Mid Back Pain Treatment – A Ramsey, NJ Chiropractor’s Perspective

As you can imagine, our technology-based lifestyles may be big contributors to mid-back pain. The longer you sit at a computer, use your phone, or look at a tablet or e-reader, the more likely you are to slouch, causing your mid-back to go into a state of tension. Add in poor sleeping positions and it’s just another log on an already burning fire.

The key to solving mid-back pain is to make sure there is good motion and a proper posture. This is where our specialty lies within chiropractic – restoring your range of motion, building your strength, and addressing your spinal alignment to make it as neutral as possible for the long term.

How We Treat Mid Back Pain in Ramsey, NJ

When it comes to mid-back pain, it’s important to find the root cause, not just the daily aggravators. Our protocol consists of:

Comprehensive Consultation and Exam

We’re going to sit down with you to dig into your history, as many clues about your mid-back pain come from that discussion. It’s a two-way conversation, as we’re listening intently but providing feedback along the way. During the exam portion, we’ll check things like your mid-back’s range of motion, neck and lower body muscle strength, and perform several orthopedic and neurological tests to see where you are compared to normal. This helps us identify exactly how your mid-back pain is affecting your overall health.

Computerized Posture Analysis

Your neutral standing posture is one of our most important tools to analyze where your mid-back pain is coming from. We take pictures of you from front and side, and by placing digital reference points on your pictures we can see in seconds where your body is under the most stress from poor posture. Most people are amazed as to what they really look like!

Digital X-Rays

We use the most up-to-date technology both when taking and analyzing X-rays to know exactly what we are dealing with before we start care. There are three main things we are looking for in your mid-back X-rays: degeneration, disc spacing, and how far your alignment is from normal alignment.

In the mid-back specifically, we look to see how exaggerated the curvature looks at you from the side (kyphosis), or the back (scoliosis). We know the normal angles and positions of the bones, and we match your X-rays up to those normals to evaluate the strength of your spine.

Once we have evaluated all of the information, we then choose from several therapies, depending upon your condition:

Specific Chiropractic Adjustments

At its core, the spine wants to be neutral. When bones are out of their normal position (sometimes one in a section of your spine, sometimes several), the result is a gradually weakening posture and pressure on the nerves between the bones. By reducing the misalignments in those areas, the spine gets more freedom of motion, allowing its function to improve. We find that improving this alignment with chiropractic adjustments can be significant in reducing the frequency and intensity of mid-back pain.

Custom Therapeutic Exercise Plan

Trying to recover from mid-back pain can’t fully occur if there is muscle weakness or imbalance. If your muscles have been fighting a bad posture for many years (maybe even exaggerated by long hours at a computer, driving, or sitting), getting them strong is a priority.

There are several muscle groups in the mid-back, each with a specific function for flexibility, strength, and posture. You can’t get stronger if you’re a concrete block; therefore, we start by increasing flexibility. Once your range has improved, we then can focus on building your strength. It takes consistency, so we give you a customized exercise plan for both in-office and at home to make sure you’re able to keep aggravating episodes to a minimum, both in frequency and intensity.

Home Care

Keep this in mind: GRAVITY ALWAYS WINS. Your job is to let it win as little as possible for as long as possible. The more you can teach the brain and body to not slouch, stay strong and not fall into a bad position, the more you’ll beat gravity pulling your mid-back down and creating that over-arch that your grandmother had. We’ll give you specific recommendations based on your spine’s shape to ensure strength for years to come.

Electrical Muscle Stimulation

In the initial stages of care, we are looking to reduce muscle spasms and tension in the mid-back. Electrical muscle stimulation is used to accelerate that process, allowing you to feel better and alleviate the stiffness often associated with mid-back pain. Most people say e-stim feels like a light massage and often comment how much looser they feel when it’s done.

Posture Rehabilitation

If your mid-back pain improves but your posture is still poor, the likelihood of having relapses is high. Putting in a plan to create and stabilize good, strong posture is your key to having the longest-lasting results. We’ll utilize various forms of therapy to put your posture in the “mirror image” – essentially, the exact opposite posture that you currently have. (Let’s face it – that posture isn’t helping you, or you wouldn’t have mid-back pain!)

By performing mirror image exercises and traction, your body will gradually learn what “correct” posture is. Each time in-office and at home that your body goes into the mirror image, it’s another signal to the brain, your bones, and your muscles to dump the old, bad patterns and create new, stronger patterns. This may be the most overlooked aspect of mid-back pain – there’s no way a weak posture can help you get better.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture can help remove negative energy and restore positive energy throughout your body. By focusing on specific points and zones in your body, endorphins (the “feel-good” hormones) get released, and that triggers a positive response throughout the body.

Acupuncture has been used for both acute and chronic mid-back pain and can be very beneficial, either on its own or in conjunction with chiropractic and postural rehabilitation.

Supplements and Other At-Home Remedies

Depending on the cause of your mid-back pain, certain nutritional supplements may be worthwhile. However, each case is different, which means your nutritional recommendations may be quite different than someone else you know with mid-back pain. We’ll often recommend certain topical gels or ointments to relieve muscle tension and reduce pain. Some of our recommendations can even be purchased in your local grocery store or health food store.

Lifestyle Changes

Given that we’re working for 8-10 hours a day and sleeping 6-9 hours, whatever posture you’re in had better be right for that amount of time! It’s important that you know how to sleep, how to bend and lift, and how to sit at your computer. It’s just as important to know what not to do. Sometimes simple shifts make the biggest differences, and that’s especially true when it comes to your daily habits. We’ll make sure you know what those shifts are to avoid injury and get the best results in our office.

Common Causes of Mid Back Pain in Ramsey, NJ

Mid-back pain comes in many different styles. Remember, mid-back pain is common, but not normal. Here are a few of the ones we see most frequently:

Spinal Misalignment

When the bones of the mid-back are misaligned, it results in pressure on the nerves of the spine. This can be caused by poor posture with sitting, sleeping, or standing, and depending on the location and severity of the misalignment can even contribute to additional issues such as digestive issues, shallow breathing, or heart palpitations.

You can likely spot some aspects of your own poor posture in a mirror but identifying spinal misalignment can be subtle and difficult to detect on your own. A combination of specific chiropractic adjustments, exercise, and lifestyle changes are just some of the ways to help recover and restore poor posture.

Disc Problems

Discs are like shock absorbers between the bones of the mid-back. Think of them like jelly donuts, with a thick outside (“annulus”) and a soft, gel-like inside (“nucleus”). Discs wear down and dehydrate over time and frequently cause two stages of problems – bulging discs and herniated discs.

In a bulging disc, the thick outer fibers begin to tear, and the soft gel inside takes the path of least resistance to get out. This causes mid-back pain and can sometimes radiate to the buttock or leg. With a disc herniation, the outer fibers tear more and the “nucleus” breaks through the outermost fibers. This frequently causes more buttock and leg pain (often going into the foot) and more intense mid-back pain. Surgery may be necessary if it doesn’t improve, which is why it’s so important to fix it early.

Degenerative Disc Disease

This is an age-related condition where the discs break down at a faster rate than normal. Certain factors speed this process up, such as obesity, smoking, and work that is physically hard on the spine.

When the disc starts to get thinner, the hole where the nerve exits the bones above and below gets smaller, causing that sensitive nerve to reduce how well it works. Depending on what areas are affected, it can have significant effects on not only your range of motion but overall health. Unfortunately, this process can’t be reversed, but it can be slowed with increased motion and restoration of good posture.

Muscle Strain

Muscle strains are characterized by dull, achy pain that gets deeper and more intense with movement, usually in one particular direction. The pain is often localized to the mid-back alone. They’re frequently caused by some sudden activity, such as bending or lifting something heavy. They can also be chronic, resulting from repetitive motion, poor posture, or weak core muscles.

A muscle strain can be a symptom of something else; that’s why we go deep you’re your history to determine any other hidden causes. Muscle strains will often resolve themselves over time but it’s important to fix them as early as possible so they don’t become chronic areas of weakness.

Frequently Asked Questions About Mid-Back Pain

When should you see a chiropractor for mid-back pain?

There’s no wrong time to see a chiropractor for mid-back pain. Whether it has been going on for a short time or chronically for years, an evaluation of your spine and overall posture will benefit you at any point.

Is a massage or chiropractic better for mid-back pain?

Massage will typically be helpful in the acute stage of mid-back pain. Chiropractic can be very effective for both acute mid-back pain and finding the underlying causes of chronic mid-back pain as well.

How does a herniated disc feel?

Herniated discs are often very painful, especially if they were caused by an acute injury. Herniated discs in the mid-back will frequently radiate symptoms to the ribs and chest regions. Symptoms include pain, numbness, tingling, and weakness. It can be difficult to take a deep breath due to pain as well.

What causes mid-back pain?

The most common causes of mid-back pain include poor posture; repetitive computer use or phone use; spine degeneration (such as with arthritis); poor biomechanics when using the back, such as with lifting or bending; high-impact injuries, as in car accidents or sports injuries; and being overweight or sedentary.

How should I sleep with mid-back pain?

Before going to sleep, use moist heat on the specific area of the mid-back for 15-20 minutes, followed by a slow mid-back range of motion stretches. Your sleep position should be as neutral as possible, using a pillow under the knees to keep them bent (for back sleepers) or a pillow between the legs (for side sleepers), and a pillow that does not exaggerate a poor neck posture as well.