back problems

My lower back and knee on my left side of my body has been hurting the last couple of months, I went to a Chiropractor a few days ago. He did some adjustments, he told me that he recommends that I do his Non Surgical Spinal Decompression. It is expensive but if it helps I would do it, my question is has anybody here had this treatment and did it help?

Liz

Hi Liz,

A thought on an alternative remedy. I've solved a lot of pain issues for myself & others by applying the myofascial trigger point release concept.

I wrote about it 11 years ago here. (since the link is old, some links may be broken, I can update if required.) This is a list of possible trigger points involved in lower back pain. In my case, it is commonly trigger points in the Rectus Abdominis or Iliopsoas. Depends on where it is for knee pain.

I studied this starting in 2006 to help my wife. I'd had a knee pain in both knees behind the knee cap for around 10-12 years. It had stopped me from skiing. Found out it could be trigger points in some transverse muscles in my inner thigh. I worked very hard on those points for a number of weeks before I got lasting relief, but it did work. I still have to do work on this sometimes, but infrequently unless I'm doing deep squats. I then learned to address pain in many places on the body. A good reference is this book.

Best,

George

Thanks George:

Lot to read, I am going to get the book. The Chiropractor I am going to doesn't seem to be helping very much. Dr. Brownstein told me to take a supplement that he has devised, called Limbex, I am taking that now but it will probably take a little time. Did you ever go to a Chiropractor?

With my knee problems about 10 years ago, after i went to an ortho surgeon i decided to see a podiatrist. He made shoe inserts for me and that solved my knee pain problem.
With my lower back pain and many Chiro/Osteopath visits - they all helped but only for a limited time; i went to Physio and she gave me a set of exercises - they fixed my lower back pain which was at times bad enough to wake me up during the night.
When i get lazy and don't do them for a while the back problem returns. Resuming the exercises makes it all ok again.
Should you be unlucky and have undue wear/arthritis then of course certain exercises might even make your problem worse?
Wishing you a speedy solution!

Quote
Elizabeth
Did you ever go to a Chiropractor?

I went once or twice in the 1980's, but not for the knee issues I posted about. They occurred later.

My then wife (we remain good friends today) had spondylolisthesis, an offset of her lowest lumbar vertebra. She'd done many things. An ortho doc wanted to operate, but she avoided that. After I learned to fix my knee issues (which felt like pain behind the kneecap, but were actually referred pain from several thigh muscles), I learned to help her with her issues. In her case the spondylolisthesis predisposed her to pain, but much of the pain came from trigger points in the psoas muscles and the glutes. When I released those, her pain diminished dramatically. After I released the Tp's, she then worked very hard to strengthen her core muscles around the gut and spine. She maintains that to this day and is relatively pain free. Certainly she'd never consider surgery now. I've helped many others with shoulder, knee, elbow, back and other pain. Sorry about the volume of material. When I go down a rabbit hole, I explore thoroughly

I had my own practice till I retired ten years ago and studied all forms of physical therapy. The best (most successful) therapy is the Maitland Technique. It is also a relatively gentle technique which is important for those of us who are getting on bit!

See if you can find a practitioner near you.

Sam

Sam:

I don't fine any one that used the Maitland Technique near me---I live in Michigan, sounds like a good technique. Thanks for your post.

Liz

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