The Cause of Lower Back Pain... Five Primary Problems

A Holistic View Points Toward Skeletal MusclesIt isin the body is not due to problems with damaged
often stated in conventional literature that the causenerves, disrupted bursae, and degenerative joints,
of lower back pain cannot be precisely identified. Thisbut dysfunction in the soft tissue, especially skeletal
perspective derives from a mechanistic,muscles.The cause of lower back pain can be broken
non-integrated view of the body which has been ourdown into five primary problems which interconnect
legacy since the scientific revolution. When the bodywith one another. The following breakdown is
is viewed as a collection of isolated parts rather thanadapted from the St. John Neuromuscular Therapy
an elegant, integrated whole, the cause of lowertraining, a method of postural analysis and clinical
back pain becomes a bewildering puzzle.However, amassage therapy focused on musculoskeletal
holistic view of the body can begin to sort out thealignment and treating compensatory muscular
confusion. By evaluating the relationship between thepatterns.Five Primary Problems1) Ischemia
body's overall structure in gravity and it's function in(pronounced: Iz skeem ee ah)The first cause of
movement, the causes of lower back pain begin tolower back pain is ischemia. "Ischemia" means lack of
reveal themselves.A holistic perspective guides us toblood. Without adequate blood to provide nutrients
one of the most overlooked sources, not only ofand oxygen, soft tissues such as muscles, tendons,
lower back pain, but chronic pain in general. Thatligaments, and fascia build up lactic and other toxins
source is skeletal muscles.As Drs. Janet Travell andand become painful. Ischemia occurs when muscles
David Simons made explicitly clear in their exhaustiveare chronically contracted over a period of time. The
2-volume work, Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction: Themost prevalent cause of lower back pain, by far, is
Trigger Point Manual, a vast proportion of chronic painmuscular strain and spasm due to ischemia.