Back Pain – Can a Physio or Biokineticist Fix it?

Almost 30% of the population complains of Lower Back Pain at any given time. What causes it and can the right therapist fix it?

When to use a physiotherapist or biokineticist

An estimated $50 billion is spent each year on medication for back pain in the United States. The UK reports Back Pain as the second leading reason patients visit a GP. Upper respiratory infection is the leading illness requiring a doctor’s visit.

Causes of Back Pain

The root cause of back pain can be frustratingly difficult to establish. Only 1 out of 10 patients will actually uncover the origin of their back pain. Less common causes include lumbar spinal stenosis (narrowing of the spinal column), osteoporosis (loss of bone density) and degenerative disk disease where the disks cushioning the vertebrae flatten and stiffen causing pain.

More commonly, back pain is caused by mechanical injury. Injury could be as severe as a car accident or as minor as bending to pick up a pencil. It can be a sharp thrust in the back or a dull throb from no particular origin. Pain is deemed Acute if it comes on suddenly and disappears within a few days or weeks. Pain lasting more than 3 months is considered chronic and can appear years after an injury.

Physio or Bio?

A doctor will generally refer a patient to a physiotherapist for remedial work. The physiotherapist is trained to assess the injury and will work to control the pain. A physio’s approach is considered ‘hands on’ using manipulation, massage and carefully placed tape to support pulled ligaments, or strained muscles. A physiotherapist will generally work with Acute Back Pain post-injury for a time and then refer a patient on to a Biokineticist.

Melanie Coetzee, a Ballito based Biokineticist, works closely with Lianca Dookran, Physiotherapist for example. After initial treatment to control or diminish back pain at the hands of a physiotherapist, the role of Bio-kinetics is to continue rehabilitation and train the client to exercise and move in a way which supports the back, strengthens weaker muscles and improves flexibility where required.

“Many people with lower back pain have weak core strength,” says Coetzee, “they may think they are working their abdominals when in fact they are using leg strength to do a sit up.”

Roxanne Vermaak, a Personal Trainer, can attest to that statement. She came to Melanie Coetzee with chronic back pain stemming, she believed, entirely from scoliosis (curvature of the spine). After an initial assessment which confirmed the state of a curve in the spine, Coetzee ascertained she also had a weak core, despite an ability to perform countless abdominal exercises!

Giving Roxanne a variety of very small, concentrated exercises to perform, while monitoring how she employed her abs in the movements, Coetzee quickly taught her the slight variation she needed to engage her core more fully.

Within four sessions, Roxanne reported a definitive difference. “Once I learnt what a properly engaged core felt like, I am increasingly aware of when I am or am not engaging my core muscle strength. The more I engage, the less my back hurts.” She said.

Biokineticist Ballito Salt Rock

Coetzee Recommends a minimum course of 8 sessions over a 4 week period (two sessions a week) to train the client in the correct movement, rehabilitate postures and alignment.

“Often clients present with slight discrepancies in their posture. Years of carrying a handbag or school bag over one shoulder for example causes one side to shorten which means the other elongates to compensate. Training the body to break those patterns takes time.” She explains.

“Mothers tend to favor one side when carrying a baby on the hip. She mustn’t, this naturally causes an imbalance in the muscle structures and she will feel that pain years later when her child is fully grown perhaps.” Many of the clients a Biokineticist works with are suffering with chronic pain originating in behaviors and postures from decades past.

Chronic pain would indicate the need for a Biokineticist. Acute pain is generally eased under the hands of a qualified physiotherapist.

Chronic pain usually arises from YEARS of imbalance in the body and could be referred from one body part to another.

How a Bio could Help

The Dowager’s Hump is a common misalignment of the head and shoulders. A protruding hump at the base of the neck caused by the perennial forward tilt of the head, slumped shoulders, forward fold of the chest and hip displacement causing a lower back curve can be improved with new habits and revised posture..

How to fix the hump in my neck