Back Pain - Body Tilting?

Question

I have suffered from back pain for years now, the pain can be excrutiating. I have permanent pain, but when it gets particularily bad my upper body tilts to the left.

It is quite a severe tilt and I cannot straighten up. The pain is in the base of the spine and travels down my right buttock. Driving or sitting makes it worse.

Do anyone know what the condition could be and what the treatment options are. My doctor just gives me painkillers and valium to relax the muscles - Im only 30 and dont want to put up with this any longer, it has been like this since I as 20 but has gotten worse in the last year.

I am awaiting an MRI scan - but have no idea how long the waiting list is

Answer 1

I am an LMT and Neuromuscular Therapist and I specialize in treating chronic pain and postural distortion.

I approach any situation like yours with the mindset of, "what's the simplest cause and solution to this person's problem?". Here's a basic physiological law: Muscles move bones, bones NEVER move muscles. You've identified that you lean to the left. Muscles have put you in that position either because the muscles in your back are tighter on the left side or that is a compensation for another issue.

Diagnoses such as "pinched" nerves, spondylitis, spondylosis, spondylolisthesis and Sciatica are over-used and typically NOT the cause of conditions like yours. In my experience, supported by numerous studies, I find that most pain is caused by dysfunction in the body's soft tissues, primarily muscles.
Hypertonic (overly tight) muscles in the low back such as the quadratus lumborum and erector spinae will cause the pelvis to tilt and your body to lean either to the left or right. Hypertonic gluteuls or deep hip muscles often cause pain patterns that mimic Sciatica or refer pain into the low back. Certain postures, like prolonged sitting, will cause these already tight muscles to spasm even more. The spine and pelvis only go where muscles take it. Bone wedges, orthotics, cortisone, special shoes and surgery are bandaids and do not address WHY you have this condition in the first place.

In a case like yours the pelvis is probably tilted as well which causes you to lean to the side as a compensation. A tilt is caused either by muscular imbalances or one leg being slightly shorter than the other. I find leg-length inequality to be a fairly common cause of conditions like yours. A short leg causes the pelvis to tilt and the muscles to compensate by tightening. Anytime your body deviates off a balanced, efficient posture it forces your muscles to counteract the imbalance by tightening. Your muscles are not designed to be under constant load (contraction) and if they are forced into sustained overload they ALWAYS become painful. This pain can feel like nerve pain or damaged vertebral discs, but these things are symptoms, not the cause, of the pain.

Medications do not "fix" anything, they only mask the pain while the cause remains untreated. Every person's pain and postural distortion has a cause, it doesn't happen "just because".

My recommendation is to seek out a professional trained to identify why you are leaning to one side and have the symptoms you do. Neuromuscular Therapists and Rolfers are highly trained practitioners who look at postural distortions and muscular compensations that cause pain. They will be able to get you back in balance and pain free.

Start with the simplest solution. Find the cause, don't chase symptoms!

Answer 2

Yes, Shannette probably got it right. The trapping of nerve in the vertebrae makes for pain all the way down to the big toe. Mine has been torturing me for over 3 years and no analgesic or any other treatment gives relief. Unlike you, I can get free from pain when sat in my car driving, so that's what I do. To bring pain on stand up or walk a few metres, to reduce it sit or lie still for ten minutes. Or as now sit and get on Yahoo! Answers for a while. That's life.
However a new treatment is out, available in UK privately and maybe on the NHS. It's called "The X-Stop" procedure - a titanium wedge placed between the trapping bones of the spine. This opens the space to allow the nerve freedom. Op is done with a local anaestheic by neuro-surgeon and you go home the day after, so I'm told, painfree and life-changed. Best wishes.

Answer 3

I have had very similar excrutiating pain,I have had several scans including a cat scan.They say I have a fractured vertabrae and that the spine is collapsing on to it causing me to have a bend in my spine.They still have not found what is causing it and I have to have yet another MRI scan.So I do sympathise with you because I know how bad the pain is,I could not lie down for about 10months.I hope you get help soon.

Answer 4

Hi this could be a number off things,siacitica,slipped disc,or nerve problems.Go to your gp and get him to refer you to the pain clinic in your local hospital,im under this for my bck and there really good and undersatanding.They will offer alot off treatments including a MRI scan,these scans can take mths before you get an appt,your GP would of wrote to the dept and either put non urgent or urgent so this all depends what he wrote in the referral letter.Perhaps going bck to your GP and asking him to wrote another referral letter marked as urgent,you can do this i did and i didnt wait that long.Good Luck.

Answer 5

i have had this problem for years too, since i was 29 and i went to a brilliant chiropractor/osteopath in droitwich, i have never looked back and also i have never spoken to anyone else who has suffered the same symptoms so this has come as quite a shock, my diagnosis is spondolosis/spondiltus of the spine, plus a few other small complaints.......if i hadn't been treated by her she said i could have ended up in a wheelchair..... good luck my friend...at first i visited this chiropractor once a week for 6 weeks, now i visit once a year......

Answer 6

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Answer 7

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Answer 8

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Answer 9

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Answer 10

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