Spinal Clinic “There are three certainties in life: death, taxes and low-back pain.” Up to 90% of all adults experience back problems and back pain is a leading cause of doctors' office visits, hospitalisation, surgery and work disability. In the US alone, the annual combined cost of back-pain related medical care and disability compensation is estimated at $50 billion, or about £35 billion. Spinal pathologies treated at Brandworks include stenosis, spondylolisthesis, discectomy, laminectomy/otomy, lumbar interbody fusion, disc replacement, herniation. “Fantastic. Can now put my own socks on!” “Thought I’d never be able to play sport again.” ” Thank you and thank you again.” “Back to laying bricks. Thanks a lot!!” “I was booked in for back surgery. I could hardly move for the pain. Ben got my pain down to such a manageable level the operation was cancelled and I can now play tennis again.” “I have been for numerous treatments for years. Ben identified my condition immediately and after treatment I haven’t been to a chiropractor or osteopath since.” “As a hairdresser I have suffered back pain due to my work and faced the possibility of having to change careers, taking daily nurofen and weekly chiropractor visits. Ben cured my back, I now sleep all night, can get out of bed in the morning and even look better!” For successful management and permanent pain relief, your condition/pathology must be identified and then corrected or your pain will continue or even worsen, going from acute to chronic, leading to specific processes with surgery often being the end result. Many cases of back pain/spinal pathology can be treated and managed with corrective exercise techniques. Corrective exercise can enable you to get your pain down to manageable, often negligible levels, thereby often negating the need for a surgery. For those undergoing surgery, post operative recovery is up to 4 times faster if you begin your management in advance of your operation. Of those whom suffer with back pain, many do so on a recurring basis, finding temporary relief in treatment from osteopaths and chiropractors only to suffer again and so book another appointment. This cycle often repeats itself for many years, how many times have you been referred to a friends practitioner because “they are excellent and have been going (to them) for years”. You must either accept this contract as a lifelong one, or opt to be rid of pain and negate the need for repeat treatments. Your condition may even be aggrevated by your treatment. It is known fact that if the musculature are not re-educated following manipulation, there will be nothing more than temporary relief. Your pain will recur and the situation will not improve. Back pain will affect over 90% of us during our lifetime. For those looking to avoid incidents of back pain and/or injury, damage to the vertebral column occurs most commonly in the transverse plane of movement (twisting), at the L4/5 and L5/S1 level. You need to ensure good working biomechanics and strength when operating in this plane of motion. The term core conditioning is used frequently and somewhat erroneously today in training applications; core strength refers to the degree of muscular control exerted by the core muscles to stabilise the spine during movement. In recent years, studies among the general population have demonstrated that training and strengthening these muscles not only improves the function and mobility of back pain sufferers, but also reduces the risk of re-injury. However, core strength training isn’t simply about doing some exercises on a swiss ball. For some, using a swiss ball could actually be the wrong technique. Furthermore, many individuals suffer from sensory motor amnesia (the loss of ability to engage specific musculature), particularly those with back conditions. For these individuals any exercise and indeed most movement, without establishing consciousness, re-education and integration of such musculature into the kinetic chain, will exacerbate their condition. We all operate on centrally generated motor patterns, that is to say we recruit from the core out. Your transverse abdominus (TVA) fires approximately 30-50 milli seconds before your prime movers fire – providing your TVA is working. Many peoples aren’t! Your TVA must be active for all of your stabalisation mechanisms, the bodies natural systems that protect the spine, to be effective. Want to become pain free and start moving with confidence again? For an assessment and multi-disciplinary management approach to your spinal pathology, call to make an appointment for a no obligation informal chat. Before you commit to any treatment you should be sure the service on offer is the one for you. You are invited to call any client for a reference, contact us for details. Rehabilitation/Postural Correction Many of us are not functioning optimally. That is to say we often suffer from postural misalignment that will result in less than perfect performance, discomfort and/or injury, because the human body operates most efficiently from perfect skeletal alignment and muscle balance.If you are imbalanced you are wasting valuable energy, energy that should be channeled into better performance. Furthermore, you will eventually suffer injury. You may well be suffering from a recurring injury, or have you a particular weak area you once injured and are never 100 percent sure of? Your musculoskeletal system is very probably imbalanced and needs correcting. An example of this is a common runners complaint, an injured hamstring. This is often caused by weak lower abdominals, inability to stabalise the pelvis, tight rectus femoris and short and tight quadratus lumborum and lumbar erectors. All this will cause an anterior pelvic tilt (tipping forward of the pelvis) and so the body must be pulled back into line. If your therapy only treats the acute injury, that is the inflamed hamstring, you are going to become injured again. Therapy should always focus on the etiology to prevent re-injury. Such a case needs a comprehensive rehabilitation programme including strengthening the weak and addressing the facilitated musculature. Furthermore, anterior pelvic tilt is a very common condition and leads to pronation of the foot. Plantar fasciitus, achilles tendonitis, shin splints and chondromalcia patella are all symptoms of pronation of the foot thereby showing the importance of correct postural alignment in order to avoid such conditions. So, if you want to run faster, jump higher, punch harder and avoid injury you will need to be as posturally perfect and balanced as is possible. Book your assessment