How does adjusting my neck help my low back pain?

The top two reasons why people go to see a chiropractor is for neck pain and back pain. I help people with neck pain and back pain every day, but sometimes it is hard for people to understand why I am adjusting the top of their neck if the pain is in their low back.

If you think of your spine as a building, it is very important that the top of the building is stacked properly to support the weight. If the top of the building is off-balance then the bottom of the building and the structure in the foundation will suffer. It will not be able to withstand lots of external stressors like wind or rain or weight.

When people go to what I like to call a “traditional chiropractor”, they get their back cracked and it feels good for a short while but then the pain ends up coming back. Very often the reason why this happens is because they are not truly correcting the problem. The problem is that the structure is off-balance at the very top which is leading to weakness and imbalance in the lower back. When we focus on aligning the structure from the very top (the atlas bone), the body is getting aligned from the top down in a way that lasts a lot longer. Sometimes we do adjust the lower back, but that is only after we have adjusted the top and things are stable. Otherwise we find that we are often wasting our time adjusting the low back because the pain will usually come back if there is an imbalance at the top.

People who come to our office with low back pain are often surprised when they feel better after getting adjusted at the top of their neck. But it makes sense that when you balance things from the top they are more stable and functional at the bottom. This might sound familiar to you if you are going to a chiropractor and getting adjusted in your low back but only feeling better for a couple of days. The same explanation applies to hip pain, knee pain, ankle pain, even shoulder pain. If the structure is not aligned at the very top then it is almost impossible that it will be aligned lower. We have to start at the top to truly correct the structural issue. This is why patients who see us at our office get results that are much longer lasting and effective.

If you would like to further discuss your situation and see if our office is a good fit for you, please give us a call and we would be happy to schedule you for a complimentary consultation. Our phone number is 303-425-4444.