Breaking the Endless Cycle of Low Back Pain

The cause of most low back pain has been well established in the medical community, it is what doctors call a sprain/strain. In simple terms, a strain occurs when muscle, or tendon fibers are torn. A sprain is occurs when a ligament is torn. There are different grades of a strain or sprain, ranging from a mild tear, to a complete rupture.

In most cases of low back pain, there is usually a combination of both a sprain and a strain, which has gone unresolved over time, and is slowly progressing. For example, let's say you were playing football when you were twelve years old, you went up for a pass and got hit in mid-air by an opponent, as you landed on the ground awkwardly, you felt a searing pain in your low back. You got up and was able to get home. The pain was pretty bad for a couple of days but eventually you recover completely. Fast forward twenty years later. Now you are thirty-two years old, and for the last couple of years have had a nagging tightness and discomfort in the low back, in a similar area to the one that was hurt as a twelve-year-old. One day, you bend over to pick something up, and just like that, you feel that searing pain again. Only this time, you don't recover as quickly as you did when you were twelve.

This is a common scenario in people with low back pain, and the reason is this: When you experience a sprain/strain injury to the soft tissue in your body, the area will heal itself over time. Unfortunately, a by-product of this healing process is the development of scar tissue in the healed muscle, tendon, or ligament. Scar tissue does not have the strength or flexibility of normal tissue. An accumulation of scar tissue injuries will weaken the back, and make it more susceptible to additional injury. This cycle of events will continue, and the back will continue to degenerate, until the cycle is broken.

How is the cycle broken?

There are ways to break up this scar tissue which develops after an injury. Many chiropractors, massage therapists, and physical therapists are well equipped with techniques to eliminate scar tissue. It is important that people with low back pain find these providers.