In the previous article we discussed several tissues that can cause leg pain. In this article I intend to discuss further how the ‘facet joints’ in the back can produce leg pain.
Why?
Patients often present to the clinic stating that they ‘just woke up with the pain’ or ‘I got the washing out of the machine and my back gave way.’
The question is; how do such simple tasks cause such big problems?
The answer is quite simple when you consider that pain and dysfunction are two completely separate entities. The body is often functioning incorrectly weeks, months or years before the first sign of pain.
Dysfunction
The spinal cord and brain continually monitor and assess all the information being provided to them by the muscles and joints of the body. This is known as ‘sensorimotor integration’ or ‘proprioception’.
If you close your eyes and bend forward and backwards or side to side, you would be able to tell me what position your spine is in even without being able to see yourself. This is because the joints and muscles of the body send the positional information to the brain and spine.
If one of the facet joints in your back is moving too much it produces ‘white noise’ and clouds signals to the brain or if it is not moving enough then no signals are sent to the spine and brain.
This means that the spine becomes dysfunctional and increases the likelihood of back pain.
These dysfunctional areas can produce the pain patterns associated with tissue irritation.
De-loading
As discussed in the last article the causes of leg and back pain is multi-faceted and it takes a thorough diagnosis by a skilled clinician to identify and manage these factors.
By removing the features responsible for the joint dysfunction symptoms and pain can be reduced by treating the root cause.
In the next article, I will discuss how spinal discs may contribute to back pain.
Andrew Smy (chiropractor)