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Low Back, Disc Health

Back Pain, a Pain in the Ass

Low back pain plagues many of us. For most of us, it grumbles as a stiffness in the background. Sometimes for years on end. Making it difficult to jump out of bed or even get out of the car with energy and flexibility. Making us feel twice our age.

And, to be honest, making us grumpy and even snappy! It can erode and define us as a grumpy old ####… before we even realise why. And some people think it is “normal”, or worse still “just ageing”.

For some, it becomes a show-stopper. For a while it has been an aching back, hip and buttock pain. Now it is acute, wincing pain, hard to put words too. Eye-watering. Or worse still, it now spreads down into your buttock and even into your leg, turning into “sciatica”.

It made us grumpy, now it makes us cry. And cry for help too… Here we explain the key to a healthy, strong, flexible back. We look at what goes wrong, and how to fix it.

Anatomy

In your spine there are 26 bones with 220 ligaments holding them together, and over 120 muscles controlling their movement. The co-ordination of the position and movement of each of those bones, muscles and ligaments is done by your… brain! And without clear communication from your brain to those levels, things WILL go wrong. It’s not a question of IF it will go wrong, it’s a question of WHEN will it go wrong.

Your spine is a MARVEL of ENGINEERING. Your pelvis is like a bony “Ring”, sitting on top of your legs, protecting your sex organs while transferring the load from your low back via the SACRUM. Your Sacrum is a triangular bone which sits in the pelvis. It only moves a small bit, but its position is CRITICAL because it has to transfer ALL of your upper body weight into the pelvis. And on top it holds the lowest of your five LUMBAR VERTEBRAE. An uneven sacrum angle WILL EVENTUALLY cause spinal troubles, often SCOLIOSIS.

We hear a lot of talk of the discs of your low back. They are super-strong “cushions” with a tough layered skin (Annulus fibrosus), and a softer “toothpaste-like” core (Nucleus Pulposus).

They shock absorb, allow mobility, but most importantly keep the space between the bones so that the SPINAL NERVES, which exit between each bone, have space. These nerves are the LIFELINE from your body to your brain.

Any pressure on them and the communication to your sex organs, blood circulation, or muscle coordination could be in danger. Pain is only the tip of the iceberg.

No matter the state of your back, this is what you ask of it everyday…

Hold most of your body weight, and more! In a seated posture the peak force in your low back may be around 100kg, and in some gym “abdominal” exercises, these forces rocket to over 250kg!
Shock absorb when you move, supporting any extra weight you decide to pick up.
Contain, protect and “passively pump” the CSF (the “brain and nervous system irrigation”) from reservoirs in your sacrum and up your spine. See this video.
Protect and pass the NERVES and their SIGNALS to your lower digestive system, sex organs, legs and circulation.
And still be able to move freely and flexibly!

It is no wonder that injuries to this area quickly become chronic and life-changing, limiting our activities and making us feel old. But you can only blame your age IF EVERY other joint in your body is in the same condition… nearly all spinal problems are due to PREMATURE AGEING of one area more than the others. So what makes one body part age faster than the rest?

Three Keys to a Healthy Low Back

There are THREE KEYS to having a healthy low back, everything else follows:

Healthy Alignment

This is the most important, yet overlooked part of spinal health. Your low back should share your weight between the discs and the joints at the back (the facets). In order to do this, it needs an optimal curve. Changing the angle of the sacrum, low back, or both, can shift the weight all onto the disc, or one side of the disc. With uneven loading, disc hernias become more likely.

As the base of your spine, small misalignments can become magnified higher up. It is common to see a small imbalance in this area provoke a major SCOLIOSIS higher up.

Think about all that time bent over a computer or mobile phone, and imagine how those thousands of hours of “abuse” will affect your low back discs, and ultimately your health. You may not feel this “abuse” at the beginning, but often decades after you started the damage…

Healthy Mobility

Your low back should allow you to touch your toes, lean back, tip side to side AND rotate, WITHOUT PAIN OR RESTRICTION. The mobility needs to come from ALL levels of your back. This is the key.

We often see patients who have certain areas which are heavily SUBLUXED (link). They don’t move well, they may be degenerated, and the nerves are under stress. But they have other areas which are HYPERmobile- overly flexible. For example they can still touch their toes, because their hips are flexible (a common problem among Yoga practitioners). They think their spine is fine, as they appear flexible. In fact no amount of core or strengthening work can fix this, until the underlying subluxations are corrected. The problem is not their flexibility, but the QUALITY of their movement.

Because the SUBLUXATIONS cause major nerve stress, poorer health, and eventually spinal damage. Being flexible OR strong does not guarantee a healthy spine, each level needs to “do its bit”.

Without good mobility, you cannot have good blood supply and good tissue drainage. Your spine literally becomes malnourished. And the discs suffer first.

Light Load

There is simply no escaping that the more weight your low back has to carry, the more likely it will have problems. This goes for being overweight as much as it does carrying loads or working out in the gym, with one big caveat. The strength work done in the gym involves huge amounts of rest (between each session), whereas being overweight means your spine and discs never rest.

But it may surprise you to hear that a LIGHT PERSON in a BAD POSTURE can have MORE SPINAL STRESS than an OVERWEIGHT PERSON in a GOOD POSTURE.

This is because certain postures (such as sitting) can increase the internal pressure by 3-4 times. So while weight counts, Alignment is still the true KEY to spinal health.

Some people may be surprised that CORE STABILITY or CORE STRENGTH is not on this list of the three most important things for a healthy low back. It is very, very important, especially if you are asking a lot of your spine. But with good alignment and healthy mobility it is unlikely that your core should be weak. If it is, it is either because you just don´t move enough (eg you sit too much), or more probably because a previous injury did not recover, causing subluxation and abnormal nervous control of the area. In any case, Core training on a dysfunctional (subluxed) or poorly aligned spine can only help so much. Tightening things around an unstable structure can stop pains, but longer term problems will arise again. In fact, doing core stability work when we have removed your subluxations becomes far easier, indeed can become very rewarding.

Two Categories of Low Back Damage

We mostly think of damage in terms of accidents- like slips or falls, and these are certainly important. However we all suffer far more trauma from something far less accidental…

CHRONIC POSTURAL TRAUMA by far the most common cause of back injury

Sitting
You may think that you are “resting” while sitting on the sofa, or reading a book, however your back can only rest when you are lying down. And even then, not always! Sitting in a flexed posture (the way we mostly sit) will produce pressures of over 100kg compression in your lumbar discs. This is because the natural curve, which shares weight between the back of the spine and the discs, is flattened. In some people this factor will rise up to 3-fold your weight. Meaning that a 70kg person has 210kg of compressive forces on their discs! Humans are simply not designed to sit for long periods of time. So modifying your sitting posture and getting up regularly RADICALLY reduces risks not just for back pain, sciatica and disc hernias, but also for a number of other health conditions, including heart disease. Put simply, sitting too much is extremely bad for you.
Sleeping
Although sleeping should be a time of “rest”, too often our low back ends up in a twisted or compressed position, meaning that it cannot recover overnight. In fact, the discs in your back literally “feed” overnight in a process called “imbibition”, where the disc “sucks” fluid and nutrients from the vertebrae above and below. This means that it literally swells overnight, causing you to wake 1-2cm taller than you went to bed!
Tightnesses and poor postures can cause this to happen unevenly, meaning that as you wake in the morning your low back feels anything but “refreshed”. It makes you feel a hundred years old, and takes 30-90 minutes before you “warm into your day”. This is a likely sign that your discs are suffering, and you may even have disc instability. A good sleeping posture, plus knowing how to decompress your spine as you lie down, can make a big difference. In this video we explain how to decompress your spine when lying down.

Car
It is no surprise that car seats are a big culprit for causing back problems. Not only do they force you into a very flexed position, often for prolonged periods, but the additional road vibrations into your spine have been shown to increase the load and fatigue on your low back. The less “car-like” your driving posture, the better. For example, a more “van-like” or upright posture often helps people who are suffering from back pain while driving. Either way, apart from trying to improve your posture, the best solution is taking regular breaks. Planning longer journeys to include a walk, lunch stop etc… can really help to lessen the fatigue.
Digital Devices (Phones and Tablets)
When you watch our videos, you will realise that “digital devices” are one of the greatest threats to our spinal health. Regular laptop use is INCOMPATIBLE with a healthy spine. They are designed for short-term use only. Working from a laptop long-term guarantees spinal stress and problems!
Mobile phones are at least as dangerous, as we don´t realise how long we are using them for. “Text neck” is a known neck injury from using the phone, but it extends to your low back too. We commonly see patients who have lumbar disc problems including hernias, hunched over their phone. Being conscious and changing these postures is important if you want to be healthy and well.
Standing
Standing and walking are our natural states. And so should be friendly to our low backs, right? Well yes, but… Any activity with poor alignment, poor mobility, or excess weight can still be bad for our backs.
In particular, standing STILL for a long time can cause what we call “Cocktail Party Syndrome”… where a poorly aligned back forces you to “hang on your ligaments”. This results in increasing pain and discomfort, and you find yourself looking for a chair. If standing for a period causes you back pain, then it is possible that you have deeper alignment issues or Subluxations.

LIFTING, FALLS AND SLIPS – often the “final straw” on a back which is already struggling.

Lifting
When people think of “trauma”, this is what usually comes to mind. It is certainly possible to tear a muscle from overloading your back. And if indeed it is muscular, it should recover within a few weeks. If it lasts beyond that it is NOT “just muscular”. Although you may finally feel your “back go” when you pick a pen from the floor, or slip slightly, the reality is that a healthy back should be “immune” to all but the greatest slips and falls. If you are fit and playing a sport, and someone lands on you, that is bad luck.
But the truth is that so many of us have fragile backs from chronic postures, that even small loads have us “on the edge”.
Although very common, it is NOT NORMAL to go around “protecting” our back from loads…. It is just a sign that we need to act now.
This “accident”, like picking something heavy, may be the final straw for a struggling lumbar disc. The overload causes it to rupture its walls, herniating its nucleus and bulging into the spinal canal. With luck there is enough flexibility and space for it to not fully compress a nerve. If not, then you are likely dealing with sciatic or leg pain.
Many people “get past” these episodes with pain medication or rest. But the scarring continues inside.
In fact, some of the worst degeneration we see is when people have not had enough pain to act sooner!

Falls ans Slips
But MINOR falls can sometimes cause longer-term damage, by changing the positioning of your pelvis or sacrum.
For example, a common injury among cyclists is to fall onto one side of the hip. You recover quickly, but after a while notice you cannot produce power, or start getting back pain. Your low back sits ON the sacrum, and the sacrum is VERY sensitive to side-loading. In fact it is not designed to support a fall from the side, and so its subtle position can change. This sort of subluxation can wreak havoc on your low back.
It should be noted that if you have a fall which results in sudden radiating pain, especially if it causes changes in your bladder or bowel habits, then you may have had an acute disc rupture, and should seek Emergency Medical assessment as soon as possible.

WANT TO CHANGE YOUR BACK?

Our goal is not to make you feel better, temporarily, but to make you Healthier, Happier, More Resilient, for LIFE.

HOW TO START

Symptoms of an Unhealthy Low Back

It would be easy to assume that Low Back problems cause… Low Back pain. But this is far from true. The truth is that an unhealthy back can cause a wide range of symptoms and bad health. In many of these, it is not obvious that the back could even be related!

Here are some of the problems caused by an unhealthy back:

Chronic Back Pain with Stiffness

A stiff and painful back is often a symptom of insufficient movement at one or many vertebrae (Vertebral Subluxations). It tends to be worst “Post-Static”… ie after you have not moved for a while. Pain on getting out of the car, first thing in the morning, or when sitting still for any time are common signs. When left unchecked, this progresses to degenerative changes such as “Spondylosis” and “Osteoarthritis”. Static stretching will generally alleviate things, as will massage. However it feels like you just need to stretch more and more, and eventually that is not enough. Unfortunately excessive static stretching (such as too much Yoga, or stretching too hard) can accentuate movement imbalances, resulting in more irritation and an overall worsening of things. These positive stretching practices can actually mask the underlying cause.

In such cases it is essential to reestablish normal movement through removing Subluxations with Chiropractic adjustments and then – and only then – strengthen and stretch the area.

Muscle Strain & Muscle Spasm

Is this the most overdiagnosed back condition? For sure you can strain a muscle by overloading your spine, but in practice, healthy spines do not tear muscles unless something UNEXPECTED occurs. For example catching a load (like a falling child), or slipping.

Although much back pain is caused by muscle guarding, stiffness, and spasm, this is most commonly a REACTION to another problem. Think about a chronically bad posture, risking damage to your spinal nerves… OF COURSE the muscles will stay in contraction, trying to protect it! Think about a degenerating disc, where certain movements risk herniation or further rupture… OF COURSE your back muscles will spasm! The small joints at the back of your spine (facet joints) are also highly sensitive, and cause SPASM when overloaded.

Are these MUSCULAR PROBLEMS? Do muscle relaxants (turning off the protection) make sense? They may make you feel better temporarily, but now you have removed the protective spasm, what happens next?

If you have had ongoing treatment for tight, stiff, muscles or spasms, it is very likely that something deeper has been missed…

Pinched Nerve

The sensation of a “pinched nerve”, with shooting pain, is a horrible one. It can provoke all of that muscle spasm we just mentioned. The truth is most “nerve pinching” tends to happen a lot more slowly than it feels, with either a herniated disc or bad posture gradually pressuring the area. People often feel they have a pinched nerve, because the pain is sharp, and comes and goes quickly. Often, this is a HEALTHY SIGN, where your back is trying to tell you that it is in danger. Your body is very literally SHOUTING at you! Is the solution painkillers, or anti-inflammatories, to shut it up? Again, it makes more sense to ask WHY is it doing this, and then look for a long-term solution to a healthier back.

Sacroiliac Pain

The sacroiliac joints (SIJs) connect your sacrum to your pelvis. They bear ALL of your weight, and as you stand on one leg are responsible for sending your upper body weight out to the side and down your leg. They are big, solid, fibrous joints. It was long considered that SIJs did not move. Proof to the contrary is in childbirth, where they MUST move to let a healthy birth take place. Research shows that there is movement in these joints, and that they can actually get blocked in an abnormal position. The impact of this is big, because the Sacrum is the base of your whole spine, and a small change in position can amplify itself further up your spine, causing postural changes and even curves such as scoliosis. Chiropractic has long been dedicated to improving your SIJ alignment, and irrespective of any symptoms, we see this as key to a healthy spine.

Osteoporosis

The topic of Osteoporosis is a big one. Is it a symptom or a cause? Is it dietary, genetic, or activity-related, or all of these? But osteoporosis in itself is not dangerous, it is the resulting fractures which are dangerous….

And one thing is for sure, is that a poorly aligned spine radically (up to 2.6x) increases your risk of Osteoporotic Vertebral Fracture…. That is the bone weakening and collapsing. In fact, a bad postural curve or Scoliosis can become life-threatening when osteoporosis advances. This is yet another reason to aim for OPTIMAL POSTURE as young as possible, and keep it as long as possible! Chiropractic care in the hands of someone properly qualified is totally safe if you have Osteoporosis.

Spondylosis, Osteoarthritis & Degenerative Disease

Spondylosis is a fancy medical way of saying “unwell spine”… or degenerative spine. Osteoarthritis or osteoarthrosis are basically different ways of saying the same thing. In different countries we use different terms. Some people even call it “wear and tear”, and sometimes they are correct! So if it is “wear and tear”, then it will be evenly distributed throughout your whole body, correct? If you have left hip arthritis, but the right is fine, can that be because of age? What age is your left hip? And your right hip?… AGE IS NOT A PROBLEM, BUT AN EXCUSE!

So while spondylosis, osteoarthritis etc are interesting names, what is far more interesting is WHY that particular part of your body is suffering when others are not. And HOW to offload that area and look after it, so that it (and YOU) can have a longer, healthier, happier life… With good alignment, mobility, and normal load, your spine should degenerate uniformly, with no focal “problem areas”. So you should never feel “written off” by the misdiagnosis of “its just your age” or “its just wear and tear”. Look to the cause. Every year MILLIONs of people with Spondylosis, Osteoarthritis, and degenerative disc diseases get BRILLIANT results under Chiropractic care.

Scoliosis & Postural Curves

This is a huge topic in itself. 1 in 3 scoliosis have not been diagnosed! And two of the most common complications of scoliosis are respiratory (lung), and digestive disorders. It tends to run in families, but that does not mean that it HAS to!

The most common type of Scoliosis is called “idiopathic”, which is medical language for “we don´t know the cause”. But in many people who are diagnosed as such, one leg may be longer than the other, or the base of the spine may be uneven. Thankfully the outdated advice of “doing nothing”, or “just go swimming” is being replaced by more PROACTIVE care in most developed countries. The same cannot be said for everywhere. It is sad to see kids whose small spinal curves have ended up worsening to the point of being suggested for surgery, when simple postural changes early on may have avoided it. There is a phrase that says “As the twig is bent, so grows the tree”. And bending a fully grown tree back into shape is a lot more difficult than supporting the twig to grow more upright… The message is simple. Value good postural hygiene from a young age, just as one would value good dental hygiene. Get your kids spinal posture checked regularly, EVEN IF THEY HAVE NO SYMPTOMS! Kids respond amazingly well to getting adjusted. Check out this video on how waking up your Sixth Sense can change your posture.

Bulging Disc, Herniated Disc, and ‘Slipped disc’

If you have seen a Doctor who said you had a ‘Slipped disc’, then it was over thirty years ago, or they are not a real Doctor!

No disc has ever ‘slipped’. The discs are so well ‘glued’ to the bone, that the bone would always break first… But discs do bulge, herniate, and more!

As mentioned earlier, your discs are made up of a soft toothpaste-like core (the Nucleus Pulposus), contained within tougher layers of fibrous “skin-wall” (the Annulus fibrosus). They suck nutrients and fluid from the vertebrae overnight. Their job is to shock-absorb, move freely, and protect the spinal nerve roots which are sending life-critical messages to and from your brain and body. What on earth could go wrong?!?!

Well you could have a small back injury, which limits the mobility in an area. You feel ok so you return to normal activity. No big deal? But the vertebral subluxation (abnormal movement) persists. And so, that level moves abnormally, placing too much pressure on one area, until one day, stressed and after getting off a flight, you pick up your suitcase and…. BIG DEAL!

Or you could sit WAY too much (no big deal), pressuring just one part of the disc, fatiguing the wall, and altering its shape. And then lean over to pick something up… BIG DEAL!

Or you could have an athletic childhood, then stop sport and moving (no big deal), denying the discs their normal nutrition, and letting them slowly degenerate… BIG DEAL!

Or you are always in a poor posture (no big deal), which forces all of the disc material (nucleus) either forward or backward, or even to the side (for example in a scoliosis). Then this material pushes on the disc wall (annulus) until one day it gives way… BIG DEAL!

Or you could be very flexible, stretching regularly, but not noticing a small injury at one vertebral level. You feel fine, so no big deal. Over time the adjacent levels stretch more and more, as the damaged level struggles to keep up, and the disc weakens rapidly… at a young age you already have advanced disc degeneration, despite being super-flexible and apparently very healthy…. VERY BIG DEAL!

Or you could be overweight (no big deal) for many years, simply asking too much load-wise from your discs, and so the nucleus bulges through the walls, until they cannot hold back any longer…. BIG DEAL!

Or it could be any combination of the above, plus a thousand other things! We ask so much of our low backs every day, that it is no surprise that so many things can go wrong. If only we cared for our spine as we do our teeth!

And a disc bulge (when its size increases) or herniation (when it breaks through) can happen quietly without hitting the part of the nerve which causes pain. Or it can hit the nerve and send you into a breathless cycle of pain. The pain can stay in the low back area, radiate into your buttocks, or even all the way down to your feet.

Too often surgery is offered as if it were the ONLY option. This is not true.

Every year hundreds of thousands of people suffering from disc hernias recover naturally. Getting to the ROOT cause of the problem means improving the mobility of that level, and the alignment of the area. Chiropractic care sets the foundation for a healthier, stronger back and a natural recovery.

Sciatica

‘Sciatic Nerve’ from Wikimedia Commons by K. D. Schroeder, CC-BY-SA 4.0

True sciatica is not just leg pain, but pain in the distribution of the Sciatic nerve. So while someone may have called your pain “sciatica”, that may not be the case. The sciatic nerve is mainly made up of the nerve roots of L4,L5,S1. These are the lowest spinal nerves, exiting your spine at your waist, or the belt-level in your low back. The discs in this area are under HUGE amounts of stress. When one or all of these nerves are inflamed, they may inflame the sciatic nerve.

Characterized by pain in the back of the leg, true sciatica often makes it hard to sit without lifting that leg slightly. Any pressure on the back of your leg causes pain, often causing cramping. The sciatic nerve can also be irritated as it passes through the pelvis, in what some call a “piriformis syndrome”. It is unfortunate that the sciatic nerve passes through muscles which have the SAME nerve supply as itself! This means, for example, that an L5 injury can cause inflammation in the sciatic nerve, but also send the Piriformis into spasm, often compressing the sciatic nerve as it passes through! So you end up with a vicious cycle. This is one of the reasons why sciatic pains so often become life-changing and chronic. All parts of the cycle (the cause and the effects) need to be relieved to experience health again.

A lot of energy is spent stretching Piriformis Muscles and Gluteals (buttocks) for people with Sciatic pain. While these things are important, the tightness and spasm will keep coming back until the pressure is removed from the cause… the nerve itself. That might take time… most sciatica cases are preceded by years of back stiffness! Sciatica does not need to be the “sentence” which so many people get used to.

Tight or torn Hamstrings or Calves

Many, many athletes have their careers spoiled by gluteal, hamstring, calf, or achilles injuries which become persistent and WILL NOT GO AWAY! They get orthotics, change how they run, do strength training, rest, but these injuries just keep coming back! So they just learn to “live with it” through regular massage and loads and loads of stretching. Their sporting career is at best painful, at worst ruined.

Then one day they have back pain, and they get adjusted by a chiropractor. And within weeks a decade-old injury clears up. The TONE and FUNCTION of all of your leg muscles is set by the nerves which exit your low back. Relieving pressure in your low back can result in what look like miraculous healings… but the “miracle” is that your brain is back in control, and can relax your low back when needed. If a muscle group in your leg keeps getting tight, then it is time to ask WHY?!?!

92% of professional athletes in the USA use Chiropractic care for PERFORMANCE: To avoid getting injuries and improve their results. Athletes who compete without Chiropractic care are at a disadvantage.

Life does not have to be a constant fight with tight muscles!

Chiropractic Care for Your Healthy Low Back

It is true that many people come to us when they have chronic low back pain, pinched nerves, muscle spasm, sciatica, herniated discs or degeneration in their low back. And while they get amazing results, the truth is that WE DO NOT TREAT any of these conditions. That may sound confusing, but the sole focus of true Chiropractic care is to free up interference in the spine so that your body can HEAL ITSELF.

Look at our reviews, we have hundreds of people, many with severe pain, thanking us for the changes in their lives. But they all have one thing in common… we DID NOT TREAT ANY OF THEIR CONDITIONS!

The importance of this cannot be overstated… we do not treat any of these conditions!

Our goal is to improve your spinal health, nothing else. The curing from painful injuries, is very literally a SIDE EFFECT of improved spinal health.

The fact that LESS PAIN is a “normal side-effect” of a HEALTHY SPINE, means that Chiropractic has become the go-to treatment for so many spinal injuries in developed countries like the USA.

Today, so-called “health care” focuses on just treating the painful condition. This goes for most natural therapies too. Medicine has got us so used to “turning off symptoms” that we have forgotten how to simply become more healthy.

The pain goes away for a while, but the POOR HEALTH of the spine persists. It is no surprise that many patients get SYMPTOMATIC PAIN CARE from Chiropractors and other therapists, only for the same or other problems to come back time and again, plaguing your life and resulting in premature degeneration, disc hernias, and gradual loss of health. And most people call this AGEING!!!

This is very short-sighted and something that we at Duffy Quiropractica are not interested in. If you just want a “patch”, then you are as well off taking painkillers.

When you start with us, we only focus on making your spine and body healthy again, and that is the ONLY way to TRUE HEALTH, WELLNESS, and RESILIENCE.

In fact, a good chiropractor does NOT want to know too much about where it hurts, as this can distract us from the main goal… improving your spinal health, for GOOD.

So how do we get these results then? Well it is pretty simple. We focus on the key ingredients for a healthy back.

We identify and use specific Chiropractic adjustments to reduce vertebral subluxation and nerve stress
We choose the right strategy to make sustainable, life-long postural changes so that you are less likely to become subluxed again
We help you to reduce subluxation stressors and maintain your spine healthy… for LIFE!

Our examinations are exhaustive, but include;

Detailed Postural Analysis, using digital photography and other imaging.
Balance testing
Spinal Stress (SEMG) testing, which may show hidden stress in your spine.
Nervous system balance testing.
Chiropractic Examination, including
Orthopaedic and Neurological Testing

Based on the findings, we make recommendations for how to restore HEALTH to your spine. At the core of what we do are Chiropractic Adjustments, Ergonomic, and Postural changes. Our goal is not to make you feel better, temporarily, but to make you Healthier, Happier, More Resilient, for LIFE.

WANT TO CHANGE YOUR BACK?

Our goal is not to make you feel better, temporarily, but to make you Healthier, Happier, More Resilient, for LIFE.

HOW TO START

Back MythBuster

But my back problems are “JUST MUSCULAR”

If you lifted a weight within the past week or so, and you have back pain which then RESOLVES, then your pain was probably muscular. But if it has been going on for more than a few weeks, you need to ask, WHAT CONTROLS THE MUSCLES?!?!?! Your NERVES control your muscles, and nearly ALL chronic “muscle pains” are due to altered nerve pressure.

We all love a back massage! But it’s pretty obvious that, if you need to get massage regularly just to feel OK, the problem is not your muscles.

(By the way it´s fine to continue to get massage when you are under care, just ask us about the TIMING of your massages…)

Someone pushed back in my slipped discs...

Chiropractic reduces subluxations in your spine. This means that we adjust your spine to free up the nerves and gradually introduce normal movement and position. Unskilled manipulation (for example stretching hard into rotation to click your back, or manipulation from less skilled therapists) WILL NOT FIX SUBLUXATIONS. It may make your back feel better, temporarily, but can actually cause more PROBLEMS, PAIN, and DEGENERATION long-term. We see many people who have had lots of stretching and manipulation, but their spinal condition is terrible when we assess them.

We do not MANIPULATE, we only ADJUST.

The discs in your back never actually slip out. The glue which holds them in is stronger than the bones! Getting adjusted can free up a nerve root, often giving a huge sense of relief, as if something had popped back into place.

ADJUSTMENT OF THE SUBLUXATIONS, in the hands of a skilled professional is the only way to recover normal function. Only place the health of your spine in the hands of someone Trustworthy, with International-Level qualifications.

Its OK to click my back as it feels better

Self-manipulation… moving or forcing your spine until it clicks… can often give huge relief. Then a few hours later you do it again. Before you realise that you depend on it! You even buy a roller to try to “click your spine” and relieve it. It is the only thing which gives relief.

The bad news is that the levels which click WILL NOT BE THE SUBLUXATIONS! The subluxations stay “stuck” while the levels around it click, relaxing the muscles. But the problem remains and needs more and more Self-manipulation. The long-term picture is not good.

(BTW the same can happen if you get manipulated by an unskilled therapist).

Eventually it becomes impossible to “click yourself” anymore, and you go into crisis mode. Do yourself a favour and see a good Chiropractor before degeneration sets in and the problems become permanent.

Manipulation can be dangerous

Chiropractic has the safest record of any registered healthcare profession in the western world. Your spine is totally safe in the hands of a properly qualified Doctor of Chiropractic.

A properly qualified Chiropractor will have 5 years of University Level study, plus ongoing studies. Unfortunately, unskilled “Manipulation” has been confused with Chiropractic Adjustment. This happens more in countries where they have not yet protected patients by creating a government register of Chiropractors. In Spain, for example, there are people who call themselves Chiropractors, without any “serious” qualifications… We often see people who have been injured by such manipulation. Here in Marbella there are a number of therapists doing this. Always ensure that you ONLY see someone with Internationally recognised qualifications. In Spain this means belonging to the Association of Chiropractors AEQ.

I am too old for Chiropractic care

There is no minimum or maximum age for Chiropractic care. And anyone who tells you so simply does not know. There are hundreds of different techniques which a good Chiropractor will use. We see babies who are days old, disabled children with brittle bone disease, and even patients at 100 years old! It is a matter of seeing a Chiropractor who has the expertise to choose the right technique for you.

Wearing a low back support is a good idea

Some people continue to recommend orthopaedic supports, despite overwhelming consensus that (with a few exceptions) they are BAD NEWS. They may help if you are OBLIGED to do work beyond your physical limits, such as lifting. But in general you are better off simply avoiding said task. Thereafter they cause limitation of movement, scarring, and longer term problems. If someone recommends wearing a low back support, get a second opinion. There is another way.

I am a smoker, so chiropractic cannot help me.

It is true that ALL healing is impaired when you have a toxic environment in your body. But this goes for eating certain food types, not drinking enough water too! Chiropractic enhances your body´s ability to cope with ANYTHING. Including toxic stresses. In general, we do not ask our patients to STOP doing anything. You already know that smoking is damaging your health. And yet MOST of our patients choose to stop smoking when they are under care. Why? A healthy body no longer asks for nicotine. We often think that healthy habits can create a healthy body. In fact a healthy body creates healthy habits!

I have osteoporosis so cannot get manipulated

Manipulation is a less skilled movement of the joints, without specificity. We have all heard “horror stories” of unskilled therapists manipulating a patient and causing problems. Chiropractic uses ADJUSTMENTs. This is radically different from manipulation in SPECIFICITY, SKILL and TRAINING level.

There are hundreds of protocols and styles of adjusting. We do not use the same adjustment with a 3 month-old baby as a professional rugby player as a 98 year old grandmother! If you have Osteoporosis, not only is it TOTALLY SAFE to have chiropractic adjustments, evidence shows that it may also IMPROVE your bone density!

I have had surgery, so chiropractic cannot help

Every year millions of people have spinal surgery, of which over 1.62 million are spinal FUSIONS! Estimates vary hugely, but at least 20%, and up to 85% of these were not necessary. So the first thing is, make surgery the LAST OPTION. But if you have already had surgery, hope is not lost! It is sad but true that many people only find the power of chiropractic AFTER spinal surgery. Depending on the surgery you have had, we may have to select different techniques to treat you with. At Duffy Quiropráctica we see patients who have artificial discs in their neck or low back, spinal fusions, scoliosis surgeries, and spinal fusions, to name a few! We select the correct technique for each level, for each patient. There is no “one chiropractic technique”. Chiropractic care for an operated spine is TOTALLY SAFE in the hands of a properly qualified professional.

I have a disc hernia, chiropractic could make it worse

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people suffering from disc hernias recover WITHOUT SURGERY. In many countries, seeing a Chiropractor is the FIRST thing you do if you have a back problem, not the LAST! Unfortunately in less HEALTHcare-developed countries, including much of Europe, access to such high quality healthcare is more difficult, and people undergo premature or unnecessary surgery. Research clearly shows that Chiropractic care does NOT increase risk of disc hernias. Our focus is simply on removing the interference, and get you back to being the strongest version of yourself!

Low Back, Disc Health

Anatomy