Dr. Robin Armstrong | Chiropractor

When someone comes to us suffering with low back pain, we do a lot of detective work in our initial questioning and physical exam to determine the root cause of the problem. But we can't be with you all of the time - so we rely on you to do some of your own detective work to discover some of the contributing factors.

Watch this video by Dr. Robin to learn how you can become an amateur back detective:

The first thing you want to start paying attention to is the timing of your pain:

• Is it first thing in the morning, or does it come on during the day?

• Are you able to sleep through the night but get up with pain, or does it wake you up at night.

• Are you better at rest or better with movement?

Noticing when the pain is the worst can help give us clues about the root cause of the issue and help us guide our examination and treatment. For example we know the spine naturally stiffens up over night as the discs between the bones become full with water, so if your leg pain is worse in the morning but improves as you move around, we might start thinking about disc related pain.

Next thing to tune into is what are you doing when you feel the pain:

• Does sitting cause an increase in the pain, or is standing worse?

• Are there certain positions that are painful or the opposite - are there certain positions where you don't feel any pain?

• Is there a specific activity at work or around the house that brings on the pain?

This knowledge can often can lead us closer to the root cause of the issue. For example, I know when someone comes in and says they have pain leaning over the sink to brush their teeth, that I should look at the sacroiliac joint or the junction between the low back and the sacrum because this partially bent posture is often aggravating to that region.

The last area I want you to think about is the unexpected or the seemingly random. Is there a certain time of year you feel more pain?

• Are you more sore after an argument with a family member?

• Do certain meals seem to cause more pain?

If we dig a little deeper we might discover that stress is contributing to your increased pain or your inactivity in the winter months isn't helpful to your back pain. Sometimes certain foods can be more inflammatory and actually trigger an inflammation response in the body. So what might seem random is worth mentioning to us so that we can dig a little deeper.

Now that you have collected this information - what can you do about it:

Besides sharing it with your chiropractor, you can start to modify your activities or set up routines to counteract the problem behaviors.

• If sleep is an issue, consider changing your sleep position.

• If sitting for long periods increases our pain, then get up and move around more regularly.

• If you know morning stiffness is your issue, then starting the day with a warm shower and stretching might save you hours of suffering.

• Trying to change your mindset from wanting to be able to sit for 8 hours without pain to realizing that prolonged sitting doesn't work for your body and there are things you can do about it to avoid pain.

There is a reason back pain is so common in our society, it can be complicated and caused by many things, but once you start noticing the specifics of your pain and sharing that with your chiropractor, we can start to take control over your pain and get back to enjoying life.

If you have any questions please feel free to Dr. Armstrong or Dr. Freedman, we are always happy to help.