Pain Relief, Upper Back Pain and Low Back Pain: Movement Variability
If you’ve seen me in my office for nutritional advice, chances are I’ve told you how important it is to get a wide array of foods in your diet; we might call this “nutrient variability”.
We know that the more variable your heart rate is, the healthier your cardiovascular system is; this is called” heart rate variability”
Well, guess what…. there is a concept called, “movement variability” that seems to be the key component in pain relief for conditions like upper back pain and low back pain.
What is “movement variability”?
It is creating slightly different movements to perform certain tasks. In a 2010 study entitled, ”People with chronic low back pain exhibit decreased variability in the timing of their anticipatory postural adjustments“, authors found that people with low back pain had decreased movement variability when it came to postural adjustments. In another study (click here), upper back and neck pain was linked to the same decrease in movement variability.
Many clinicians and therapists (myself included) see this as one of the main reasons functional movement, functional training, joint manipulation and mobilization, massage and many other soft tissue and rehabilitative techniques help people in pain. What do all of these treatments have in common? Novel Movements.
Novel movements are movements that vary from those that you produce regularly throughout the day. Movements that exit outside of a stereotypical pattern. Novel movements help to increase your movement variability and also stimulate your brain to produce dopamine. Not only is dopamine a “pleasure” chemical, it is also part of our internal reward system. An increase in dopamine from novel movements and movement variability is like a messenger to the rest of the brain saying,
“Hey, good job! Everybody, wake up and pay attention, this is something new and good for us.”
Novel movements and increased movement variability creates an opportunity for your body to experience movements that are non-threatening and non-painful; this can help to decrease the pain signals from the brain with chronic pain problems.
We would be correct if we categorized decreased movement variability as our movement habits. To increase our movement variability and therefore, possibly find relief from chronic pain, low back pain, upper back pain and more, we should change our movement habits and introduce novel movements into your daily routine.
In other words, you need to improve your “Movement Diet” (I stole this phrase from Cory Blickenstaff, a PT in Vancouver Washington). Improve the variety of movements in your “movement diet” so that you have options for pain relief and finding comfortable ways to move.
Yours in Health,Tim Irving DC, MS, LMTOptimum Function: 819 SE Morrison St. ste. 215, Portland, OR, 97215Optimum Function = Optimum Health
Low Back Pain – A Biopsychosocial Approach
I know it’s been but one day since my last blog post but the approach I took in the video I link to at the end of this post is similar to the approach I took with my own bout of acute jaw pain (TMJD), as illustrated in my last post; Pain Relief – This Summer’s Pain Education and Jaw Pain Experiment
The approach is based on new ideas related to pain sciences and in general, is as follows:
- Educate the patient about their pain to reduce fear
- Encourage them to move in novel and pain free ways
- Give them a strategy to continue moving in graded ways until their pain is decreased and movement is back to normal.
- Teach them that a flare up may happen and what to do about it
- Have them come back in only to reassess things or if they have trouble tonight the above.
Here’s the link to the other blog post where a Physical Therapist uses pain sciences to deal with what the patient would call “muscle pain”. You’ll see that the main form of treatment was to educate the patient about his pain and get him moving in pain-free ways. Once he did this, his pain and dysfunction was relieved. All this without any passive treatments. By passive, I mean someone else (the PT) does something to the patient, without any input from the patient. A Biopsychosocial Approach To Low Back Pain
Yours in Health,Tim Irving DC, MS, LMTOptimum Function: 819 SE Morrison St. ste. 215, Portland, OR, 97215Optimum Function = Optimum HealthChiropractic #1 for Low Back Pain Treatment
Here’s a short video that references the Consumer Reports article about low back pain treatments. In this reports, chiropractic care is ranked #1 for the treatment of low back pain. As a Portland, Oregon, chiropractor. I see many patients with low back pain and I can attest to the effectiveness of chiropractic treatment for low back pain personally; In fact, a severe bout with low back pain that was helped by chiropractic and massage was one of the reasons I became a chiropractor.
Here’s the video:
Are you one of the 80% who will experience low back pain in Portland, Oregon? If so, contact me by leaving a comment or going to my website by clicking on the following link: Portland, Oregon chiropractic at Optimum Function
Yours in Health,Tim Irving DC, MS, LMTOptimum Function: 819 SE Morrison St. ste. 215, Portland, OR, 97215Optimum Function = Optimum HealthMany Ab Exercises Can Injure Your Low Back
At my Portland, Oregon chiropractic, nutrition and functional movement clinic, Optimum Function, I often field questions about ab exercises. The problem with most is, if your spine is flexing and extending with every rep, you run the risk of damaging your spine, specifically the discs in between the bones of your spine.
There are no perfect ab exercises for everyone, each person has a different level of strength stability and mobility of the joints and muscles in and around the spine. Stuart McGill, an expert in low back stability and performance recently shot a video addressing this issue. Click on the following link to go to the video and read an article relating to it: Is Your Ab Workout Hurting Your Back?
Yours in Health, Tim Irving DC, MS, LMT, CKTP, GSTM cert, Nutritionist, Hypnotherapist Optimum Function: 819 SE Morrison St. ste. 215, Portland, OR, 97215 Optimum Function = Optimum Health Yours in Health,Tim Irving DC, MS, LMTOptimum Function: 819 SE Morrison St. ste. 215, Portland, OR, 97215Optimum Function = Optimum HealthLow Back Pain Guidelines Applicable in Portland, Oregon at Optimum Function
Low back pain is incredibly common and, at times, is incredibly disabling. In Scandinavia, non-specific low back pain (low back pain that can not be explained by one distinct injury, disease or problem) is the largest cause for sick leave. As such, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence published a guideline for dealing with non-specific low back pain.
Here are the recommendations:
- Offer a tailored exercise program lasting 12 weeks with an 8 session maximum
- Offer Spinal Manipulation (chiropractic adjusting) lasting 12 weeks with a 9 session maximum
- Offer acupuncture lasting for 12 weeks with a 10 session maximum
- Do NOT offer injections in the back
- Consider referral for physical and psychological treatment comprised of 100 hours lasting 8 weeks
- Do NOT offer x-ray for non-specific low back pain
- Offer MRI only in context of referral for spinal fusion
As a chiropractor in Portland, Oregon, many patients come to Optimum Function with back pain. Some have mild pain, and others very severe and they are in a great deal of pain. On a clinical and experiential level, I whole-heartedly agree with the recommendations put forth by the authors of this paper.
Often, chiropractic adjustments work immediately to help the patients with back pain function on a pain-free level. When adjusting is not the “magic bullet”, I often combine it with cold laser, the Graston Technique, kinesiotape, Arthrostim adjusting and Vibracussor percussion-assisted soft-tissue work. These treatments are often referred to as “passive care” because you (the patient) are having “stuff” done to you; even if you may be somewhat active in the treatments.
Exercise, stability and rehabilitation activities will be incorporated as soon as indicated (often when your pain is reduced to the point where you can function). At my chiropractic and nutrition clinic in Portland, Oregon, I utilize the TRX suspension system, kettlebells , body weight exercises, active stretching and mobilization and band work to help you low back heal healthy and strong.
Lastly, I will talk with you about certain nutritional avenues in which to help support your healing process and create health and wellness long-term.
If you are experiencing low back pain, I encourage you to give chiropractic manipulation a trial therapy. Manipulation is very safe, and very cost effective.
Yours in Health
Tim Irving DC, MS, LMT, CKTP, GSTM cert, Nutritionist, Hypnotherapist
Optimum Function: 819 SE Morrison St. ste. 215, Portland, OR, 97214
Optimum Function = Optimum Health Resource:
Savigny P, Kuntze S, Watson P, Underwood M, Ritchie G , Cotterell M, Hill D, Browne N, Buchanan E, Coffey P, Dixon P, Drummond C, Flanagan M, Greenough,C, Griffiths M, Halliday-Bell J, Hettinga D, Vogel S, Walsh D. Low Back Pain: early management of persistent non-specific low back pain. London: National Collaborating Centre for Primary Care and Royal College of General Practitioners. Yours in Health,Tim Irving DC, MS, LMTOptimum Function: 819 SE Morrison St. ste. 215, Portland, OR, 97215Optimum Function = Optimum Health
Do You Take Ibuprofen, Tylenol or Any Other Over-The-Counter Pain Reliever?
Well, if you do, you will want to check out the following video:
Please contact me if you take any over-the-counter medications for pin on a regular basis. When taken excessively, they can be harmful to your health and there ARE natural alternatives. In many cases, chiropractic care and manual medicine can decrease the pain substantially.
Click on the Following link for more information on chiropractic and manual medicine care in Portland, Oregon: Dr. Tim Irving, a Portland, Oregon Chiropractor and Nutritionist.
Yours in Health, Tim Irving DC, MS, LMT, CKTP, GSTM cert., Nutritionist, Hypnotherapist Optimum Function: Portland, Oregon, 97214 Optimum Function = Optimum HealthYours in Health,Tim Irving DC, MS, LMTOptimum Function: 819 SE Morrison St. ste. 215, Portland, OR, 97215Optimum Function = Optimum Health
Chiropractic Among Top Rated for Treatment of Back Pain: CBS Video
Here’s a video that talks about back pain, specifically, low back pain plaguing 80-85% of us. Now keep in mind, these numbers were generated from a survey, not a scientific study but we all know low back pain is a HUGE problem. I treat patients with it all the time in Portland, Oregon utilizing chiropractic, cold laser, kinesiotape, graston and other soft-tissue release techniques.
For more info on treating low back pain in Portland, Oregon, click on the following link: Portland, Oregon Back Pain Treatments at Optimum Function
Yours in Health, Tim Irving DC, MS, LMT, CKTP, Nutritionist, Hypnotherapist Optimum Function: Portland, Oregon, 97214 Optimum Function = Optimum HealthYours in Health,Tim Irving DC, MS, LMTOptimum Function: 819 SE Morrison St. ste. 215, Portland, OR, 97215Optimum Function = Optimum Health