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Understanding Low Back Injury
What has happened to our otherwise healthy gardener to cause a locked joint
and injured low back muscles resulting in spasm and pain? Explaining the reasons
for even a minor back strain can get complicated. To keep it simple, we are
going to say that the gardener overstretched and injured her muscles during
repetitive motions involving stooping over to pick up weeks.
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
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