Our physical therapy specialists have helped many looking for lower back pain treatment in Kalamazoo.
If you have lower back pain, you are not alone. About 80 percent of adults experience low back pain at some point in their lifetimes. It is the most common cause of job-related disability and a leading contributor to missed work days. In a large survey, more than a quarter of adults reported experiencing low back pain during the past 3 months.
Men and women are equally affected by low back pain, which can range in intensity from a dull, constant ache to a sudden, sharp sensation that leaves the person incapacitated. Pain can begin abruptly as a result of an accident or by lifting something heavy, or it can develop over time due to age-related changes of the spine. Sedentary lifestyles also can set the stage for low back pain, especially when a weekday routine of getting too little exercise is punctuated by strenuous weekend workout.
Acute Pain
Most low back pain is acute, or short term, and lasts a few days to a few weeks. It tends to resolve on its own with self-care and there is no residual loss of function. The majority of acute low back pain is mechanical in nature, meaning that there is a disruption in the way the components of the back (the spine, muscle, intervertebral discs, and nerves) fit together and move.
Subacute Pain
Subacute low back pain is defined as pain that lasts between 4 and 12 weeks.
Chronic Pain
Chronic back pain is defined as pain that persists for 12 weeks or longer, even after an initial injury or underlying cause of acute low back pain has been treated. About 20 percent of people affected by acute low back pain develop chronic low back pain with persistent symptoms at one year. In some cases, treatment successfully relieves chronic low back pain, but in other cases pain persists despite medical and surgical treatment.
Why Physical Therapy at Rehab Specialists is Your Best First Choice
Fact is, it’s very difficult to determine the source of pain in the lower back. While the pain can be severe, that does NOT mean that there’s major damage to the lower back. On the contrary. The lower back is strong and both stable and mobile.
It’s common for patients to want an MRI or advanced tests to determine the cause of the pain. In most cases, this is a bad choice…especially for acute lower back pain. Why? It’s because diagnostic test like MRI, x-ray, and CT scans may show changes that one may suspect is the cause of the pain when in reality, they are simply age-related changes to the spine.
For example, you may see a bulging disc on an MRI. Did you know that most people have abnormal MRI scans but have no pain at all? What this means is that an abnormal findings on an MRI aren’t related to the pain in many cases. Consider this research which has been replicated many times over:
Magnetic resonance imaging of the lumbar spine often detects “abnormalities” of uncertain clinical significance. These researchers report a high prevalence of abnormal MRI findings in 98 people, aged 20 to 80, who had no history of back pain.
Reference – click here
The Solution – Try Conservative, Natural Care with No Side Effects First…That’s Physical Therapy
Our physical therapists are experts at treating lower back pain. Which diagnoses do we treat? It really doesn’t matter. We’ve successfully rehabilitated patients with:
- Sprains and strains
- Intervertebral disc degeneration
- Herniated or ruptured discs
- Radiculopathy
- Sciatica
- Spondylolisthesis
- A traumatic injury
- Spinal stenosis
- Fibromyalgia, a chronic pain syndrome involving widespread muscle pain also responds well to physical therapy
We provide a variety of treatment methods including:
- manual therapy,
- joint mobilization,
- soft tissue work,
- therapeutic exercise,
- lumbar stabilization,
- electromodalities for pain relief
- much more