01
Find the segment
The first job is locating which motion unit is actually the problem — not just where it hurts. Referred pain is common, and the sore spot is often not the source.
Health conditions · Back pain
Most backs aren't broken.They're out of position.
Back pain is the single most common reason people walk into a chiropractic office. It is also one of the most over-treated and least-explained. Here is what is actually happening in there.
Across the low back and into the hips. Most everyday back pain sits in the lower half of the column, where the load is.
What back pain actually is
Patient education — general information about the condition, not medical advice about your body. Only an examination can tell you what is going on with yours.
Your spine is a stack of 24 moving bones called vertebrae, split into four regions — cervical (neck), thoracic (mid-back), lumbar (low back) and the sacrum at the base. Between each pair sits a disc: a spongy pad of cartilage that works as a shock absorber. A vertebra, the disc under it and the vertebra under that are together called a spinal motion unit, and it is the smallest piece of your back that can move — or stop moving properly.
Somewhere between 80 and 90 percent of people will have back pain at some point in their lives. Most of that pain is not a broken bone or a torn nerve. It is a motion unit that has stopped moving the way it should — strained, stiff, guarded by the muscle around it — and that irritation is what you feel. Chiropractors call the mechanical part of this a subluxation: a joint that has lost its normal position and motion, and is aggravating the nerves and muscle that live right next to it.
The lumbar spine takes the most load and complains the loudest, which is why 'back pain' so often means 'low back pain'. Lifting, sitting for long stretches, an old injury that never fully settled, and plain wear over time all land in the same few segments. The good news buried in that: mechanical problems tend to respond to mechanical care.
How it shows up.
Does this sound like you?
Tick what you actually feel.
Not a diagnosis, and not a test — nothing here can tell you what you have. It is a list you can take with you, because everybody forgets half of it the moment a doctor walks into the room.
0 things to mention. However many you ticked, the exam is what tells you anything.
What tends to be behind it
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Load and lifting
Lifting away from the body, twisting under load, or a single awkward lift can strain a motion unit past what it was ready for.
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Sitting
Long hours seated loads the lumbar discs more than standing does, and shortens the muscles that are supposed to hold you up.
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Old injuries
A fall, a crash, or a sports injury that seemed to heal can leave a segment moving badly for years before it starts to hurt.
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Wear over time
Discs lose water and height with age and joints stiffen. It is normal, it is on almost everyone's X-ray, and on its own it is not a diagnosis.
How care approaches it
What Dr. Meansactually does about it.
Written as aims, not outcomes — because that is all anyone can honestly promise you before they have examined you.
02
Restore motion
A chiropractic adjustment is a specific, controlled input to a specific joint, intended to restore normal movement to a segment that has stopped moving well.
03
Settle the soft tissue
Muscle guarding around an irritated joint is part of the problem. Soft-tissue work is often used alongside adjustments so the joint holds its correction longer.
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Change what caused it
Adjustments do not undo eight hours a day in a bad chair. Care usually pairs with lifting mechanics, posture and specific exercise, or the same segment comes back.
Chiropractic care is not a cure for any condition on this page, and no honest clinic will promise you one. What Dr. Means can do is examine you, tell you plainly whether this is something chiropractic care is suited to help with, and refer you elsewhere if it isn't.
If you come in
Here is what actually happens.
Step 01
Free consultation
Call or book online and we'll sit down with you at no cost or obligation. Tell us what's going on and we'll start building the picture.
Read this part
When this is not a chiropractic problem.
Some of what looks like back pain is something else, and some of it is urgent. A clinic that only ever tells you it can help is not being straight with you. If any of the following is true, do not book a chiropractic appointment — get medical care.
- New loss of bladder or bowel control, or numbness through the groin and inner thighs — this is an emergency, go to an emergency room, not a chiropractor.
- Leg weakness that is getting worse, or a foot you cannot lift.
- Back pain after a serious fall, crash or direct blow.
- Back pain with fever, night sweats or unexplained weight loss.
- New back pain if you have a history of cancer.
This page is general health information, not medical advice, and it is not a substitute for examination by a qualified provider. In an emergency call 911. See our healthcare disclaimer.
Do I need an X-ray?
Sometimes. Dr. Means takes X-rays when the exam indicates them — not automatically on every patient. Imaging is there to answer a question the exam raised, and if it will not change what happens next, there is no reason to take it.
Is my back pain from a slipped disc?
Probably not. Discs cannot actually slip — they are firmly attached above and below. They can bulge or herniate, but true herniation is far less common than the phrase suggests, and most back pain is mechanical rather than disc-driven. See our disc conditions page for the longer answer.
Should I rest or keep moving?
General guidance for most simple back pain is to stay as active as the pain reasonably allows, rather than taking to bed. That is not advice about YOUR back — get examined first.
How long does care take?
It depends entirely on what is wrong and how long it has been wrong, and any clinic that quotes you a number before examining you is guessing. Dr. Means will give you an honest timeline after the exam.
Not sure if this is what you have?
That is what the consultation is for — and it costs you nothing to find out. If it turns out Dr. Means is not the right person for it, he will tell you that too.