Relieve Back Pain Naturally

Are you searching for how to relieve back pain in Brea?

Have you tried pills, patches, and injections without any improvement?

Many of our patients have been suffering for months or years, unable to do the things they love because of debilitating back pain.

Some have been told they “just have to live with it” and can only manage the pain with medications that come with distressing side effects.

Others have been told their only option is invasive surgery – and some have even undergone surgery, only to find their back pain has remained the same, or gotten worse.

Fortunately, one of the most effective treatments for back pain is all natural: no drugs, no surgery, no side effects.

This treatment is endorsed by the American College of Physicians and is backed by decades of scientific research.

It’s also been used for over two thousand years in East Asia to help people live healthy, happy, pain-free lives.

Yes, we’re talking about acupuncture!

Empowered You Acupuncture specializes in acupuncture for chronic back pain.

In our Brea acupuncture clinic, we help people like you resolve chronic low back pain for good and experience a restored quality of life.

Read on to learn why acupuncture is one of the top-rated treatments by physicians for low back pain.

WHAT CAUSES LOW BACK PAIN?

The lower back is the anatomical area beginning under the ribcage and the upper part of the buttocks. It includes the five lumbar vertebrae of the spine.

This area of the body is involved in most kinds of movement. The lumbar spine and its surrounding muscles, tendons and ligaments are what allow your body to turn, twist and bend. It is involved in the motions of standing, walking, and lifting.

Therefore, it’s not surprising that it’s one of the most injured areas of the body!

Low back pain is one of the most common reasons for healthcare visits and one of the leading causes of missed work in the United States.

Common causes of acute low back pain include injury to a muscle (strain) or a ligament (sprain). This often happens due to improper lifting, poor posture, over-exertion or lack of exercise.

These kinds of acute injuries usually go away on their own in a few weeks.

THE MYSTERY OF CHRONIC LOW BACK PAIN

If low back pain persists for 12 weeks or longer, even after an initial injury has been treated, it is considered chronic.

There are many conditions which are often assumed to be the cause of chronic low back pain, including:

· Trauma such as car accidents

· Osteoarthritis of the spine

· Degenerative Disc Disease

· Slipped or Herniated Disc

· Bone fractures

· Autoimmune conditions like Rheumatoid Arthritis or Ankylosing Spondylitis

· In a small minority of causes, there an infection or tumor may cause low back pain

Many of these conditions can be detected with imaging, such as X-rays and MRIs.

However, it is important to note that many cases of low back pain have no identifiable cause.

When no cause can be found for the back pain, it is called “Non-Specific Low Back Pain” or NSLBP.

In Non-Specific Low Back Pain, diagnosis has ruled out all the above conditions.

NSLBP has been considered “a major public health problem worldwide” by researchers.

According to some estimates, up to 85% of all chronic low back pain cases are non-specific.

Even when imaging does reveal problems like degeneration of the spine or disc issues, this doesn’t always provide the answer that many clinicians and patients think it does.

A 2015 systematic review found that image findings of spinal degeneration can be found in many people who do not experience back pain.

The study concluded that spinal degeneration, including bulging or protruding discs, is a normal part of the aging process and is often not associated with any pain.

To summarize, a significant amount of chronic low back pain is not associated with image findings. And a significant number of people with image findings do not experience chronic low back pain.

The same mismatch between image findings and pain is found in research looking at knee pain.

A systematic review published in 2005 found that many people with severe chronic knee pain have normal X-Rays, while many people with X-Rays that show severe osteoarthritis do not have knee pain.

This research suggests that while acute pain tends to have an identifiable anatomical cause, chronic pain often does not.

WHAT CAUSES CHRONIC LOW BACK PAIN?

So, if chronic low back pain often isn’t due to degenerative problems in the spine, what is the real cause?

New research shows that the causes of chronic pain may have more to do with the functioning of the nervous system and the brain than they do with muscles and bones.

Pain is the response of the nervous system to the threat of actual or potential tissue damage.

The sensation of pain is a warning system that signals danger, in the same way that a smoke alarm going off can signal the presence of a fire. It is a necessary response for survival.

However, if the nervous system becomes hypersensitive, it can cause sensations of pain that can persist even after the threat of tissue damage has passed. This accounts for back pain even after an initial injury has healed.

Hypersensitivity of the nervous system can also create a pain response that is disproportionate to the stimulus that triggers it. This can account for the normal wear and tear associated with aging causing severe pain in people with hypersensitive nervous systems.

This hypersensitivity is called central sensitization and it has been identified as a major cause of chronic pain, including chronic back pain.

Central sensitization causes structural, functional, and neurochemical changes in the brain and nervous system that can be measured.

Studies show that patients with chronic low back pain have altered sensory processing.

Chronic low back pain is also associated with changes in gray matter and in regions of the brain such as the hippocampus, which is involved in pain signaling among other functions.

There are many factors that can drive central sensitization, including inflammation, trauma, and stress.

Those last two factors may seem surprising, but emotional pain and physical pain are processed by the same areas in the brain.

Research also shows that people with childhood trauma are more likely to develop chronic pain, and the more severe the trauma, the greater likelihood of developing chronic pain.

To summarize, the latest research suggests that neurological changes affecting pain signaling in the brain are the underlying cause of low back pain when the pain has become chronic.

This is good news, because these changes can be reversed by working with neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to repair and remodel itself.

CONVENTIONAL TREATMENT OF LOW BACK PAIN

Unfortunately, many of the conventional treatments for chronic low back pain do not take the new science of pain into account.

The research is clear: the most prescribed medications for low back pain do not provide substantial relief for most patients, and can have severe side effects.

Opiates have a high potential for addiction and are ineffective for chronic low back pain. One study even found that patients taking opioids for low back pain and osteoarthritis were actually in more pain at 12-months compared to those who were on non-opioid pain relief.

A recent study showed that taking NSAIDs like ibuprofen may actually increase the risk of developing chronic low back pain. And NSAIDs have side effects such as bleeding, inflammation, and ulceration in the stomach and small intestine. A study of over 440,000 people found that using NSAIDs even for short periods of time was associated with a greater risk of heart attack, even in healthy people.

According to a 2021 systematic review, muscle relaxants have been shown to be ineffective for non-specific low back pain.

There is also increasing evidence that steroid injections for arthritis may accelerate degeneration of joints in some patients and that the long term safety of this procedure is questionable.

Surgeries such as spinal fusions have become more common, but because the causes of chronic low back pain are often non-specific, these surgeries can fail to relieve pain. A four year follow up study of surgery vs non-surgery for chronic low back pain found that there was no difference in improvement after surgery.

Given our understanding of the new science of pain, it makes sense why these drugs and surgeries simply do not work for many patients.

Fortunately, there is a safe, effective, non-invasive option for chronic low back pain that addresses the underlying causes of the pain!

ACUPUNCTURE FOR CHRONIC LOW BACK PAIN

The ancient practice of acupuncture is recognized as a cutting-edge, non-invasive medical therapy for managing chronic pain, including low back pain.

Acupuncture is a technique used in East Asian Medicine for activating the body’s self-healing abilities. It has been used by billions of people all over the world for thousands of years to treat many different health conditions.

Acupuncture involves inserting extremely fine, sterile needles in certain nerve rich areas of the skin. Research shows that this regulates pain signaling and releases pain-killing neurotransmitters.

A 2020 neuroimaging study found that acupuncture can effectively reduce pain sensation in patients with chronic low back pain, essentially re-wiring regions in the brain that produce hypersensitivity.

A meta-analysis of over 20,000 patients found that acupuncture was effective for many kinds of chronic pain conditions, including chronic low back pain.

Notably, further study found that the most pain-relieving effects of acupuncture persisted for a year after completing a series of treatments.

This makes acupuncture one of the most effective treatments for chronic low back pain, providing some of the longest lasting relief of any intervention.

A 2015 study looking at noninvasive therapies for chronic low back pain found that acupuncture had the strongest scientific evidence supporting it.

Because of this strong evidence, the American College of Physicians recommends acupuncture as a front-line therapy for chronic low back pain in their most recent practice guidelines.

RELIEVE BACK PAIN IN BREA

If back pain is impacting your daily life, if you haven’t had any success with medication, or you are considering invasive surgery, consider acupuncture first.

Many of our patients find that after a series of acupuncture treatments, their low back pain can be eliminated.

Don’t let chronic low back pain destroy your quality of life!

Lasting relief is possible!

The most effective treatment for low back pain is available to you, right here in Brea.

Call today to schedule a consultation:

(909) 978-7266