Some statistics state that approximately four out of five people have had lower back pain at some point in their lives. It is one of the most common reasons people seek help from healthcare providers. There are many causes for lumbar pain other than injury. It is vulnerable by nature compared to the upper and middle portions of the spine since there are no ribs around it. Without the same boney support, the lumbar spine segments are subject to more frequent segmental movement and exertion and therefore more rapid degeneration and incidence of injury. We require active support from the abdominal muscles to support the lumbar spine to prevent injury and overuse. Like many other areas of our body, chronic and severe pain inhibits muscle activation including the abdominal muscles. So, in many cases, the more and longer, your back hurts, the harder it is for your abs to support your spine with movement as they have reflexively decreased their normal level of activation. This cycle of muscle behavior has to be broken with purposeful intervention. The appropriate re-education and retraining of your trunk muscles is what is needed. Our tendency for excessive movement through the lumbar spine with activity over time causes a compromise in quality of activity in the hip muscles being so close to it. This in turn leads to an imbalance in hip strength and flexibility. Without the proper function from the hip muscles, the lumbar spine is then required to move more, exert more, and take the brunt of the wear and tear from life’s activities. Regardless of many of the varying circumstances surrounding your lumbar condition, these tendencies are present in most people and more pronounced with age. These are among the many changeable things about your lumbar condition that we are good at helping you change at Breaux Bridge Physical Therapy and Wellness. Try not to let this get out of hand before getting in to see us.

Arthritis, degeneration, and age-related changes are present in everyone and have been in progress long before you had any noticeable symptoms from it. It just depends on how much it has occurred as to whether it presents a problem or not. Throughout our whole life we are losing disc height which allows our vertebrae to get closer to each other and have less space between them. The closer they get to each other, the more likely they are to come into contact with each other and potentially cause changes in the joint surfaces and surrounding areas. This leads to likely inflammation of various tissues and potential impingement of nerve roots as they exit the spinal cord then causing a chain reaction of symptoms and muscle misbehavior in the trunk, hips, and even down the legs. You cannot change the fact that your spine has these types of changes and surgery should always be your last resort. Surgery for this type of spine problem involves the removal of bone tissue and often the use of plates and screws for stability and to maintain more space between vertebrae. Surgery is never a guarantee of being pain free. There are many things you can do to lessen if not fully resolve the symptoms and inflammatory behaviors that are caused by degeneration and arthritis. Your team at Breaux Bridge Physical Therapy are experts in creating personalized programs for cases of lumbar degenerative and arthritic changes that will get you feeling better, able to manage your condition, and back on track sooner. Call us. We can get you started right away.

Stenosis refers to a narrowing of a space or opening. As each of our vertebral discs lose their height, the vertebrae above and below the disc get closer to each other. Each pair of vertebrae above and below a disc create an opening on each side for a left and right nerve root to exit the spinal column. If the vertebrae are getting closer to each other due to a disc having less height, that opening is becoming smaller or narrower around the nerve root making it easier to impinge it and cause you pain and symptoms. This is foraminal stenosis. The position that you hold or “posture” yourself in can either open the space more or close it more. A surgical intervention for this would be called a laminectomy and would involve the removal of part of the vertebral bone to make a larger space for the nerve root. Surgery should be you last resort as there are risks and no guarantee of full pain relief.

Central Canal Stenosis refers to a narrowing of the space in the canal that your spinal cord is contained in. Also due to the loss of disc height ad varying degrees throughout your entire spine, all of your vertebrae have gotten closer to each other. There is a group of ligaments that are on the inside of your spinal canal and run the length of your spine. If all of the vertebrae are closer to each other, those ligaments are being “given more slack” over time and therefore “bunching up” or thickening inside the canal. This thickening is taking up space and encroaching on the spinal cord usually causing radiating symptoms that will be felt distally down the nerve path in the lumbar region, hips and/or legs as far down as your toes. Your team at Breaux Bridge Physical Therapy are experts in creating personalized programs for cases of Lumbar degenerative and arthritic changes including stenosis that will get you feeling better, able to manage your condition and back on track sooner. Call us. We can get you started right away.

Diagnostic reports showing lumbar disc bulges, herniations, and tears are very common. They are also very common in people without symptoms. Having symptoms often means that there are other secondary circumstances that are present that, along with the disc derangement, cause pain or radiating symptoms. These findings DO NOT automatically mean that you need surgery or that you are destined for pain and suffering for the rest of your life. You should really change all the changeable secondary circumstances before considering surgery if feasible and your surgeon agrees. Many times, changing the other circumstances such as posture, strength, flexibility, movement technique and body mechanics can lessen or resolve your symptoms to a manageable level not warranting surgery. Your team at Breaux Bridge Physical Therapy are experts in creating personalized programs for cases of lumbar disc derangements that will get you feeling better, able to manage your condition and back on track sooner. Call us. We can get you started right away.

It’s common to strain a muscle with everyday activities. It will heal. It will take time. During the healing process, we often unknowingly delay that process due to our poor posture, faulty movement techniques, and body mechanics. To ensure that you heal in a reasonably timely manner with minimal compromise to your busy activity level let your team at Breaux Bridge Physical Therapy and Wellness guide you through a personalized program that will not only address your injury but will also improve some of the related obstacles to that healing process. We will also teach you a great deal about injury prevention and symptom relief. Call us. We will get you started right away.

Compression fractures in the spine can be caused by trauma as well as some simple daily activities depending on your quality of bone density. If surgery is not required, a physical therapy program can be instrumental in ensuring the protection of the fracture site(s) through postural training, learning improved movement techniques, and improving strength, stability, and flexibility. Your team at Breaux Bridge Physical Therapy are experts in creating personalized programs for cases of lumbar compression fractures that will get you feeling better, able to manage your condition and back on track sooner. Call us. We can get you started right away.

Spondylolysis is an abnormal weakness in the structural integrity of a vertebra. Adolescents that play sports that are stressful to the lumbar spine can acquire a stress fracture which creates this same weakness or spondylolysis. If the weakness is significant enough, a spondylolisthesis can occur. A spondylolisthesis is a condition in which one vertebra having lost its structural and positional stability, has shifted with respect to the above and below vertebrae. It is a common cause of low back pain in children and adolescents. Its severity is graded on the distance that it has shifted out of its proper alignment. Spondylolisthesis can also occur in adults due to disc degeneration along with instability and is more common in females. This condition can also occur due to traumatic injury. If this condition is not severe enough to require surgical intervention, physical therapy is necessary for symptom management, to train you in positional awareness to protect the instability as well as improve muscular stabilization strength.

There are many ways that a nerve can become impinged in your lower back and/or hip and leg region. Some are changeable and some are not. Most everyone has challenges with poor trunk stability, hip muscle strength and mobility imbalances, and faulty movement technique for daily activities. Unless you really improve, if not correct those issues you do not know if your nerve impingement, be it from degenerative changes, injury, or disc derangement should require anything other than physical therapy. Your team at Breaux Bridge Physical Therapy are experts in creating personalized programs for cases of lumbar and/or hip complex nerve impingement that will get you feeling better, able to manage your condition and back on track sooner. Call us. We can get you started right away.

Sciatica is a condition in which you have pain, numbness, or burning down the path of the sciatic nerve which is the largest nerve in your body. This path travels through the posterior hip, back of the thigh, back of the calf, and possibly into the foot. It originates from the lower lumbar and upper sacral nerve roots. It is commonly explained as a condition originating from a nerve impingement at one or more of those segments of the spine. Impingements at the spine could be due to lumbar stenosis and/or lumbar disc derangements. There are also multiple sites along the pathway of the nerve that can have their own entrapments. The combination of having tight hip and leg muscles, a habit of moving excessively from the lumbar spine for daily activities, and compromised soft tissue mobility along the path of the nerve can really make things confusing as you try different efforts for relief. Your team at Breaux Bridge Physical Therapy are experts in differential diagnosis, evaluating all of the contributing factors to your sciatica and creating personalized programs for cases just like yours, that will get you feeling better, able to manage your condition and back on track to more tolerable activity sooner. Call us. We can get you started right away.

The SI joint and its role in our movement system is very complex. It is a joint that has its own cartilage and is subject to degenerative changes, injury from trauma, and dysfunction from our common imbalances of strength, stability, and mobility. It is located at the top of the posterior pelvis on each side and therefore at the lower lumbar region. Conditions of the SI joint can involve lumbar pain, posterior hip pain, referred pain, and nerve symptoms in the front and/or posterior hip and thigh region. As the structure and its function is complex, so is its dysfunctions. These conditions often require a more lengthy and continued assessment to develop an optimal combination of treatment efforts. We are very experienced in evaluating and treating this variety of conditions and provide relief and improvement even in the first visit often. The earlier you address this, usually, the sooner you can resolve it. Call us if you have questions or if you’d like to get started right away with us to treat this condition for you.

Scoliosis is a very common condition described as a sideways curve of the spine. It can be more prominent in one section of the spine, yet it will have an impact at every level due to compensation. So, what is happening in your lumbar spine will also have an impact on your neck. It is often the case that you can have a scoliosis all your life with no significant issues until you live long enough to acquire significant degenerative changes that inevitably cause symptoms and pain. In some extreme cases they warrant surgery but if so, it is usually needed at an early stage of life. Commonly with the right management program for strength, stability and flexibility training, the intensity of symptoms can be manageable with little restrictions on activity. Your team at Breaux Bridge Physical Therapy are experts in creating personalized programs addressing scoliosis that will get you feeling better, able to manage your condition and back on track sooner. Call us. We can get you started right away.

Lumbar instability and weakness are common and part of our tendencies to have faulty movement technique for daily living. Spinal segments that are weak or unstable can be strengthened and therefore stabilized. Core awareness and control, hip and leg strength, stability and flexibility are closely related to lumbar spine instability and can be achieved with the right treatment program. Your team at Breaux Bridge Physical Therapy are experts in creating personalized programs addressing lumbar/hip instability that will get you feeling better, able to manage your condition and back on track sooner. Call us. We can get you started right away.

Lumbar immobility and tightness are common and part of our tendencies to have strength and mobility imbalances in general. Spinal segments that are stiff and immobile can be mobilized, stretched and therefore start to do their part in your overall mobility. As our lumbar discs degenerate it becomes more important that we are aware of our posture to ensure adequate joint space required for improved mobility. Core awareness and control, hip and leg strength, stability and flexibility are closely related to lumbar spine stiffness and can be achieved with the right treatment program. Your team at Breaux Bridge Physical Therapy are experts in creating personalized programs addressing lumbar immobility and stiffness that will get you feeling better, able to manage your condition and back on track sooner. Call us. We can get you started right away.