you probably understand the importance of maintaining health and fitness throughout your life. Whether you enjoy running, weightlifting, or playing kickball with your kids, you likely know that injuries can occur and proper treatment is essential for a full recovery.
One of the most common areas of pain we treat here at Natural Wellness is the low back. Multiple studies have shown that 80 percent of adults will experience low back pain at some point in their lives. That’s a huge number of folks.
So, hypothetically speaking, let’s say you have low back pain. It doesn’t matter if it’s a new injury or chronic pain you’ve been struggling with for years. You just got an MRI on the advice of your family physician. It shows a mild disc herniation in your low back. FINALLY. Your back pain is solved. Right? Well, not quite.
The truth is a large portion of the population is walking around with a disc herniation right now AND they have NO pain.
So, what does this mean? Well, while imaging (MRI, x-rays, etc.) can be a great tool to rule out some big scary stuff, oftentimes the pain you are experiencing has nothing to do with what might show up on your images. Imaging is not always necessary and can sometimes lead us down a long frustrating treatment path full of injections and unnecessary surgeries.
Here’s why:
That MRI is not able to show us all the muscle weaknesses, inflammation, and mobility deficits that are actually causing your pain.
It’s also important to note that pain is multifactorial. Increased pain does not equal tissue damage. Things like poor nutrition, lack of sleep, emotional stress, etc. all impact our body’s perception of pain.
So, before you go get a series of injections or that potentially unnecessary surgery to solve a “problem” that’s not actually causing your pain… give us a call or text! (316-290-9158)
We even offer free 20-minute discovery sessions. We care about your goals and want to get you back to doing the activities you love, pain-free.