Back Pain

What you should know

Lower back pain is the biggest cause of disability in the world. Experts say rougly four out of five people will have a back problem in their lifetime. It costs the economy enormous amounts mainly because of the loss of work time and it is a very large financial factor for the health industry.

Causes of Back Pain

Although there are many secondary causes possible like a slipped disc, certain diseases, toxins, stress, stones in organs, cancer and other pathology, that all may require specific medical approaches, a misalignment in the sacrum (ISJ) seems to be the start of it all, at least a blockage in the ISJ can be diagnosed in almost all patients and is likely co-responsible.

Causes for misalignments

• Wrong sitting positions
• Wrong stretching
• Unnatural Movements
• Trauma at birth
• Wrong lifting techniques
• Chronically tensed muscles
• Accidents

Modern life with all the bad sitting, lifting, competitive sports, stretching, one-sided movements during work, starts its destructive work, as we violate the natural movement range of our joints, especially in the hip!

The following movements could produce misalignments in our hip-joint and/or sacrum!

• Sitting with crossed legs
• Stretching the hip joint(s) less than 90° with the legs/knees straight (Stretching)
• Lifting objects over the side
• Turning in the hip with both feet firm on the floor while standing or the upper body flat and firm lying on the floor. (Stretching / Yoga)
• Driving in a car (especially long driving without breaks, bad car seats and bad positioning in the seat and the wrong way of going in and out of the car)
• Imbalance of a Hip Subluxation and the following result

The result of wrong movements is a subluxation in the hip joint and a misalignment of the sacrum (ISJ) that leads to a difference in leg length.

The femural head can bump against the roof of the acetabulum and levers itself out of position and mostly stays then in that wrong position long enough to produce an unbalanced tensioning of the attached muscles (which is most likely a simple reflex reaction).

This leads to an inclined and/or twisted pelvis aggravated by the now uneven tension of the strong hip muscles and a subluxation of the sacrum follows, the foundation of our spine gets out of balance!

The joints of the knee and ankle can also be subluxated and further contribute to a leg length discrepancy. Misalingments in form of shifted vertebrae or curvatures like scoliosis are likely to develop. It follows by a increased tension of the muscles along the spine.

If an unfavorable muscular tension already exists which of course is fixing the joints in that subluxated position there is a possibility that an extremely tensed muscle is encouraging the joint to become misaligned. The nerves of these areas are also affected in an unfavorable way so the information exchange between the brain and the affected area is not as it should be which may lead to pains and a weakening of the associated organs contributing to and even causing chronic inner conditions especially if co-factors like unhealthy lifestyle exists.

As long as the misalignments exists a real healing is quite unlikely because the main structural system of our body is not in a balance!

Imbalance of Sacrum

If our sacrum gets out of balance then the whole foundation of our spinal column is no longer stable! It is then impossible for the Spine to stay straight and shifting of vertebrae can be seen as natural adjustments in order to equalize between the upper and lower part of the Spine.

This will cause some of the muscles of this area to be in an unbalanced state of tension and will therefore stabilize this twisted condition and produce a functional leg length discrepancy!

Tips to prevent Back Pain

• keep a healthy diet and weight and excercise
• avoid inactivity or bed rest
• make sure to warm up and stretch before physical activity
• maintain proper posture
• wear comfortable and low-heel shoes
• sleep on a medium-to-firm mattress to avoid curving the spine when lifting heavy objects, lift with your knees
• use ergonomic chairs, desk and other equipemtn at work or in your home office
• instead of carrying a handbag, use a rucksack
• mums with young children: avoid lifting them