Low Back Pain

The most common cause of disability in adults under age 45 is lower back pain and by the age of 50, nine out of ten people have experienced back pain. Older individuals also suffer chronic and is sometimes function altering back pain. Most workplace or medical service designed programs have made little progress in reducing low back pain causes and consequences. At Whole Body Health, we approach the evaluation and treatment, which looks for the all of the contributory factors of your low back pain. Back pain can be categorized into upper back pain and lower back pain.

This article will concentrate on lower back pain.

Medical practitioners typically agree that the source of back pain can result for multiple reasons including: lumbar discs, vertebral and facet joints, organs, nerves and most importantly, the muscles.Most disc, joint, nerve and muscle disorders are influenced by lifestyle postures; work, household and recreational activities; nutritional and hormonal imbalances, as well as psychological factors. We evaluate each of these factors in determining how they are influencing your pain and what combination of theses factors is resulting in your pain.

Myofascial treatment of low back pain is an effective method for reducing low back pain. One of the methods for identifying and treating your pain is the Travell Trigger Point Treatment approach to the treatment of myofascial pain. There are 15 different muscles or groups of muscles that are primary contributors in causing symptoms of low back pain. The muscles are the: quadratus lumborum, iliopsoas, abdominals, longissimus lumborum and thoracis, iliocostalis lumborum and thoracis, multifidi, the gluteal muscle complex, piriformis and obturator muscles, tensor fascia lata, quadriceps, hamstring and soleus muscles. These muscles will all cause local or referred low back pain.

(See the attached pictures) It is important that the trigger point in the muscle is effectively reduced to achieve lasting relief. It’s also important to reduce adhesions in the antagonist muscles and modify the lifestyle factors that play a part in the dysfunctional patterns.   These muscles are influenced greatly by the discs, joints and ligaments that they support.

Illustrations from Myofascial pain and dysfunction: the trigger point manual by Travell & Simons