Osteopathy for Lower Back Pain

Osteopaths are best known for treating lower back pain. It's one of the most common symptoms we see at our Backbone clinics in Southgate and Muswell hill. As no individual is the same, there are many various causes and conditions which present very similar. A lot of the time the cause of the pain is not immediately obvious.

"In my years of experience as an Osteopath, the most common thing I hear in clinic is: 'My back just went'. For most patients what I find is the back pain is a result of a build-up of tension. This may happen over years of mis-treating the body. A combination of a variety of things: sitting too much, poor posture, lifting heavy things without taking care and mainly ignoring the bodies warning signals.

The body whispers: you feel tightness and tension and ignore it.

The body's voice gets louder: you feel aches and pains at the end of the day. You ignore it.

The body gets louder still: You feel aches and pains with certain movements. You continue to ignore it.

The body starts to protest: You feel intense twinges, but they quickly settle. So you ignore it.

The body has enough. It starts to shout: You get occasional spasms which settle in a few days with pain killers. You continue to ignore it.

The body can't handle it anymore. It gives up: You do something simple such as; stand, cough, bend and the back 'gives way'. You feel agonising pain, you can't move or even sit without feeling the pain and have no choice BUT to do something about it!

The body is a wonderful machine equipped to survive and keep going. But if the owner of the machine doesn't take care of it, there is only so much it can cope with!"

Ayshe Ibrahim Principle Osteopath at The Backbone Osteopathic Practice.

What Causes Lower Back Pain...

Causes of lower back pain- The Backbone Osteopath Clinic Here are a few common causes of back pain, please follow the links for more information:

Postural: Muscles in the back can become tight and strained from poor standing posture or seated posture.
Osteoarthritis: worn discs, joints in the spine from overuse, being overweight or poor core muscle strength.
Muscles strain from heavy lifting or a fall
Disc damage
Nerve damage
Pain can be referred from your organs for example: kidney, bladder, bowel, uterus, prostate.
Other Systemic Causes: Other underlying causes can cause back pain such as a viral or bacterial infection, autoimmune conditions, cancer.

All these conditions can cause back pain and may also result in pain referred to the legs, other parts of the body. They may also result in muscle spasms, which can cause severe pain and disability.

How Can Osteopathy Help?

Your Osteopath will examine your spine using various orthopaedic tests to check your spines mobility, alignment, and also to test various structures such as the discs, the nerves, the muscles to help determine what the root cause of your back pain is. Your Osteopath will then create a treatment plan to either help you to address the cause where possible or may refer you for further investigation if something more serious or systemic is suspected.

For more information or to book an appointment to diagnose and address the cause of your back pain, call us at The Backbone on: 020 8886 8698 or to book online click here...