This is my favorite back pain story to share with patients. It puts into perspective how health problems show up in our life but we’re not sure where they came from. Nonetheless, whether those problems are big or small, there’s almost always a reason.

 

The back pain story has two versions.

The first describes an obvious and known reason for our health problem, like back pain. While the second back pain story denotes a less obvious or more gradual onset of our health problem.

 

If you live in a region with a four-season climate, you’ll get this back pain story for sure. The winter season brings with it freezing and thawing that can cause trouble for our roads. Quite often, that includes potholes. Those potholes are lurking dangers just waiting for our unsuspecting vehicles to come by.

One day, you may be driving down the road and hit one of those potholes. If that pothole is big enough, or your car’s parts are old enough, or some combination of the two, it could come to a disastrous end requiring a tow truck. And, you know it’s going to cost a lot and take too long to fix! A major inconvenience, but so it goes.

 

This kind of cause-and-effect scenario is like walking down the street and stepping into that pothole. You roll over on your ankle and it gets sprained, instant pain! This makes sense to us, and we don’t question what happened or why, and we know it’s going to take a while to get fixed.

 

We’re not happy with the pain or the frustration, but we’re forced to allow our body to heal. Maybe with some treatment and by following the right steps, we can at least speed up the results and ensure a good outcome.

 

This is like lifting something too heavy, lifting something wrong, slipping on the ice and falling, or some other accident that causes back pain. We have a clear idea of what happened and why we’re sore. Then, we must go through the healing process, but we get it.

 

In another relatable back pain story…

You may be driving down the road and you hit one of those potholes. Then you feel the jarring impact, but you keep driving and everything seems OK. To be sure, you give the car a quick steer to the left and right and you don’t feel any issue. So away you go.

 

Months later, you may be driving down the highway and you feel the car pulling to one side or the other, which doesn’t seem right. You take the car to the mechanic, and he finds that you have uneven wear on your tires, so you need the wheels aligned. So you pay the relatively small price for the repair and away you go; everything feels OK again.

 

Until a few months later, the same thing happens again. Back to the mechanic you go. Same story…same repair. Good for another number of kilometers. By the time you go back for the 3rd or 4th time, maybe even after having to replace the tires themselves because of the uneven wear-and-tear, you, and the mechanic, surmise that maybe something else is going on here.

A Chiropractic Story

This Chiropractic Story is a good analogy for back pain.

 

After some investigation…

The mechanic finds that one of the ball joints and/or one of the universal joints in the steering mechanism or tire support system is worn out. The mechanic mentions that you’re lucky that the part didn’t break while you were driving as it could have led to an accident.

 

While some parts may be worn-and-torn over time, you’re thinking the car is not that old. You don’t drive it unreasonably, so how could that part possibly be damaged? Then, somewhere in the back of your mind, you remember the pothole.

 

After hitting the pothole, that part got jarred. It was not bad enough to cause any issues in the moment or completely break the part, but when left there over time with general use, it did stress the part. A stressed part does not function like a healthy part, it is dysfunctional. This affected the alignment of the wheels and led to the uneven wear pattern and the pulling you felt while driving.

 

Now the mechanic replaces the part, fixes the cause and source of the problem. With some regular maintenance you will hopefully never experience that issue again…barring any future potholes!

 

It’s hard to get through life without a few potholes along the way regarding our health. This will likely impact YOUR back pain story. The list of things that can cause negative changes to our parts is extensive.

Here’s just a sampling:

 

  • Falls and tumbles
  • Accidents and injuries
  • Repetitive use and strain
  • Stress and emotional challenges
  • Sports and hobbies
  • Our handedness or dominance
  • Work
  • How we stand and carry things
  • How we sleep or sit and watch TV

 

We then live life on these challenged parts and eventually feel some problem coming into play. We might feel a bit sore or stiff or tired or have hand numbness or foot weakness or…you get the idea. So, we take something or do something to help with the symptom, just like fixing the wheel alignment or changing the tires, so we feel better. However, the problem does not go away. In fact, it often comes back worse if we don’t get to the actual cause or source of the problem soon enough.

 

This kind of outcome is difficult to embrace when it comes to back pain or neck pain. That’s because we expect pain to be the result of something obvious, not cumulative. However, pain can result regardless of force or speed. A broken or damaged part is a broken or damaged part no matter how or why it got that way.

 

As a result, we don’t feel well.

And, we have a choice. To focus on how we feel, or to think about why we feel that way. It may not seem like a big difference, but it can mean a huge difference to your health, quality of life, and longevity.

 

While we do spend time with patients on their first visit trying to uncover all the possible potholes along the way, it is not always something that people can recall. We take that information to heart while we do the examination. That examination reveals to us what parts are not sitting or moving properly. Then, we related those findings to how the person is feeling and/or what they’ve been through.

 

Most often, the areas that are performing the least well directly coincide with problems that the person is feeling. Often enough, there can be dysfunction that doesn’t seem directly related to the person’s symptoms. It’s amazing how the body is connected and trouble in one area that we don’t feel is causing issues we notice in an area that could be otherwise well. These variables and possibilities are extensive.

 

That’s why no two problems are always alike.

Problems, as they are, really do depend on what person has the problem, not what problem the person has. This then also means that the solutions for different people will also be different, even if the symptoms are the same.

 

It’s challenging to get through life unscathed, without hitting a few potholes here and there. While it may be inevitable, it’s what you choose to do when you hit those potholes that can really make a difference. We encourage you to maintain the body that drives you through life so you can handle all the bumps along the way. And when those bumps happen, while we can always do a little DIY to get by, it never hurts to see the “body mechanic” or chiropractor to ensure you can keep on going.

 

*****

Our office is a member of ChiroTrust and has taken The ChiroTrust Pledge:
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“To the best of my ability, I agree to provide my patients convenient, affordable, and mainstream Chiropractic care. I will not use unnecessary long-term treatment plans and/or therapies.”
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Toronto Neck and Back Pain Clinic
1849 Yonge Street #412 Toronto ON M4S1Y2
www.torontoneckandbackpain.com
Consider other aspects of the back pain story at our sister blog site www.DKChiroBlog.com
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