Acupuncture for Low Back Pain Oakville

Lower back pain will affect 80% of people at some point in their lifetime.  Acupuncture for lower back pain at our Oakville clinic is one of the more effective treatments we have to help!  Lower back pain can range from an annoying ache to a full-blown disabling pain.  Some low back pain stays focused in the lower back, while other lower back pains can radiate into the legs.  Pain can be dull and achy, or it can feel like a hot poker is being jabbed into your back.  One of the most effective treatments for the wide spectrum of lower back pain is acupuncture.

How Does Acupuncture in Oakville Help Lower Back Pain?

There are a number of ways that acupuncture can influence pain in the lower back.  Inserting needles into the affected areas of the low back helps to improve blood flow, and therefore promotes healing.  Acupuncture can help reduce muscle tension and release painful trigger points.  Acupuncture can dampen pain by helping to stimulate endorphins, which are the body’s natural pain killers. Acupuncture also helps to reduce inflammation, which is often a big contributor to pain.

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Acupuncture Treatment for Lower Back Pain: The Muscles

In an Acupuncture For Lower Back Pain Treatment, the acupuncture needles are inserted along the spine to affect the nerves as they exit the spinal cord.  These nerves travel all the way to the feet innervating the muscles of the lower back, glutes and legs.  By targeting the nerves as they leave the spinal cord we can affect areas much further away from the spine, even as far as the feet!  Acupuncture is one of the only conservative treatments that can directly impact the nerves.  This is helpful because our nerves are what carry our pain signals and activate our muscles!

Inserting needles into the glutes is an amazing way to release muscle tension and decrease pain.  Oftentimes, weak and/or tight glute muscles can exacerbate back pain and acupuncture can help!  Acupuncture can stimulate and ‘wake-up’ the nerves, leading to more effective muscle activation, decreased pain and less dysfunction of the lower back and pelvis. Whether the muscles are too tight or too weak, acupuncture can help.  How amazing is that!?

Another muscle that is easily treated by acupuncture is the QL.  The Quadratus Lumborum muscle is often a source of pain for many patients with lower back issues. Tightness in this muscle can cause pain in the low back, or top of the buttock.  A tight QL muscle can also start to impact the lower back vertebra, or the sacroiliac joint.  Dr. Jenn can use acupuncture to loosen up this muscle, and help restore function to the surrounding joints.

Another problematic muscle that is the culprit of many patients with low back pain is the Psoas Muscle or hip flexor. Our acupuncture team has seen a rise in painful hip flexors since more and more people work from home and sit for most of the day.  The seated position creates a short hip flexor muscle, and can lead to painful spasms.  Acupuncture treatment will use acupuncture needles to loosen up the hip flexors that get tight from sitting all day!

Acupuncture for Low Back Pain:  The Joints

Lower back pain can be caused by the facet joint of the lumbar spine if they become stuck or stiff.  When these joints become dysfunctional, the the nerves of the spine, which exit the spinal canal in very close proximity to these joints, can also be affected.  A ‘stuck’ joint can therefore cause pain in the low back, or pain anywhere along that specific nerve pathway. Acupuncture treatments to those areas can help decrease the sensitivity of the pain causing structures (the joint) and decrease the resulting inflammation around the nerves.  This leads to a great reduction of pain!

The sacroiliac joints are the big joints that join the pelvis to the sacrum (the bottom of your spine).  These joints can be incredibly painful when they are restricted.  Acupuncture treatment to these joints, and the surrounding musculature that attaches into the joints, provide a great amount of relief and restoration of function.

Electroacupuncture for Lower Back Pain:

Acupuncture for lower back pain is highly effective.  If you add a current through selected needles, it can take the acupuncture for lower back pain to the next level.  Electroacupuncture is a modern variation of traditional acupuncture, where a gentle, consistent current is applied to the needles in order to boost the therapeutic effect.  The procedure involves hooking up a few needles to a current via tiny alligator clamps.  Dr Jenn describes the stimulation as feeling like a small pulse, or heartbeat, in the muscles.  It feels pleasant and had the potential to amplify the healing response.

If you’re experiencing acute or chronic lower back pain, acupuncture can help you!  Come visit us at Nottinghill Family Wellness and ask Dr. Jenn, how acupuncture can get rid of your back pain.  Call us at 905-827-4197 to start acupuncture for lower back pain today.

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