Low Back Pain, Sciatica & Leg Pain

 

When you hear the word chiropractic, do you think of care for spinal pain? You'd be surprised to learn that the world's first chiropractic patient in 1895, was saved from 17 years of deafness and the world's second chiropractic patient was relieved of a heart condition. Thousands soon praised chiropractic for saving them from headaches, colds, allergies, asthma, sciatica, arthritis, seizures, ear infections, stomach trouble, gynecological problems and many other conditions in addition to back pain.

 

 

Spinal Health Can Help You In Many Ways

 

Your chiropractor will relieve you of the vertebral subluxation complex, which is a severe abnormality that interferes with your body's proper function. Once your chiropractor relieves you of the vertebral subluxation complex, your body will function better.

 

Low Back Pain

  
 
 

About 85 percent of the population will experience disabling low back pain at least once during their lives! That's almost all of us. The problem is so bad that at any one time, according to one researcher, "6.8% of the U.S. and Canadian adult population is suffering from an episode of back pain lasting more than two weeks. That's a lot of bad backs. The estimated cost of this problem in the U.S. is over $50 billion a year".(2)

What Do Major Government Studies Reveal

Low back pain sufferers have received very good news lately. Major government studies from the U.S. and Canada have reaffirmed what chiropractic patients have been telling their friends with back pain for years: "Why don't you see my chiropractor? You'll probably get better much faster than from drugs or surgery and it's safer too."

 

What Did The U.S. Government Discover?

 

In 1994, the federal government sent shockwaves throughout the health care system when a definitive public pronouncement established chiropractic as one of the preferred and most effective methods of care for acute adult low back pain.

A panel of medical experts spent 2 1/2 years reviewing nearly 4,000 studies and reported that expensive tests (MRI, CAT scans) and therapies typically used to diagnose and treat acute lower back pain (ice, heat, massage, diathermy) are largely useless. Instead, the experts recommended the non-drug chiropractic approach:

"The therapeutic objectives of manipulation include symptomatic relief and functional improvement."(5)

Dr. Gerard W Clum, president of Life Chiropractic College-West, said: "The Guideline...clearly establishes spinal manipulation as the only recommended intervention whose benefit includes symptomatic relief as well as functional improvement."(6)

The panel revealed that extended bed rest (more than four days) was harmful, and that muscle relaxants and surgery can be unnecessary and, in some cases, harmful. For example, surgery was found helpful in 1 in 100 cases of low back problems and in some people it caused more problems.

 

What Canadian Researchers Found
 

The Manga Report was commissioned by the government of Ontario in Canada. Leading economists found that chiropractic care for patients with low back pain is superior to medical care in terms of safety, scientific evidence of effectiveness, cost and patient satisfaction.

"The higher satisfaction levels expressed by patients of chiropractors...offers an overwhelming case in favour of much greater use of chiropractic services in the management of low-back pain.

 

"There should be a shift in policy to encourage and prefer chiropractic services for most patients with low-back pain...a very good case can be made for making chiropractors the gatekeepers for management of low-back pain in the workers' compensation system."(7)

 

The Facts Speak For Themselves

 

"Scientific studies that have been done by medical physicians comparing chiropractic care with medical care and physical therapy non-surgical care of the back and neck show that doctors of chiropractic relieve chronic and severe pain, both immediate and long term, in one half the time it takes medical physicians not trained in chiropractic procedures.. controlled empirical studies can and have been conducted. There are now in excess of 60 scientific studies which demonstrate the value of manipulation. Manipulation is a most effective and cost-effective form of treatment for dysfunctional problems in the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spines."(5)

"For patients with acute low back symptoms without radiculopathy, the scientific evidence suggests spinal manipulation is effective in reducing pain and perhaps speeding recovery within the first month of symptoms."(9)

 

Sciatica & Leg Pain

 

Your sciatic nerve is your longest and largest nerve. It is made up of five roots that leave your low back, join in your pelvis and then travel to the muscles and joints of your thigh, knee, calf and ankle.

 

What is Sciatica?

 

If your sciatic nerve becomes inflamed, the condition is called sciatica (pronounced si-ad'-i-ka). The pain can be intense! It often follows the path of your nerve-down the back of your legs and thighs, ankle, foot and toes-but it can also radiate to your back. Along with burning, sharp pains, you may also feel nerve sensations such as pins-and-needles, tingling, prickling, crawling sensations or tenderness. Ironically, your leg may also feel numb.

To complicate matters, although sciatica pain is usually in the back of the legs or thighs, in some people it can be in the front or side of the legs or even in the hips. For some, the pain is in both legs: bilateral sciatica.

 

Like A Knife

 
 

The quality of the pain may vary. There may be constant throbbing but then it may letup for hours or even days; it may ache or be knife-like. Sometimes postural changes, like lying down or changing positions, affect the pain and sometimes they don't. In severe cases sciatica can cause a loss of reflexes or even a waisting of your calf muscles.
   

For sciatica sufferers, a good night's sleep may be a thing of the past. Simple things like walking, bending, turning, sitting or standing up can be difficult or impossible.

 

Causes Of Sciatica

 

Like most other conditions, sciatica has a wide variety of causes, but an unhealthy spine with a protruded or ruptured disc can irritate the sciatic nerve causing sciatica. Sciatica has been reported following accidents, injuries and even child-birth, usually due to spinal misalignment.(10) However, advanced diabetes can also cause sciatic nerve irritation, as can arthritis, constipation, tumors and even vitamin deficiencies.

 

Do Medical Treatments & Surgery Help?

  
 

The standard medical approach to back pain and sciatica varies depending on the severity of the condition.

 

  
 

Muscle relaxers, painkillers, rest and physical therapy such as traction, diathermy, ultrasound, hot packs and cold packs are sometimes used. This approach has not been found very helpful however.(3) If the problem doesn't improve or worsens, then surgery may be performed. Sciatica is particularly frustrating to treat with drugs because, in many cases, even strong painkillers bring little or no relief. However relief may be obtained by injecting painkillers directly into the nerve roots! As with all painkillers, there is always a risk of drug dependency. Orthopedic surgery may be resorted to if the pain persists.

 
 

The medical approach is at times necessary, even back surgery has a place. But according to some studies, most spinal surgery for acute lower back problems should be rarely performed.(4) Many people who have had back surgery report a recurrence of their symptoms within a year or two of the operation and may return to the operating table. In some cases the surgery makes no difference whatsoever; and in some cases it does give long-term relief.

 

The Chiropractic Approach & Results

 

Chiropractors have helped millions of people with low back problems and sciatica, often saving them from pain, disability, drugs and surgery. The chiropractor's purpose is to make your spine and its nerves, discs and muscles healthier, stronger and more stable by correcting your vertebral subluxations. Anyone suffering from back problems, sciatica and leg pain should see a chiropractor to make sure there are no subluxations and to have them removed or corrected if found. This may make the difference between a life of ease, health and comfort or a life of pain, disease and disability.

For over a hundred years, doctors of chiropractic have given spinal adjustments to millions of patients, many of them back pain and sciatica sufferers. During that period, chiropractors have observed the benefits that chiropractic subluxation correction has on many of those suffering from back pain, sciatica and leg pain; many sufferers have reported dramatic relief of their condition after chiropractic care.(11) Many back pain, sciatica and leg pain sufferers have found that chiropractic was superior to traction and pain injections, often saving them from the prospect of having to live with pain, or perhaps face spinal surgery.(12-15)

 

Don't Wait

  
   

Chiropractic care appears to have the most effect on sciatica when problems first occur. However, even in those who have suffered for longer periods and have been through the "medical runaround" (from specialist to specialist), chiropractic may provide excellent results. Too many people who suffer from lumbosciatalgia (lower back and sciatica pain), disc disease or protrusion think the only sources of help are drugs, physiotherapy and painkillers. Think again! Chiropractic care is the drug-free, natural alternative.

  

In many cases of severe health conditions, it is still not too late to enjoy the benefits of chiropractic care, but please...don't wait.

 

References

 

  1. Deyo, R.A. Description epidemiology of lower-back pain and ii medical care in the United States. Spine, 1987, B(3), pp. 26
     

  2. Low Back Pain, the $50 Billion Problem. Conference sponsor Institute for Low Back Care. Minneapolis, MN: Abbott Northw Hospital, September 30, 1982.
     

  3. Acute low back problems in adults. Clinical Practice Guideline no. 14. U.S. Dept. Of Health and Human Services. Public Health Services for Health Care Policy and Research, Rockville, Maryland, De
     

  4. Ibid. p.30.
     

  5. Ibid.
     

  6. News release, International Chiropractors Association, Dec. 8,
     

  7. Manga, P et al. The effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of chiropractic management of low-back pain. University of Ottawa, Canada Manga and Associates, 1993.
     

  8. Meade, T. W, Dygy S. et al. Low back pain of mechanical origin: Randomised comparison of chiropractic and hospital outpatient treatment. British Medical Journal, June 1990, 300, pp. 431-437.
     

  9. Kirkaldy-Willis, WH. American Back Society Newsletter Spring 1989,5(2).
     

  10. Fonti, S. & Lynch, M. Etiopathogenesis of lurnbosciatalgia due disc disease; chiropractic treatment. InJ. Mazzarelli (Ed.), Chiropractic: Interprofessional Research. Torino, Italy: Edizioni Minerve Medic 1983, pp. 59-68.
     

  11. Johnson, E.W Sciatic nerve palsy following delivery. Postgrad. Med., 1961,30(5).
     

  12. Livingston, M. Spinal manipulation: A one year follow-up study. The Canadian Family Physician,July 1969, pp. 35-39.
     

  13. Mathews, J. A. et al. Back pain and sciatica: Controlled trials of manipulation, traction, sclerosant and epidural injections. British Journal of Rheumatology, 1987, ~, pp. 416-423.
     

  14. Osterbauer, P.J. & Fuhr, A.W. Treatment of chronic sciatica by mechanical force, manually assisted, short lever adjusting and a video assisted stretching program: A quantitative case report. Proceedings of the Consortium for Chiropractic Research Conference on Research and Education, 1992. Palm Springs, CA.
     

  15. Cox,J.M. & Shreiner