Monday, July 8, 2013

Chronic Low Back Pain - Check the Sacroiliac Joint


Sacroiliac pain is a 'hidden' pain in the respect that most doctors have no idea that such severe pain can be caused by this joint. The sacroiliac (or S-I joint) is where the sacrum (a triangular shaped bone located below your lumbar spine) and the ilium connect together. This S-I joint area, along with the ankle are the two exposed areas of the body that get a poor muscular supply to stabilize the bones. Because of this this joint can become very unstable causing not only lower back pain but radiating pain that can go into the buttocks, leg, hip and groin.

Most doctors are clueless when it comes to proper diagnosis and treatment of this condition. It is estimated that 30% of the general population will experience low back pain because their sacroiliac joints have been injured or misaligned. It can start with poor posture, a slip and fall, playing sports, car accident, or other types of trauma.

The S-I joint is quite a movable joint which can break down over time when the muscles begin to weaken and shorten. When muscles weaken they lose their ability to absorb force. When this happens that force will go into the S-I joint area which isn't designed to absorb any force. When this occurs, inflammation begins which in turns sends a signal up to the brain to warn of damage which is interpreted as pain. The body is always trying to protect you so it doesn't want you to continue to produce damage to that area so that is why the pain sensation is produces... to stop you from moving.

There is new treatment that can limit the amount of pain that you experience when this condition begins. Traditional therapy treatment consists of massage, ultrasound and other traditional type of treatment. New treatment goes beyond the limiting treatment because there is new research that shows pain relief faster. As well as research to structurally strengthen the joint to ensure stability to prevent future breakdown. A combination of manual and new bio-electric stimulation. This technique can actually find where the breakdown originally occurred.

When you have pain in the lower back particularly due to S-I pain, the bread down occurred somewhere else and where you feel the pain is where the damage ended. By finding the exact origin of the damage you can quickly reduce the pain and begin healing faster than ever thought. Most patients end up with increased painless range of motion in the first one to two treatments which allows for them to avoid any type of needless surgery.

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