Back Pain & Sciatica
Back pain is one of the most common reasons for anybody to visit a medical health professional. It is one of the leading causes of disability and sick leave in the UK. Because we use our back whenever we try to move, pain there can be incredibly debilitating and limit our ability to carry on with our lives.
The good thing to know if that most back pain isn’t serious. 95% of back pain cases get better within six weeks. For some people though back pain can become a recurring issue that causes increasing suffering and disability.
Common causes
Muscle injuries (QL, psoas etc)
Somatic referral
Non-specific aches and pains
Piriformis syndrome
Facet joint irritation
Disc herniation (often referred to as slipped discs)
Nerve root irritation/entrapment (e.g. sciatica, “pinched nerves”)
The first thing is to figure out exactly what is going on. Too often people end up in our clinic after multiple misdiagnoses and months or even years of misguided treatment. We pride ourselves on our thorough initial assessments, and if we’re not sure exactly what is going on, we’re more than happy to refer on to local specialists for further specialist testing.
Once we know what the issue is, we’ll explain everything to you.
What’s going on.
How we can help resolve it.
How has this happened.
How you can prevent this from happening again.
Once you’re confident that you understand what’s going on, we’ll work together on a treatment plan.
Treatment
Treatment can vary and will depend on your specific circumstances and preferences. From the beginning we’ll give you a clear estimate of long it will take and how many sessions it will likely be.
Treatment for back pain might involve hands-on interventions such as massage and spinal manipulation, if deemed necessary and appropriate. Most treatments will involve postural, stretching and strengthening exercises to be carried out at home.
Activity modification is often a requirement in back rehabilitation, with treatment being focussed on gradually re-introducing the most aggravating activities slowly over time. This can be frustrating but we will help you through it!
We’ll always make sure any exercises we recommend are tailored specifically to you and are easy to fit into your daily life.
We’ll also investigate any lifestyle factors that might be contributing to pain and offer suggestions on how to modify them. We might work with you on how to manage stress and its effects, how to manage long days at a desk, or on how to improve your sleep… among others. We’ll look at anything that might be influencing your experience of pain and your ability to recover.
Book now
To get started, you can follow the link below to book online, or to book in a call with one of our therapists to find out some more information.