Chiropractic care can help with virtually any dysfunction your body experiences—many of which the average person would not think a chiropractor could help with. Refer to our other blogs for great examples of how chiropractic care can work for you in unexpected ways.

However, there are some problems that instantly make people think to turn to chiropractic care. One such problem is lower back pain and sciatic pain. Chiropractic care is an extremely effective way to manage, reduce, and even eliminate your lower back pain and sciatica. In a 2010 study in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, 120 patients with sciatica who had already tried other treatments with little to no success tried corrective care chiropractic. Sixty percent of these test subjects reported the same amount of relief as those who had surgery without resorting to such an invasive treatment as surgery.

How does it work?

Chiropractic care helps to alleviate lower back pain and sciatica by adjusting the spine to relieve pressure on compressed nerves in the lower back. When the spine is out of alignment, the tissues around the spine become swollen and can compress the nerves running through out to the hips, legs, digestive organs, reproductive organs—to list some of the many things affected by having an impinged nerve in the lower spine.  A chiropractor uses gentle manipulations to slowly train the spine to sit properly, which allows for the tissues to relax and for the nerves to transmit proper signals to the surrounding areas.

Is there a point that chiropractic won’t work for my lower back pain?

Chiropractic care is always helpful; however, if your spine has been out of alignment for too long, it will create bone spurs that fuse your spine. At this point, a chiropractor can only adjust above and below the fused areas, but not directly on it. This is not a place you want to get to as the spine will permanently be out of alignment and those nerves will begin to atrophy after being pinched for so long. It is important to come in to have your back pain evaluated as soon as possible.

Author: Kaleigh Woods 2015