Lower Back Pain New York

Suffering from lower back pain? Let Midtown Total Health, chiropractors in New York City get you out of pain.

Our New York Chiropractors are commited to helping you rid your lower back pain and getting you back to your normal self, feeling good again.

Welcome to Midtown Total Health in NYC, We are a group of chiropractors and back pain specialists in New york (NYC) who offer non-surgical proceedures such as 'spinal decompression' in the heart of New York City. We are New York Chiropractors that can make a huge difference to you health, for the better!

What is Lower Back Pain?

Classifying Lower Back Pain?

What Causes Lower Back Pain?

Diagnosing Lower Back Pain?

Treating Lower Back Pain

What is Lower Back Pain?

Low back pain (sometimes referred to generally as lumbago) is a common symptom of musculoskeletal disorders or of disorders involving the lumbar vertebrae and related soft tissue structures such as muscles, ligaments, nerves and intervertebral discs. It can be either acute, subacute or chronic in its clinical presentation. Most often, the symptoms of low back pain show significant improvement within a few days to a a few weeks from onset. In a significant number of individuals, low back pain can be recurrent in nature with a waxing and waning quality to it. In a small proportion of individuals this condition can become chronic. Population studies show that back pain affects most adults at some stage in their life and accounts for more sick leave and disability than any other single medical condition.
An acute lower back injury may be caused by a traumatic event, like a car accident or a fall. It occurs suddenly and its victims will usually be able to pinpoint exactly when it happened. In acute cases, the structures damaged will more than likely be soft tissue. With a serious accident, osteoporosis or other causes of weakened vertebral bones, vertebral fractures in the lumbar spine may also occur. At the lowest end of the spine, some patients may have tailbone pain (also called coccyx pain or coccydynia). Others may have pain from their sacroiliac joint at the bottom of the lumbar spine, called sacroiliac joint dysfunction (see sacroiliac joint for more information). Chronic lower back pain usually has a more insidious onset, occurring over a long period of time. Physical causes may include osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, degeneration of the discs between the vertebrae, or a spinal disc herniation, a vertebral fracture (such as from osteoporosis), or rarely, a tumor (including cancer) or infection.

Contact Midtown Total Health to find out how we can help treat back pain.

 

Classifying Upper Back Pain

One method of classifying lower back pain is by the duration of symptoms: acute (less than 4 weeks), subacute (4-12 weeks), chronic (greater than 12 weeks).

 

What Causes Lower Back Pain?

Most cases of lower back pain are due to skeletal degeneration or musculoligamentous injury and are referred to as non specific low back pain. The full differential diagnosis however includes may other less common conditions.
Mechanical:
• Apophyseal osteoarthritis
• Diffuse Idiopathic Skeletal Hyperostosis
• Degenerative discs
• Scheuermann's kyphosis
• Spinal disc herniation (slipped disc)
• Spinal stenosis
• Spondylolisthesis and other congenital abnormalities
• Fractures
• Leg length difference
• Restricted hip motion
• Misaligned pelvis - pelvic obliquity, anteversion or retroversion
Inflammatory:
• Seronegative spondylarthritides (e.g. ankylosing spondylitis)
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Infection - epidural abscess or osteomyelitis
Neoplastic:
• Bone tumors (primary or metastatic)
• Intradural Spinal tumors
Metabolic:
• Osteoporotic fractures
• Osteomalacia
• Ochronosis
• Chondrocalcinosis
Psychosomatic:
• Tension myositis syndrome
Paget's disease
Referred pain:
• Pelvic/abdominal disease
• Prostate Cancer
• Posture
• Depression
• oxygen deprivation

 

Diagnosing Lower Back Pain in New York City & Manhattan

Diagnosing the underlying cause of low back pain is usually done by a medical doctor, osteopathic physician, physical therapist (physiotherapist) or by a chiropractor. Often, getting a diagnosis of the underlying cause of low back pain and/or related symptoms is quite complex. A complete diagnosis is usually made through a combination of a patient's medical history, physical examination, and, when necessary, diagnostic testing, such as an MRI scan or x-ray.

Imaging
X-rays are not required in lower back pain except in the cases where "red flags" are present. If the pain is of a long duration X-rays may increase patient satisfaction.

Red flags
• Recent significant trauma or milder trauma if age is > 50 years
• Unexplained weight loss
• Unexplained fever
• Immunosuppression
• Previous or current cancer
• Intravenous drug use
• Osteoporosis
• Chronic corticosteroid use
• Age < 20 or > 55 (first complains)
• Focal neurological deficit
• Thoracic pain
• Pain nonmechanical
• Structural deformity

 

Treating Lower Back Pain in New York City & Manhattan

Acute back pain
• Analgesics (pain medications), such as NSAIDs or acetaminophen.
• Muscle relaxants for acute or chronic pain. There are, however, concerns with side effects, and their general use is discouraged.
• Stay physically active.
• Exercise is no more effective than no treatment or other conservative treatments for acute low back pain.
• U.S. guideline weakly recommended SM as one alternative therapy for spinal low back pain in nonpregnant adults when ordinary treatments fail.

Chronic back pain
Chronic back pain is defined as back pain that has been present for over six months. The following measures have been found to be effective for chronic non-specific back pain
• Exercise appears to be slightly effective for chronic low back pain.
• Acupuncture may help chronic pain; however, a more recent randomized controlled trial suggested insignificant difference between real and sham acupuncture.
• Intensive multidisciplinary treatment programs may help subacute or chronic low back pain.
• Behavioral therapy
• Arch support
• The Alexander Technique was shown in a UK clinical trial to have long term benefits for patients with chronic back pain.
• Back schools have shown some effect in managing chronic back pain.

Upper Back Pain Clinic in New York - Midtown Total Health is comitted to accurately diagnosing and treating your back pain, whether it is lower back pain, sciatica, mid back pain or upper back pain.

 

 

 

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Patient Success!

"Three cheers to Dr. Sadovnik, and Midtown Total Health, and thank you again for your personal and professional integrity!!! "
-CI

"After 5 weeks of chiropractic with Dr. Weisberg, I felt less “stressed” than I have felt in 10 years "
-ctor man

 

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