Sacroiliac Joint Dysfunction – A Neck Problem in Disguise

Are you open to the possibility that your sacroiliac dysfunction doesn’t come from your low back at all, but could be coming from a problem in your neck?

While it sounds counterintuitive, if you’ve been trying all the common therapies for low back pain (chiropractic, physical therapy, injections, etc), it could explain why you aren’t getting the results you expect.

The Blair craniocervical procedure is a different approach that may be able to help you!

 

Sacroiliac Joint Dysfunction – The Great Imitator

Sacroiliac joint dysfunction is one of the most common types of low back pain. It is called “the great mimicker” because sacroiliac joint dysfunction imitates so many other forms of low back:

• Disc Herniations
• Sciatica
• Piriformis Syndrome
• Hip Bursitis
• Numbness along the outside of the thigh
• Iliotibial band syndrome

Sacroiliac joint dysfunction is also a peculiar condition because there are no muscles that actually cross the joint between your sacrum and your ilium (hip bone). It is strapped with thick, inflexible ligaments that provide low back stability. Sacroiliac joint dysfunction them is seldom a matter of simply making your muscles stronger. It is a matter of determining why these ligaments are stressed in the first place.

Most commonly, it is the downstream effect. Not the primary cause.

When it comes to treating the cause of sacroiliac dysfunction, the problem is often discovered in one of two unlikely places:

1. Your ankles
2. Your upper neck

 

How your Ankles affect Low Back Pain

Your ankles are essentially springs that absorb shock and you stand, walk or run. Even if you have never sprained an ankle, the vast majority of people have rolled an ankle.

The ankle joint complex is comprised of six bones that collaboratively provide movement. When you roll an ankle, if even one of the bones locks into an abnormal position, it affects the entire complex. As a consequence, your ankles cannot absorb stress in the normal way.

This stress then ascends up the kinetic chain into your knees, hips and low back, where it is commonly absorbed by the sacroiliac joints. The result is abnormal stress, torquing and twisting through your pelvic joints that produce sacroiliac dysfunction and pain.

How your Neck affects Low Back Pain

Your neck is the literal lifeline between your brain above and body below. It also provides a huge amount of sensory information to your brain about body position sense (aka proprioception).

From research on whiplash injuries, we know that it takes an impact of only 5mph to damage the soft tissues that support the function of the vertebrae in your neck. Over the course of our lives, this can come from a wide variety of activities:

• Slips and falls (because when we fall, we hit the ground at the speed of gravity … 22.5MPH)
• Sports injuries
• Roller coasters
• Rock concerts
• Car accidents

When you include repetitive stress activities (like staring at a computer or phone), the cumulative effects are even greater.

Ultimately, an imbalance coming from your neck produces compensatory posture changes all the way down your spine:

• one shoulder drops lower than the other side
• your body leans toward one side, putting more weight on one foot
• the pelvic joints pivot forward on one side (and backward on the other).

Here again, the result is abnormal stress, torquing and twisting through your pelvic joints that produce sacroiliac dysfunction and pain.

 

A different approach for Sacroiliac Joint Dysfunction – Clear Chiropractic Spokane

Especially when people have BOTH an ankle PLUS an upper neck problem, the pelvic joints and low back are the midway point where the strain is most pronounced.

In this way, sacroiliac joint dysfunction is often the effect but not the primary cause of pain. And if we focus on treating only where we feel the pain without examining the body as a whole, we may never get to the cause of the problem.

Here is where the team at Clear Chiropractic in Spokane, Washington takes a different approach known as the Blair technique. Every human being is different on the outside and the inside by design. The Blair procedure uses a series of advanced diagnostic tests (DAX or CBCT scans) to identify the exact location, direction and degree of misalignment in your neck, which allows us to design a personalized treatment based on your own healthcare needs.

By doing so, the procedure is more like an unlocking of a joint rather than forcing it into position. In other words, there is no stretching, twisting or cracking the spine.

If you have been dealing with low back pain and sacroiliac dysfunction and you’ve already tried all the usual treatments (general chiropractic, physical therapy, medications, injections, etc) but   still aren’t getting the long-lasting results you expect, the Blair technique and upper cervical chiropractic care offers a different approach.

If you are looking for a chiropractor in Spokane, visit our home page more information. To schedule a new patient appointment with our Mead (north Spokane) or South Hill offices, complete a new patient request form here or call us direct at 509-315-8166.[/vc_column_text]

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