Have you ever had low back pain, hip pain, glute pain that just will not go away? Maybe traditional physical therapy has not helped or you have tried chiropractic care with only mild success. You doctor gives you muscle relaxers and maybe even steroids, but the pain continues to be present. Low back pain can be very hard to treat because of the complexity of the spine and the neuromuscular system interaction that occurs to create the pain. Sometimes the treating practitioner needs to look further into the body for the cause of the pain than just thinking of the lumbar spine.

Chronic low back pain is often a combination of lumbar dysfunction along with pelvic girdle dysfunction. The pelvic girdle involves iliosacral movement, which is how the ilium of the pelvis moves around the sacrum (tailbone), and sacroilial movement, which is how the sacrum moves in the ilium. When the mechanics of either are abnormal, low back pain often occurs along with other pelvic disorders. Dr. Greenman, author of Greenman’s Principles of Manual Medicine, found in his research that people that have chronic low back pain have some common dysfunctions present. He termed these dysfunctions the “Dirty Half Dozen” because there were 6 problems people had in the lumbar spine and pelvic girdle. The problems/dysfunctions that were present included pelvic girdle dysfunctions such as upslip/downslip, pubis symphysis malpositioning, abnormal anterior movement of the sacrum, along with lumbar spine FRS dysfunctions, a shortened leg, and muscle imbalance. Finding and treating the “Dirty Half Dozen” can help reduce pain significantly, but the problem is finding someone to do that.

First you must know what to look for when treating low back pain effectively, so segmental diagnosis is crucial. Segmental diagnosis is basically figuring out which of the “Dirty Half Dozen” are present in the lumbar spine and pelvic girdle. Once the dysfunctions are found, OMT and MET can be easily used to correct the underlying problem and then appropriate exercises can be given to work on the muscle imbalances. At Wright Physiotherapy, I have been trained in segmental diagnosis and how to use OMT and MET to treat out the underlying problem. This has made me very effective in helping people with low back pain, hip pain, and glute pain that just won’t go away. Usually significant changes occur in just a couple of visits. Pain reduction can be life changing!