Low Back Pain on the Increase: Are Knees to Blame?

It is surmised that the aging population is experiencing more chronic low back pain and this trend is expected to continue.

According to a study entitled, “Aging Baby Boomers and the Rising Cost of Chronic Back Pain” the incidence of chronic low back pain is on the increase. This study found that the incidence of low back pain has increased by 29% but the incidence of chronic low back pain has skyrocketed to 64%. The difference is between low back pain that occurs for a short period of time compared to chronic low back pain that is unremitting or occurs very frequently.

The cost of chronic low back pain has also increased. The cost of chronic low back pain has increased 129% from 15.6 billion dollars in the year 2000 to 35.7 billion dollars in 2006. Those figures have been adjusted for inflation and consist of only ambulatory services for chronic low back pain.

While Doctors of Chiropractic are known as “back doctors” and commonly treat the conditions causing low back pain they are in reality much broader based and must take the condition of a patient’s knees into consideration when someone presents to their office with low back pain. Knee and other extremity conditions are very common and Doctors of Chiropractic are well versed in treating the ailments affecting them.

The knees become affected when the arches of the feet fall unevenly which places unnatural stress on the inner foot, ankle, and knee. These abnormal stressors can lead to damage of the various components of the knee which eventually leads to pain. However, pain may appear in a number of different ways and under varying circumstances.

Knee pain caused by fallen arches in the feet can develop slowly over time with the initial stages of pain being quite manageable and not affecting an individual’s daily activities much if at all. At other times the pain may appear very suddenly and cannot be associated with any traumatic event. Either of these presentations can be very upsetting to the patient especially if their medical doctors cannot determine the cause of the pain. This is a good indication that the problem is chiropractic in nature.

The good news is that your local Doctor of Chiropractic can be of tremendous help in these types of situations.

In most of these types of cases involving knee pain, the bones of the leg have misaligned due to fallen arches of the feet. The torque and torsion placed upon the tibia, fibula, femur, and patella (knee cap) of the leg places tremendous stress on the soft tissues of the knee which consist mainly of ligaments, tendons, the cartilage lining the knee joint itself, and other connective tissues.

So what is the key to taking the stress off these delicate tissues of the knees?

The key is to fit each person suffering knee pain with flexible orthotics that fit in the shoes and support all three arches of the feet. The placement of orthotics into patient’s shoes is followed by gentle adjustments to the ankles, knees, hips, and spine to assure the return of normal biomechanics to these areas.

As you can see, the treatment for knee pain and low back pain is the same because each area affects the other. So, it really isn’t very surprising that our aging population is experiencing more chronic low back pain because of the amount of time their flat feet have had to ruin their low back areas.

Don’t suffer any longer than you already have. If you or your loved ones have either low back or knee pain see your local Doctor of Chiropractic as soon as possible to begin your journey down the road to recovery.