So you are out of alignment!!

Apparently your back is “out”! Should you be concerned?

Most people who have seen a medical professional for back or neck pain, have probably been told at some point they are out of alignment and this needs to be corrected by treatments including manipulation, orthotics and other forms of manual therapy. This will often give clients the impression that they are in some way deformed and vulnerable to pain, and this is certainly not the case. Many manual therapists will indicate pain is being caused by such things as:

• Length leg difference
• Rotated pelvis
• Minor spinal curvatures (scoliosis)
• Excessively flat or curved neck or low back
• Facet joint that is “out”
• Sacroiliac joint being “out”
• Bad posture
• Poor ergonomics

Scientific evidence clearly shows that the relevance of structural or biomechanical issues as the cause of pain, has been greatly exaggerated. This debunks our obsession with alignment, posture and other biomechanical issues. Some of the problems encountered with these biomechanical diagnoses are:

• Not only are structural explanations for pain generally unsupported by any scientific evidence
• Biomechanics is obscuring more useful and new ways of looking at how pain works
• Medical professionals can rarely agree on them (poor diagnostic reliability)
• Most structural diagnoses are difficult or impossible to change even if identified
• Patients are often given the alarming idea that the slightest imbalance is serious and requires ongoing management to correct

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To better understand injuries and pain problems and to help recovery from them, we need to stop trying to think of the body as a rigid structure that breaks down. The body is predominantly made up of fluid being a pliable mesh of physiology, neurology and biochemistry, designed to adapt to its environment.

Here at Lilyfield Physio, our focus on biomechanics is with the aim of helping you move efficiently and teach the importance of free flowing movement, we tend not to dwell on structural misalignment. Psychological and lifestyle factors including exhaustion, emotional stress, smoking, and being really out-of-shape are all more important risk factors for pain, rather than any typical “misalignment” has ever been.

Chronic Pain can be very complex in nature, so Book An Appointment with our experienced Physios so we can help you overcome your pain.