When I was 17 years old I was hit by a truck while riding my bike.  I spent a week in the hospital with a broken leg that would ultimately take about 9 months to heal.

When I finally got out of all of the casts and off the crutches and started to walk, I began to have pain in my back.  Apparently your back doesn’t appreciate it when one leg is ¾ of an inch shorter than the other one.

That was the beginning of what would become about a 10-year period of back (and neck pain).  But it wasn’t just back pain. 

There were other health problems that went along with my back pain.  And if you are dealing with chronic back pain, you may be experiencing some of these issues too.  But take heart,

I have overcome my long-term chronic back pain and you can too.

First off.  Know that you are not alone.  It is estimated that 65 million Americans suffer from chronic back pain.

But when you have chronic back pain . . . the problem is NOT just the pain.

Chronic back pain can also cause a host of other problems like, depression, anger, anxiety, mood swings and it can even diminish your self-esteem.

Chronic back pain can also affect your ability and desire to be active. 

Inactivity is well known in the healthcare industry to lead to weight gain (obviously), heart disease, stroke, diabetes and increase your likelihood of cancer.

Have you ever heard the adage, if you don’t use it, you will lose it?  Over time, the inactivity from chronic back pain makes you lose the ability to perform the tasks of daily life. 

Lifting, walking, sitting, getting up and down from the floor, crawling around with your children or grandchildren becomes impossible. 

And the longer that you remain inactive, the worse the problem becomes.

Chronic low back pain can affect your ability to do your job. 

When almost everything that you do causes you pain or discomfort it can become difficult to focus, which in some occupations makes you less effective at doing your job but in other professions can make you dangerous to yourself and others.

Chronic low back pain can interfere with your relationships with your friends and family. 

It can make you less likely to participate in activities with your friends and family members thus isolating you from them. 

And if you are unable to perform simple tasks like cooking, cleaning, and other household tasks, your family may have to pick up the slack for you, which could diminish your self-esteem.

Chronic low back pain can interfere with your sleep. Sleep is the when your body heals and regenerates. 

Good sleep is a basic requirement for good health the same way that clean drinking water and healthy food is. 

If low back pain did nothing but interfere with your sleep, it would be logical to say that it has interfered with the health of every system in your body. 

That is how important good sleep is and that is why it is so important to do something about your low back pain.

But what can you do?

For the vast majority of people, the best solution to chronic back pain is a combination of chiropractic care focused on improving the motion and alignment of the bones and muscles in the back and hips and exercises focused on improving over-all mobility and strength of the supporting muscles of the back and hips.

If you are having chronic back pain and that pain is stealing your joy and negatively affecting your life, do something about it. 

Call our office or just schedule an appointment online.

If you are an existing patient, you can schedule online HERE