As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.  This remains true when dealing with injuries and ailments to the lower back.  I’ve seen many patients that are required to lift heavy items all day and every day.  For them, safe lifting techniques are imperative.  However, this is just as important for the office manager, lawyer, or IT professional that may happen to be moving a piece of furniture on the weekend.  The following are lifting techniques that I’ve taught to my patients individually, and to groups through workshops and lectures:

1. Bend at the knees and the hips when lifting something off of the floor.  Avoid bending or twisting at the waist.
2. Keep whatever you’re lifting as close to your body as possible.  The further away you hold an object, the more force it will put on your joints, including your spine.
3. Keep the spine straight.  Do this instead of being hunched over.  The more you can straighten the spine, the less strain you’ll be putting on the discs in your back.
4. Abdominal hollow.  This is a technique used to protect the spine when lifting heavy items.  The abdominal, pelvic, and lower back muscles are your core muscles.  They make up your “anatomical weight belt.”  Tighten your abdominals by bringing your belly button as close to your spine as possible while still breathing.

Although it’s impossible to avoid all lower back injuries, these techniques will help.  Equally as important are regular exercise, proper nutrition, and being close to your ideal weight.  We’ll save these topics for future blog entries. 

This is a question I often ask my patients when they're ready to begin a regimen of home exercises. I am referring to those big inflatable balls that you see people doing exercises on at the gym. They've also been referred to as a Swiss ball, stability ball, balance ball, and other appropriate names. Using one of these balls can give some creative options for strengthening and conditioning the core muscles, which include the abdominal, pelvic, and lower back muscles. One other great advantage to this inexpensive piece of equipment is proprioceptive exercise. Proprioception refers to the body's sense of balance, position, and movement. Through our amazing and complex nervous system, proprioceptive exercises not only enforce better balance and movement, but help to heal or improve painful conditions. This type of exercise is an integral part of many rehab and fitness programs. Feel free to email or call if you're interested on any more information regarding proprioceptive exercise.

Sciatica is typically pain that follows the path of the sciatic nerve. This is a very large nerve in located in the buttock, with braches that travel down the back of the thigh, to the leg, and to the foot. Sciatica can be a sharp pain, a dull ache, burning pain, or numbness and tingling. Sciatica can be caused by direct trauma and inflammation to the sciatic nerve, spasm to the surrounding muscles, or even from a protruding disc in the lower back. Most often, patients with sciatica also have lower back pain.

Chiropractic care addresses the underlying causes of sciatica by restoring alignment, movement, and overall function to the spine and pelvis. Many of our patients have achieved excellent results in aleviatng sciatica.