Van Halen's Jump - A Quick Reminder From Your Bad Lower Back

It happens to me all the time. I have a good run with my back where I’m feeling great for a number of weeks and then I test the limits only to receive warning sign from my lower back that something's not right. You know, a shot across the bow signifying that my lower back didn’t like that last move. I’m starting to think that my back has a personality. :-)

Remember the music video for Van Halen’s song Jump? You know the leg kick that David Lee Roth does in the video? Well, my daughter loves to dance and I showed her that move the other day. She got a kick out of it, no pun intended. ;-) My back also got a kick out of it and then proceeded to give me a warning sign. It wasn’t too painful, but boy, my back definitely twinged. I immediately stopped any crazy attempt to mimic David Lee Roth again and took it easy!

The Next Day
Did I throw out my back? Thankfully no, but I was darn close. I visited Dr. Pagano for an adjustment yesterday and explained what I did. I’m pretty confident he hadn’t heard of the Van Halen lower back problem, but hey, there’s a first time for everything. :-) What’s my point? Listen to your back…it typically won’t lie to you. Even though I didn’t feel much pain, if I kept trying to be a rock star after I felt the twinge, I probably would have thrown out my back. Instead, I took it easy and went for a chiropractic adjustment and now I can dance another day.

It seems that I am getting wiser with age! Now rock on with your bad self!

The Patient

The 9 Most Dangerous Actions for Your Bad Lower Back

I thought it would be a good idea to list what I believe are the 9 most dangerous actions (or movements) for your bad lower back. I’m doing this so you won’t make the same stupid mistakes I did! Call it learning from experience. :-)

Counting down from 9 to 1:

9.The Evil Sneeze or Cough
If you’ve got a bad lower back, a sneeze or cough can be your worst enemy. It sounds crazy, but I can always tell who has a bad back by the way people prepare for a sneeze. Some go running to brace themselves against a wall, others bend over while they sneeze, others sit down, and some even need a partner to grab onto. My advice? Definitely figure out how to brace for the sneeze… It doesn’t look too awkward and it truly helps combat the force.

8. Jump Rope
When I first went to see my chiropractor (Dr. Pagano), he asked about my workout routine. I do a lot of circuit training and one exercise I became addicted to was jumping rope. It’s a phenomenal workout…but one that will act like a jackhammer for your bad lower back! It makes sense if you think about it… I would probably get 90-100 jumps per minute in when I got going… If you have a bad lower back, stop jumping rope and start walking on a treadmill instead.

7. The Golf Swing
For people who don’t play golf and think it’s a wimpy sport, the golf swing can be one of the most violent swings for your lower back. Add that most amateurs score around a 100, which means you are twisting and hitting that little white ball with force about 70 times each round. Also add in hitting the ground a bunch of times, forcing the club through the rough, and of course driving the ball with a gigantic, oddly-weighted driver, and you can see how the golf swing can hurt your already damaged lower back…

6. Side Bends
If you have sacrum problems like I do, the side bend can be a brutal exercise. As my condition worsened over the past few years, side bends really irritated my lower back. Solution? Don’t do them. You can do any other type of ab exercise, just don’t do side bends. I haven’t really missed them.

5. Getting into Your Car Too Fast
This was a relatively recent problem for me… I needed to get to the train station fast and ran out the door, opened my car door, and holding my bag (which was about 15 pounds), I entered the driver’s side all at once (with my bag in hand)… I should have placed the bag in the passenger’s seat and then come around to get in. I didn’t and felt my lower back twinge. Luckily, it wasn’t bad, but I never do that anymore…

4. Kicking
One of the worst back pulls I ever had was after playing soccer with my daughter. She thought it was really cool when I kicked the ball as far as I could. So, I proceeded to do this over and over again until I felt my lower back go out… When I walked into Dr. Pagano’s, he could tell by my face that I did something stupid… It took about a week for my back to get better… Thank goodness for chiropractic adjustments.

3. Sitting at Your Desk
You might be saying, “At number 3??” You bet! Many times you are out of alignment as you sit at your desk. You might have your legs crossed, you might be leaning more to one side, and you might be sitting on the edge of your seat, so to speak… Over time, this can really irritate your back. Then, once you successfully irritate your back, sitting in front of your computer can be a horribly painful experience. Actually, read this article about a CEO who built a desk where he stands versus sits because it hurt so bad! Solution? Get up often, stretch, and make sure you catch any bad positioning early enough. i.e. Don’t cross your legs, try and sit straight in front of your computer, etc. Or, build a desk where you can stand. ;-)

2. Twisting or Turning While Holding Weight
This is somewhat similar to “getting into your car too fast”. If you have young kids, then picking up your child and turning with her in your arms can be a killer for your bad lower back. When my daughter was younger, lifting her up and putting her into her car seat would really hurt my back. My chiropractor explained how 30 pounds against your chest could be like 90 pounds away from your body. Then add twisting with 90 pounds, and you get the picture. Solution? I don’t know! You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do… Just try and avoid holding a lot of weight and then turning with it.

1. Digging
OK, this had to be the winner on my list… It was over 5 years ago that I was doing some landscaping and digging all afternoon. Then I felt a serious twinge in my lower left back. That was the beginning of my sacrum problems. Digging, especially forceful digging like I was doing, can throw your back out faster than you can say “Advil”. Solution? Stretch, take breaks often, and then alternate sides when digging. That said, if you have to dig like I had to…there may be nothing that helps avoid the inevitable back pull.

That’s my list…avoid these dangers and you might live to pick up your children another day. :-) If you think I missed something, then add it to the list!

The Patient

Don't Ignore the Warning Signs: Listen to Your Lower Back

If you're not familiar with Movie-a-Minute, they basically boil down a movie into a few lines. It's actually pretty funny to read some of them... Here's the gist of what happened to me recently in Movie-a-Minute style:

My back feels great...Thank you Dr. Pagano.

I naively believe my back is better than it is....

I neglect warning signs that my back is angry.

I don't go for an adjustment.

It gets angry.

I'm in a lot of pain now.

Hello Dr. Pagano.

Whenever I speak with people about my lower back, I'm always asked for advice. This is based on my success with finding the right chiropractor and knowing that my back is much better than it was prior to my first chiropractic adjustment. Well I tell you, this is a constant a learning experience for me.

Here's a good piece of advice based on my latest experience:

Listen to your body. It typically won't lie to you. :)

For over 3 weeks, my back was giving me warning signs that it was getting dangerously close to going out on me. And...I still didn't go for an adjustment. What types of signs?

Here are a few:

1. Twinging back pains. Nothing bad, but my back was letting me know that something was wrong.

2. Having some discomfort after working out (or even when I started working out).

3. My back was a little sore in the morning after waking up.

4. Slight pain when picking up my kids.

Notice how I said "slight" or "a little" or "nothing bad". That's what gets you...

So, if you have lower back trouble and start to feel the warning signs of an angry back, don't ignore them. Go for an adjustment. I ignored the signs, and it didn't work out too well for me. I'm getting better, but I'm not there yet.

The Patient

4 Chiropractic Adjustments, 2 Weeks of Healing, and My Lower Back is Almost Ready to Go!

As I wrote about two weeks ago, I threw my back out again... This was mostly due to stupidly trying to kick a soccer ball as far as I could! Yes, I did something stupid like my chiropractor told me I would eventually do. :-) When I went back to Dr. Pagano after throwing my back out, he explained that my back should heal relatively quickly since I had been doing so well up to that point. Once again, he was right...

I've had four chiropractic adjustments since then and my back has been steadily improving over a two week period. Now I can cut down my chiropractic frequency to once per week and then hopefully get back to once per month. On that note, this time I will make sure to keep it once per month! I definitely pushed it last time and I paid the price!

Golf Season is Approaching
It's supposed to warm up again this week and I plan to start swinging my clubs (with Dr. Pagano's approval of course). If all goes well, I can probably head to the range to hit a bucket of balls. Golf season is right around the corner... and I've got a new Ping G5 Driver in my bag! Can you say "Boom".

The Patient

Throwing My Back Out Again - My Chiropractor Said I Would Do Something Stupid!

So most of you reading this post know that I've come a long way since I started going to Dr. Pagano, my chiropractor in Pennington, right? I've made great strides, my back has felt unbelievably well, and I've started exercising like I did in the past, including jogging. About a month ago, I was explaining to Dr. Pagano that I was really excited about where my back was, since the past 5 years of back pain have been troublesome... He quickly said, although you are doing really well, you will probably do something really stupid and throw out your back again! (of course this was said in a light-hearted way, but I could tell that he had seen this before...)

So here we are a month later and I had to rush to Dr. Pagano this week. Why, you ask? Well, I did something really stupid and threw out my back again! He was right after all... I was playing soccer with my daughter in the backyard and she thought it was really cool when I kicked the ball as far as I could (all the way across our lawn). So, I kept doing it, trying to kick it further and further... Not a good idea. I didn't feel any pain while kicking the ball, but I had a feeling it wasn't going to help my back. After about 9 or 10 heavy duty kicks, we went inside. It was the next morning that I felt a slight pull. Read on.

Traditionally, the bottom left side of my back was the problem. This time, I felt a nagging pain in the bottom right side. Nothing horrible, but my back was letting me know that it was a little angry. The pain was there the entire day. The next day, the pain was still there, but I decided to work out in the afternoon. I didn't jog, but I was using the treadmill as part of my circuit training. It was about 25 minutes in that I felt my entire lower back pull. It reminded me of when I first pulled my back 5 years ago. I stopped immediately, but knew I was in for a rough next week (or longer).

So I visited Dr. Pagano the next day and he aptly said, "I told you so!" (of course this was jokingly said again...) He performed a chiropractic adjustment and my back cracked like I never heard it crack before. He barely had to put any pressure and my lower back was popping and cracking like there was no tomorrow. Anyway, I am now stepping up my visits to him at least for the next few weeks. He believes that since my back has reacted so well over the past few months, that this back pull shouldn't last very long. I'm hoping to feel much better within the next 2 weeks. Let's hope that's the case...

The Patient

The Sacrum - The Source of My Back Problem

I know that I was in the dark for a number of years with regard to the source of my back pain. It wasn't until my chiropractor reviewed my x-rays with me, that I actually saw the source of my back pain, the sacrum. The sacral spine (to be specific) is a triangular shaped bone that is located below the lumbar region of your back. I have included a photo below:




I injured my back when I was doing some landscaping work on my new house about 5 years ago. I felt something pull in the lower left-hand side of my back while digging. The pain wasn't immediate...but I knew something was wrong. It didn't take long for the pain to hit me, just a few hours. And, boy did it hit me! I could barely walk it hurt so bad. After speaking with a lot of people that also have back pain, I have found that many of them also have problems with their lower back, and their sacrum to be specific.

The pain can be easily located (you can point directly to where the pain originates). For me, this is about 2 inches left of the base of my spine. Then there is a shooting pain down my left leg (commonly referred to as sciatica). The sciatica actually hurts more than the origin of the pain!

I tried everything to alleviate the pain, including stretching, icing the area, back exercises, etc. with the hope that my back would heal. 4.5 years later I finally understood that without professional help, it wouldn't heal. That's when I visited my chiropractor for the first time, Dr. Pagano in Pennington New Jersey. I have now been going to Dr. Pagano for 2 full months and I'm amazed at the results so far. My adjustments have really helped my back pain subside and I can do things now that I just couldn't do for the past 4.5 years. Needless to say, I'm extremely happy with my treatment.

So, if you are experiencing pain in your lower back, originating a few inches out from your spine, and you are experiencing sciatica (or pain shooting down your leg), then it very well could be your sacrum that's the issue. It was for me. Don't waste time trying to figure it out on your own...go to an experienced chiropractor and start treatments as soon as possible. Definitely look for a chiropractor that fits your needs, and make sure they come recommended.

Good luck and knock out your back pain!

The Patient

The Impact of Stress on Lower Back Pain

Quick Intro - My wife and I just had our second child last week! Mom and baby are doing great, in case you were wondering. Since this blog documents my chiropractic journey, I wanted to write a post about the effects of stress on lower back pain.

On my last visit to my chiropractor in Pennington prior to our son arriving, Dr. Pagano explained that when the baby arrives, my stress levels will naturally go up and this can impact my back. It's an exciting time, but also one that brings a lot of extra stress. The lack of sleep isn't going to help matters either! So how did my back respond to the added stress? Pretty good, actually. I wasn't completely without pain, but it held up nicely. Even when I slept in the hospital on a makeshift bed, my back felt pretty good.

When we came home from the hospital, the constant running around started to bother my back. I wanted to spend more time with my daughter also, since this was a big change for her, but that also meant more running around with a three year old! Fun, yes, but I'm not 25 years old anymore! So it was about 5 or 6 days in that my back started to feel a little funky. That said, it hasn't been bad and my stretching has really helped matters. I plan to start exercising again soon, so we'll see how the combination of a second child, more stress, lack of sleep, and working out impact my lower back issues. :-)

Here are some quick tips for those of you with bad lower backs who will be experiencing additional stress:

1. Prep before the stress hits! I knew that the baby would arrive soon, so I upped my exercise program and my stretching. I didn't want to be in a situation where I couldn't work out or stretch properly for a few weeks straight.

2. Limit the stress, if possible. Sounds funny, right? What I mean is stay away from additional drivers of stress, when you know that one area will be bringing most of it. For example, if a certain someone special really bothers you, stay away from them until the stress dies down. Then you can handle their hijinks like you normally would.

3. Even if you are tired, keep an eye on activities or movements that will bother your back. For me in the past, lying a certain way or bending a certain way could throw out my back. I haven't had that issue in a while now, but I was conscious of this during the high stress time. You might be able to catch something before it negatively impacts your back.

In closing, the stress only slightly impacted my bad back, especially since I followed the tips I mentioned above. Above all, stretching and keeping an eye on bad form really seemed to help.

Good luck.

The Patient

What is a Chiropractic Adjustment?

I've received a lot of questions about the name of my blog and what an actual chiropractic adjustment is, so I decided to address it formally in a post. First, I will explain my non-expert description and then I will give you a formal definition and some links to more reading.

A Chiropractic Adjustment from a Patient's Perspective:
When I went in to see my chiropractor for the first time, I was experiencing extreme pain in my lower back. I learned that your spine moves in three dimensions and that there are bundles of nerves that travel down and out the spine at various points. It doesn't take much pressure to cause pain, actually Dr. Pagano placed two quarters on the top of my hand and explained the slight weight I was feeling would cause the pain I had at that time... Any more pressure and I'd be in the emergency room!

So, when your spine is out of alignment, which can be caused by a number of factors, like trauma, stress, etc., you can feel pain. My trouble is in my lower back (my sacrum to be exact). In my x-ray, it looked slightly tilted. I need it to be straight, not tilted...so how do you accomplish this? Enter the adjustment. Through a series of manual procedures, my chiropractor aligns my spine with the hope that over time, the alignment will take hold. My muscles essentially are prohibiting my spine from staying properly aligned, since my back has been out of whack for over 4 years...

The adjustment doesn't take long, typically under 10-15 minutes and you will be amazed how you feel after it. Like I have said in previous posts, I get up and the pain is typically gone... It's not until some time later that it starts to creep back in, but again, it's going to take time for my spine to stay properly aligned. Yes, you here cracks and pops, and it's scary to hear that, but it's not painful at all. You definitely start to wonder what's going on, but after a few visits, you don't even think about it. I have seen incredible results so far and there is no way it could have happened without these manual procedures being performed.

Chiropractic Adjustment from a Professional's Perspective:
Here's a good definition I found on About.com:
An adjustment is a procedure performed by a chiropractor that "influences joint and neurophysiological function"1. An adjustment uses leveraged force, combined with direction, amplitude and velocity to effect a therapeutic change in specific anatomical regions, particularly spinal joints.

More links:
ChiroWeb Definition of the Adjustment:
http://www.chiroweb.net/chiropractic/adjustment.html

Wikipedia Entry for Spinal Adjustment:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinal_adjustment

Answers.com:
http://www.answers.com/topic/spinal-adjustment

Taking on the Driving Range - Back Pain vs. The Golf Swing

As I mentioned in my last post about lower back pain, my New Jersey based chiropractor (Dr. Vito Pagano) said that based on my improvement, I could even try out the golf range. For anyone who has golfed before, you know that the golf swing is a pretty intense motion, especially for someone with lower back pain. Over the 4 years my back has given me trouble, the day after golfing has been painful. So, how did my back do, now that I've been going to a chiropractor for a month? EXTREMELY WELL! Read on.

I hit a bucket of balls at Pennington Golf Center with almost no back pain at all. I hit my wedges, long irons, and even my driver, which is a longer, more powerful swing that would typically give me back trouble. I streteched my back out prior to going to the range and then after. The next morning would be the big test...that's typically when I would really feel the pain. I woke up and had no lower back pain! I was amazed. My sides were sore, but that had nothing to do with my back, that's just the typical "I haven't hit golf balls in a few months" soreness that goes away pretty quickly.

A few days later, and I still have no after effects from the range. You better believe I'm going to keep up my visits to Dr. Pagano.

More to come.

The Patient

Move Over Back Pain! -- Finally a Painless Night...

I've been going to Dr. Pagano for about a month now and I couldn't be happier. I finally had a night without back pain. Typically I would turn over and it felt like someone was driving a dagger into my lower back (which would wake me up to say the least!) Ever since I threw my back out, I've been experiencing acute back pain in the middle of the night, only to wake up to a stiff back. The stiff back would take a while to warm up and then I would be ok. That is until recently!

I've been going to my chiropractor (Vito Pagano) twice per week and I just learned today that I can cut that down to once per week! My back is doing extremely well and I couldn't be happier. Heck, Dr. Pagano even told me that I can go to the driving range this weekend! How's that for a person who could barely get out of bed a month ago!!

This is the best my back has felt in 4 years. I'm eager to see how much more it can improve during the upcoming months.

I'll keep you posted.

The Patient

Enough is Enough...Find Me a Pennington Chiropractor

It's 6AM on a Monday morning. I've got a lot to do today...a lunch with a business associate, three projects that I'm leading for my company, and my daughter's almost three (so for the parents out there reading my post, you know how tiring that can be!)

I go to get up from bed and the pain I feel is extraordinary. Yes, this is a nagging back issue that I've had for years, but today is different...it's more acute, more extreme, and the pain is so bad, I feel it might actually impact my life. I'm a little nervous.

I push myself and get out of bed, walking like an old man towards the kitchen. It will get better, right? The pain will subside... I think. It doesn't...not yet anyway. I eat breakfast. My back is still killing me. I check email. My back gets worse. OK, I've had enough!

TODAY IS THE DAY I CHOOSE NOT TO BE IN PAIN ANYMORE!! I turn to my wife and say, "Remember when you told me to go to a chiropractor? Well, get the phone numbers out! I've had enough pain."

Five years ago, I pulled my back while working in my yard. I had no kids at the time, I worked out 4-5 times per week, and I was in great shape. I thought the back pain would go away over time, but it kept coming back. Typically, once per month I would feel some type of back pull (sometimes bad, sometimes mild), but it always reminded me that it was there...

So I called my primary care physician and asked for a referral. The call came a few hours later and with no hesitation, the nurse told me, "Dr. Vito Pagano, a Pennington Chiropractor who is so good at what he does, some of us even go to him! You will be in good hands." OK, Dr. Pagano, I'm going to give you a shot to fix my ailing back! After looking through the listings of Hopewell Chiropractors, Pennington Chiropractors and Princeton Chiropractors, I'm glad my doctor could offer some guidance.

So my story begins...

The Patient