Spine Pain Treatment
Your spinal area is made up of multiple bones, ligaments, muscles and nerves and helps to support many of your daily motions from walking to sitting. The most common areas of pain occur in the lumbar region (low back) and cervical (neck). Your lower back bears a lot of weight and the lower two discs in your lumbar region have the highest chance of disc herniation. Your spine is made up of 33 bones stacked on top of another with a cushion, intervertebral disk, in between each one. The disks have a soft center and a tough exterior. Herniated disk, sometimes called slipped or ruptured disk, occurs when the soft center pushed through a crack in the tough exterior. When this occurs, it may touch nearby nerves that are tied to the legs and arms. That’s why a slipped disc can cause pain, numbness or weakness in an arm or leg.
Your neck supports the weight of your head – the weight of a bowling ball! – and neck pain is generally felt directly around the neck area but it could also be felt through the upper arm, shoulder blade, forearm, or hand. Neck conditions have the potential to become chronic if the source of the pain isn’t treated.
Where is my spine pain coming from?
Since the spinal region is made up of a complex network of nerves, where you feel the pain may not be the source of the pain. An acute pain is typically a sharp pain and was caused by some sort of trauma, whereas chronic pain, Depending on the source of your pain, your physical therapist will customize a treatment plan based on their findings.
Causes of pain:
• Nerves that surround the spine become irritated
• Muscles surrounding your spine are strained
• Bones, ligaments or joints in the area are injured
• Sudden impact such as a car crash
How can physical therapy help with my spinal pain?
Physical therapists can assess movement patterns to determine the source of your spine pain symptoms and correct any movement dysfunction that they find. Treatment could include a combination of the methods below to address any muscular imbalance, nerve irritation or other spinal health concerns:
Joint mobilization and manual therapy: Hands-on techniques used restore mobility to any joints or tissues that may be restricted. PTs will remove restrictions from those muscles to reduce pain and retrain your movement patterns.
Custom exercises: Aimed to improve range of motion and strengthen muscles surrounding the spine. Besides your spine, areas of weakness could be in your hips, shoulders, and even the feet. Core strengthening exercises will also be key in reducing pressure from spinal misalignment in your back.
Postural education: Aids with elongating the spine to reduce pressure on your back. If your spine is misaligned, your physical therapist will adjust certain aspects of your posture so you can re-establish spinal symmetry as best you can.
Physical therapists can provide the necessary tools to prevent and/or treat spine pain, allowing you to return to your favorite activities pain-free and better than ever! To learn more about how to prevent spinal pain or to eliminate any current discomfort, book a physical therapy assessment today.
Really quite amazed I found these guys and how effective they were. I went neat an entire year in constant pain with a diagnosis of “ruptured disc.” The worst part was I felt helpless as I was told the multiple spine injections I’d been given may or may not numb it long enough for it to “heal itself.” What became clear after just a few minutes with Jason was that the injury and the symptoms I was experiencing were separate issues and that physical therapy could help get rid of the symptoms. After only a few weeks of working with Therapydia I am pain free and training for the Portland marathon which a year ago I would have said was impossible.
Our Locations
SE Portland Location:
2808 E Burnside St.
Portland, OR 97214
Phone: (503) 477-4802
Fax: (503) 477-9395
Email: info@therapydiaportland.com
Lake Oswego Location:
4811 Meadows Rd #105
Lake Oswego, OR 97035
Phone: (503) 387-6081
Fax: (503) 908-1518
Email: hello@therapydiaportland.com
Beaverton Location:
3925 SW 153rd Dr #210
Beaverton, OR 97006
Phone: (971) 727-8155
Fax: (971) 727-8179
Email: hello@therapydiabeaverton.com
