Low Back Pain

CR called me yesterday for a last minute appointment. He's been suffering from pain in the hips and low back for over a year... I looked up his chart and he hadn't been in to see me for 8 months! Well, he said in the meantime, he'd tried another acupuncturist closer to his home, who he felt knew nothing about musculoskeletal injuries. He had also seen other doctors, all of whom offered no substantial help. And he went to his father's therapist, who helped his father, but who couldn't offer much to relieve CR's pain.

So, despite the fact that I am far away from his house, and that he would have to miss putting his daughter to bed, he was back to see me. And it's a good thing he did. I could see that there was a lot of tension in his lower back, pulling on his SI joint (sacro-iliac), giving him the hip pain. It was also clear that the tension had not caused any misalignment of the bone structure at this point, which makes treatment much quicker.

Acupuncture can actually help with aligning bones. It seems to be a strange product of the modern way of thinking that bones can just subluxate, or that discs of the back just decide to herniate, or joints just decide to inflame. Actually, it is the muscles that pull on the bones that squeeze bones together. The more constant the tension in the soft tissue, the more damage can be done. Vertebrae can misalign, discs can bulge or herniate, joints can be painful (arthritis). Treatment with acupuncture followed up with Tuina (Chinese medical massage) softens the tight muscle, making room for the bones to fall back into place. A skilled practitioner will be able to encourage the re-alignment, speeding recovery.

CR rose from the treatment table essentially out of pain, just after the one session last night. Because the pain has gone on for so long, it is very likely that it will creep back again: one treatment is usually not enough to alleviate a whole year's worth of body-habit. However, with each session, he will feel better for longer. If he can continue to come regularly, a few treatments should do the trick.

And then he just has to maintain a certain level of relaxation in the muscles of the low back. Maintenance includes proper relaxed but upright posture when standing and sitting, lifting his daughter and any other lifting with his knees and not the back, sleeping in a way that doesn't twist the spine or the hips, and generally keeping tension from building up. I recommend occasional maintenance acupuncture, and the practice of taichi. It takes work to keep the body running smoothly, but it is work that has the benefit of producing a sense of wellness, not just in the body, but the mind and soul too!