What do arches, columns, and chronic low back pain have to do with one another?  Well everything of course.

A simple understanding of these structures allows you to understand why you are living with low back pain.

What does chronic low back pain have to do with Greek columns and arches? Everything, of course.

While here in the northern Colorado, Fort Collins area, you may struggle to see the Greek parathion, or the Golden Gate bridge, our Fort Collins Loveland readers don’t have to go to far for a graphical depiction of a column or an arch. Just look at the bridge you drove over on your way to work and more often than not, you can see a depiction of both these structures.

Your low back pain often times is caused by a loss of the normal curvature in your low back.  This curve when present is supposed to function like an arch.

Arches by their nature, share weight from anchor point to anchor point, evenly distributing the force that is being placed upon them.  That is good news for those of us without low back pain, as it is likely that our lumbar spine has its normal curvature and is spreading the force of our body throughout it.

But what happens when the arch that should be there isn’t? Your low back begins to act more like a column than an arch, often times resulting in degeneration of discs, disc bulges, and disc herniation, and always low back pain.

Remember, an arch shares the force that is being placed upon it throughout the entire structure, while a column transfers the mass that it is supporting straight down.

L4 and L5 are "low man on the totem pole"

That means whoever the low man on the totem pole is, or whoever is at the bottom of the column is taking all of the stress.  In low back pain sufferers, that low man is usually your L4 and L5 disc.

And where is the most common area of lumbar injury?  You guessed it! The bottom of your low back.

There is a reason why your low back pain exists commonly at the belt line–because that is where your body has become ineffective in its transfer of your mass, and this inefficiency results in advanced degeneration of soft tissues, discs, and muscles, resulting in low back pain.

The good news is there is help for patients from Northern Colorado, Fort Collins, Loveland, Greeley.

Our unique combination of therapies at Spine Correction Center of the Rockies allows us to address this root cause of many a low back pain case.  The key rests in not only facilitating healing of the herniated or degenerative discs, but in re-educating and retraining the lumbar musculature to support the normal arch structure that should exist.

We specialize in reactive training exercises, spinal manipulation, and botanical injections that can allow the brain to relearn how your low back should work!

Need more help understanding your low back pain? Contact us anytime for further explanation and understanding.