(Lower Back Pain Continued)

appointment with a health professional that they know. Usually it is their family doctor. Heir doctor will usually diagnose them, but refer them to a specialist for treatment. The specialist is usually either an orthopedist of a neurologist depending on the person’s symptoms. After doing X-rays and an MRI, the special is going to prescribe either one, some, or all of the following depending on how long it takes to see results; anti-inflammatories and rest, an epidural shot, physical therapy, or worst case scenario surgery.

I cringe whenever I hear this story from a new visitor that enters my office. With so many advances in medicine and the deeper understandings that we gain about the individual body, I find it hard to accept that more professionals have not done more to identify the actual source of their patient’s low back pain. Not being a doctor, I don’t make any claims to being an expert in certain diagnoses and I have the utmost respect for what surgeons are capable of. However, when it comes to identifying the underlying source of chronic pain I believe that most conventional healthcare professionals are missing the boat. I don’t say this to challenge anyone’s expertise. I know that people go to school for years to gain their knowledge and my statements can be taken as a blow to their ego. But as an expert in the mechanics of the human body, my eye is acutely trained to see what many specialists miss by focusing on just one area.

When I see a client, I am looking at the whole mechanism to identify any muscle imbalances and joint misalignments that have contributed to their low back pain. One diagnosis I hear a lot is that the client has a bulging disc. Once the bulging disc is identified, many specialists