Understanding Chiropractic and Low Back Injury

The repetitive nature of her work caused the body to develop protective muscle spasms to prevent further injury to the spinal joint. This led to a fixated joint and continuation of the patient's symptoms. Not unlike the previously mentioned example of the wrist, the low back muscles are pulling against a fixed joint that further aggravates inflammation and the muscle injury.

Chiropractic Solution: Return Motion to the Fixated Spinal Joint
The chiropractor has found low back strain with low back subluxation diagnosed as a fixated or locked joint. In chiropractic, the specific spinal joint that was found to be fixated and the exact nature of that fixation has been noted by the chiropractor as a listing of that joint.

The chiropractor's primary goal is to return motion to the fixated low back joint. The chiropractor may apply ice (i.e. ice pack) if the muscle inflammation is acute, or use some type of physiotherapy instrument, or muscle therapy to reduce muscle spasm. As long as the patient is not too acute, and no contraindications are found on examination, the chiropractor will turn to the central and primary therapeutic tool of chiropractic -- the chiropractic adjustment.

Chiropractic: Adjusting or Manipulation of the Spine
Chiropractors use the terms adjusting and manipulation almost interchangeably. The term adjusting is used more commonly because it implies a specific correction to the spine that distinguishes the chiropractic approach. Chiropractors use a wide range of techniques that include specific adjustments, general manipulation, low force and non-force maneuvers, and an array of eclectic procedures tailored to the individual patient.

The Specific Adjustment

The main chiropractic technique remains the specific adjustment of a joint in the spine. Specific adjustment (also called osseous adjustment) is the technique the chiropractor will use to treat the amateur gardener's locked or fixated joint. The adjustment will begin to return normal motion to that joint.

Chiropractors may talk about 'putting a bone back in place' to help a patient understand the purpose of the adjustment. However, spinal bones (vertebrae) do not go out of place. The spine's architecture includes incredibly strong sets of ligaments, tendons, and muscles governed by an always attentive nervous system that works together to hold the vertebrae in place.

Spinal Ligaments

Therefore, the chiropractor is not putting a bone back into place or cracking the spine. Instead, the purpose of the spinal adjustment is to return motion to an abnormally locked (fixated) spinal joint that causes biomechanical disturbance (i.e. pain).

The adjustment begins with the patient (amateur gardener) on her side. The chiropractor places the patient's low back in a position dictated by the diagnostic findings and slowly brings the low back muscles into a state of resistance. Application of a specific and gentle force will overcome the resistance and rapidly stretch the tissue at the fixated joint.

To continue this article, please click on Part 4 or return to Part 1 or Part 2.

Part 4: Chiropractic Spinal Adjustment: What Was That Pop?

Part 1: Chiropractic Care and Back Pain: An Overview of Diagnostic Principles and Treatment

Part 2: Palpation: The Art and Science of Chiropractic Diagnosis