Neck & Back Pain

Neck and back pain are perhaps the issues most commonly associated with chiropractic treatments. This is because manipulations of the vertebrae in the back and neck are one of the unique components of chiropractic treatments.
Neck and back pain is becoming an increasingly common issue in today’s world as we tend to hold ourselves in unnatural positions for long periods of time while working at a desk, looking at our phone or lounging on the couch in front of the TV. This is perhaps even truer today as more people work from home in spaces with poor ergonomic design.

Why should we treat neck and back pain early?

Pain is your body’s way of signalling to you that something is wrong and warning you to not use that area as you normally would until it is healed enough. Thus, it is important not to mask it with medication. 

​What your body wants you to do is fix the underlying cause.  A challenge is that much of pain is referred pain – that is pain which is felt in one area of the body (say your hips) but it’s coming from a different part of your body (say your feet). This is particularly true of neck and back pain since the spine is literally connected to all the extremities of your body.

Upper back and shoulder symptoms or issues

This is a critical subsystem with very complex interactions with other parts of your body. It is a very common area for a build-up of painful and even crippling tension, muscle tightness and stiffness that not only causes pain, but triggers many other problems across your whole system. For example, muscle tension here pulls up your shoulders leading to forward-rolled shoulders. Because of all its interconnections, there is often referred pain – so you may not be aware that your headaches or pain running down your arm are actually triggered by your upper back/shoulder problems. Also, repetitive motion and posture problems really play out here – for example, your outstretched arms while typing on a computer all day also causes forward-rolled shoulders.
At Back Up, we have excellent methods to unravel your shoulder and upper back issues.

Thoracic spine (mid-back) and thoracic cage (chest, sternum, ribs) issues

This subsystem needs mobility so you can breathe freely and have good arm movement. Your rib cage is also the base for your shoulder blades which can only function properly if the thoracic system is also functioning correctly. Also, because there are so many joint connections between your ribs and your spine and between your ribs and your sternum, there is a tremendous amount of possibilities for things to go wrong and become misaligned in this area.
So not only should you seek chiropractic care when you have mid-back problems, but also if you are having issues with your shoulders, breathing or moving your arms freely.

Lower-back (lumbar spine) symptoms and issues

The lumbar spine, or lower back, is part of your core and is the part of your spine that bears the most weight and the most prone to disc issues. Good curvature of your spine – achieved via good posture, form, gait and ergonomics – keeps the load properly managed. But in today’s lifestyles most people are prone to loss of this curvature due to bad habits and prolonged positions which lead to unnaturally concentrated loads causing all kinds of lower back issues.

Proper chiropractic treatment and active care advice on posture and so forth is the best first move in addressing your real underlying lumbar issues rather than masking potentially serious problems with medication or resorting to aggressive premature approaches like injections, braces or surgery.

Neck (cervical spine) symptoms and issues

The neck is the uppermost part of your load-bearing spine, is responsible for holding up your head and is the location for a lot of nerves especially those connected to your arms and hands.   Because it holds up your head, it must be very stable yet supple enough to move freely.   Because it sits at the top of your spine, all the lower imbalances in your body build up and amplify up to this last spot of compensation. 
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Because the neck contains the many neurological connections for your arms and hands, it is common for problems in your arms and hands to be actually caused by neck problems. Also, there are lots of muscles in your neck, so lots of opportunity for imbalances and muscle problems to develop. For example, when the front muscles of the neck shorten, it pulls your head forward and juts your chin out which causes forwards-head carriage with a whole range of associated problems.
Chiropractic care is critical for the neck area, where we release the muscle tension, rebalance this part of your spine and re-align the load from your head.  

Text Neck Syndrome

Text Neck Syndrome is a repetitive stress injury which develops from excessive amount of time in a damaging position – namely, hanging your head and neck down as you interact with your phone or other screen. The hours you spend hunching over your device takes it toll as it dislodges your centre of gravity thus your body must constantly try to rebalance. As it does so, it creates compensations as some muscles are chronically over-activated while others weaken.  The average person’s head weighs around 5 kg – almost as much as a bowling ball – so you can imagine the damage an uneven load from the head causes. 

It doesn’t matter whether you are at the early stages or your syndrome is advanced, at Back Up we will determine the extent and areas of your specific situation, unwind the compensations and get you on a proper posture track.