves and restore the proper function of each vertebra of the spine. It is a slow process, depending on how long the problem has been there. When we relieve nerve irritation, the symptoms you’ve been suffering from will eventually fade, and your body can do what comes naturally: heal.

Custom Therapeutic Exercises

Lower back pain is oftentimes due to an imbalance in the muscles that help support your pelvis and spine. Corrective Spinal Care Of California tailors specific stretches and exercises to your condition to improve muscle strength, balance, and flexibility. We base these recommendations on your history, examination, posture, and X-rays. In your initial examination, we’ll figure out what is moving well and address areas that are not moving. We will be giving you a plan to help you help yourself at home so that we can restore function as quickly as possible. By balancing muscles of the legs, back, and core muscles, we can stabilize the spine, reducing the likelihood of further subluxations.

When the muscles around your lower back are imbalanced, poor posture can eventually lead to strains on the spine. Subluxations or misalignment of the bones can make these issues worse by irritating or pinching the adjacent nerves. Eventually, this will lead to muscle imbalances, pain, tightness, and reduced mobility.

Proper posture is essential for health. It reinforces muscle balance to prevent subluxations. Exercises like pelvic tilts, bridges, knee-to-chest stretches, gentle spinal twists, and gentle yoga stretches can help those suffering from lower back pain. These exercises strengthen the core and back muscles, ultimately improving strength and alignment and promoting long-term stability and relief.

Spinal Decompression in Escondido, CA

Your spinal discs are a crucial structure of your spine. Discs sit between each vertebra to act as a shock absorber to protect movement and motion in your body. Spinal decompression is a game-changer for lower back pain resulting from a disc injury.

Manual spinal decompression works by tractioning the lower back from the rest of the body. This opens the spaces between the bones, creating negative pressure inside the disc, stimulating the healing of a disc bulge, and relieving nerve irritation.

Manual spinal decompression is an excellent tool for minimizing the pain of a bulging or herniated disc. Combined with specific chiropractic adjustments and therapeutic stretches and exercises, it can prevent this problem from worsening in the future.

Common Causes of Low Back Pain in Escondido, CA

Bulging Lumbar Discs

The spaces between the bones of the spine are called spinal discs. They are the shock absorbers that cushion each vertebra. The outside of a spinal disc is made of the strongest material in the entire body: fibrocartilage. The inside is a lot like the filling of a jelly donut. This inside jelly material is called the nucleus. With wear and tear of the discs over time, the outside fibrocartilage begins to deteriorate, and the nucleus bulges against the disc’s exterior. Disc bulges put pressure on nerves that travel down the spine into the legs.

Herniated Discs

Herniated lumbar discs are the next step in the bulging process. As the exterior fibrocartilage tears, the nucleus pushes through the disc’s exterior wall, putting pressure on the adjacent nerves. Herniated discs tend to be more painful and cause even more leg pain than lower back pain. Eventually, the disc can rupture, causing intense shooting pain down into the leg because the nucleus is outside of the disc and sitting on the nerve.

Symptoms of a herniated disc can be sharp, stabbing pain in the lower back, shooting pains in the lower back, numbness in one or both legs, weakness in the leg muscles, and, in extreme cases, issues with controlling bladder flow. This situation requires immediate medical attention.

There are many methods for treating a herniated lumbar disc. Recent research indicates that conservative methods such as rest, specific spinal adjustments, and exercises targeted to strengthen the back muscles and improve flexibility are the most successful in relieving pressure caused by a herniated disc.

Your body‘s natural approach to treating a herniated disc is called phagocytosis. Your body recognizes the foreign materials of the nucleus outside of where it’s supposed to be and sends a team of cells to help eat up and reabsorb that nucleus. Phagocytosis can take months and sometimes years to heal properly. Oftentimes, the pain is so severe that people eventually turn to an orthopedic surgeon for help.

We have been very successful at treating herniated discs naturally. Surgery should always be the last resort.

Spinal Stenosis

Spinal stenosis is a unique type of degenerative joint disease that affects the narrow spaces where the nerves come out of the spine or where the spinal cord traverses the spine. It is most common in the lower back (lumbar stenosis) and neck (cervical stenosis).

Spinal stenosis usually involves pressure directly on the spinal cord and spinal nerves. Standing or walking can aggravate the pain. Usually, the only relief comes from resting, sitting, and bending forward to relieve the pressure. In addition to debilitating pain, spinal stenosis can also cause weakness, numbness, tingling in the legs, and even organ dysfunction.

The best treatment for managing spinal stenosis involves specific chiropractic adjustments, stretching, and strengthening exercises to stabilize the spine. Spinal stenosis is irreversible, so early detection and management are critical.

Muscle Strains

Muscle strains or pulled muscles are the most common causes of lower back pain and happen when the muscle fibers are stretched too far or torn. Usually, this occurs during physical activity like lifting weights, heavy yard work, or moving furniture. This sort of overexertion injury can vary in severity. It is rare to have a complete tear of the muscle fibers; we typically see a mild straining of the muscles that can eventually lead to a swollen and bruised area.

Muscle strains typically heal on their own with the body’s natural inflammatory repair process. Over time, your body will repair the damaged area by creating new muscle fibers and connective tissue. Rest, ice, compression, and elevation (R.I.C.E.) are typically recommended in the first 72 hours after a muscle strain.

We often see muscle strains due to an imbalance in the body’s biomechanics, a sedentary lifestyle, or the underuse of one muscle group compared to the overuse of another. Muscle strains usually correct themselves within 4 to 6 weeks, and we encourage patients to address issues as soon as possible. At Corrective Spinal Care Of California, we always focus on getting to the root of your problem, not just on the symptom.

Sacroiliac Joint Dysfunction (SI Joint Pain)

At the very end of your spine is your sacrum. This triangular-shaped bone at the base of your spine eventually meets your pelvic bones. These are called your sacroiliac joints. There is one on the right and one on the left. You can feel two knobs on the right and left side at the very bottom of your lower back.

Upwards of 25% of all lower back pain is due to sacroiliac joint dysfunction. These SI joints are shock absorbers between your upper body, pelvis, and legs. Sacroiliac joint dysfunction is typically due to rotation of your pelvic bones, leg, length, discrepancies, pregnancies, hypo-mobility, hyper-mobility, or traumas to the hip joints. We specialize in correcting and managing SI joint dysfunction utilizing specific chiropractic adjustments, manual spinal decompression, and sacro-occipital technique, or SOT blocks.

Subluxation

The corrective care chiropractor practices the traditional philosophy of chiropractic, which focuses on the structural correction of subluxations in the spine. A subluxation is a misaligned vertebra that interferes with the body’s nerve impulses. These electrical nerve impulses from the brain regulate all functions of the body and keep us alive.

Of course, the corrective care chiropractor wants the patient’s symptoms to improve, however, the primary focus is removing the nerve interference and restoring the spine to its most stable biomechanical position. We rehabilitate the spine with chiropractic adjustments, postural awareness, gentle stretches, and spinal exercises.

We explain subluxations to kids like this:

Imagine if I took the nerve from your brain to your heart and cut it with scissors.
What would happen?
Of course, you would die!

Now, let’s say you took the nerve from the brain to your heart, and you choked it.
Would you be healthier or sicker?
Of course, you’d be sicker!
And if we stop choking that nerve?
You’d be healthier!

Subluxations choke the nerve impulses between your body and your brain. Corrective chiropractors make sure no one is choking your nerves so your brain can send strong signals to your body.

Facet Joint Dysfunction

Any time two bones of the spine meet, a facet joint joins them together. Inside facet joints is cartilage. With improper mechanics, injury, poor posture, and poor nutrition, the cartilage starts to wear down and inflame. People with facet joint dysfunction typically feel pain when they lean backward and put their body into an extension posture. So, standing for long periods, like in line at Disneyland, can cause pain.

At Corrective Spinal Care Of California, our goal is to ensure that your joints move exactly as they were designed. With a specific program of care, we can access your body’s inborn intelligence and ability to keep joints moving smoothly and naturally—and all of this is without you even thinking!

Why Choose Corrective Spinal Care of California for Back Pain Relief

When should I be worried about low back pain?

You should be concerned about lower back pain if it persists for more than 2 to 3 days. Consulting us soon after the onset of lower back pain can significantly reduce healing time and avoid problems in the future. Pain is your body’s alarm system, signaling something might be wrong. However, it’s worth noting that some conditions, such as subluxations, degenerative joint disease, or lumbar disc herniations, may cause little to no pain at all. Relying solely on symptoms to assess your health isn’t ideal. Preventative measures are a far better approach to avoid unnecessary suffering in the future.

What can I do to relieve my lower back pain in Escondido, California?

The most effective step is to schedule a consultation with one of our doctors. With a thorough examination and X-rays, if needed, we can determine the exact cause of your lower back pain and recommend steps to alleviate it and prevent future problems.

How do I know if my back pain is serious?

Lower back pain can result from various causes, ranging from recent injuries to issues that developed decades ago. Poor posture, weak or tight muscles, and improper body mechanics are just a few examples. At Corrective Spinal Care of California, we focus on identifying and addressing the root cause of your pain rather than just treating the symptoms. A detailed health history is critical in determining the seriousness of your condition.

How should I sleep with lower back pain?

The best sleeping posture is on your back with a supportive pillow for your neck and another under your knees to relieve pressure on your lower back. The second-best option is sleeping on your side. Ensure your pillow supports the distance between your shoulder and ear to keep your head neutral and place a pillow between your knees to maintain hip alignment.

Sleeping on your stomach is the worst posture, as it twists your spine and strains your SI joints, upper back, and neck. Avoid this position if possible.

How can I tell if lower back pain is muscular or disc-related?

Muscle strains usually cause dull, aching pain that remains localized in the lower back. On the other hand, bulging or herniated discs often cause radiating pain that extends to the buttocks, hips, legs, or feet. Nerve-related issues are more common with disc problems. To get an accurate diagnosis, consult a corrective chiropractor specializing in these conditions.

How does a slipped disc feel?

The term “slipped disc” is outdated and inaccurate, as discs don’t actually slip. A disc bulge or herniation can cause lower back pain and radiating pain into one buttock, leg, or foot. The farther down the leg the pain travels, the more severe the issue may be. Pain during sneezing, coughing, or straining often indicates a bulging or herniated disc.

Why won’t my lower back pain go away?

Our bodies heal naturally. However, modern lifestyles—characterized by inactivity, poor diets, and high stress—can impede this process. Persistent lower back pain might indicate a deeper, long-standing problem that requires professional attention. A corrective care chiropractor can help address the underlying issue, avoiding the need for drugs or surgery.

What is better for lower back pain: chiropractic care or massage therapy?

The answer depends on the root cause of your pain. A corrective chiropractor can assess the problem and determine the best course of action. If the issue is muscular, massage therapy might provide relief. However, muscle tension is the result of nerve interference, chiropractic care is necessary to address the source of the pain.

How can you tell if your spine is out of alignment?

Spinal misalignments, or subluxations, are best diagnosed by a corrective care chiropractor. Misalignments can cause muscular pain, nerve issues, and even organ dysfunction. A professional evaluation is essential to identify and address spinal alignment problems.

At Corrective Spinal Care of California, we believe that everyone deserves to live a healthy, thriving life free from back pain. Our experienced team is dedicated to providing natural, non-invasive treatments to help our patients achieve optimal health and wellness.

We understand that each patient’s lower back pain is unique, which is why we take a personalized approach to every treatment plan. Our team of chiropractors uses a variety of techniques for the correction and stabilization of your back spine pain problems, ensuring comprehensive back pain relief.