Kingston & Teddington Osteopathy – January 2025

January 2025 Newsletter

Welcome to 2025

Beginning a new year is always a time for hope…. a fresh page with resolutions to match.

In this newsletter, we go back to core basics of our musculoskeletal health and explore Low Back Pain.

Back pain affects a huge majority of our population. It can affect our ability to work, our mental health and can be extremely distressing.

As Osteopaths, we want everyone to get help as soon as possible and to receive the correct advice on how to recover from and manage Low Back Pain.

Read on for more information……

Kind regards,

Musculo-Skeletal Low Back Pain

Low Back Pain affects the lower spine called the Lumbar Spine. It may be called Lumbago to indicate non-specific, undiagnosed pain within the lumbar spine.

The cause of Low Back Pain is varied. Anatomy causing pain may be muscular, joint-related, ligamentous or from intervertebral discs.

The pain can be more likely to occur with age and degenerative changes to the spine and/or from arthritis. However, pain can be caused by injury or trauma such as car accidents, lifting items or sports injuries. Symptoms can be acute with a sudden onset or be chronic (pain lasting more than 3 months).

As your Osteopaths, our main job is to initially determine the cause of your pain. This method of differential diagnosis will then enable us to advise you on the correct Do’s and Don’ts for maximum speed of recovery.

Symptoms of Low Back Pain

Symptoms are varied! Pain can be sharp or achey, intermittent or constant and can cause pain into the buttocks or legs. Pain can be movement-related or worse when lying or sitting still.

You can now see why diagnosing the cause of the pain is imperative in formulating a treatment and recovery plan 🙂

You may experience:

Muscle Spasm. – you may find yourself struggling to stand upright or to move.

Posture Change – you may walk strangely with your posture leaning forwards or with very tense, raised shoulders. You may even be leaning to one side.

Stiffness. – you may find initiating movement difficult with an overall reduced range of motion. Your gait may change with smaller steps. You may find it difficult to get up out of bed first thing in the morning or to do something simple like brush your teeth. .

Symptoms for Concern. – there are some Red Flags that cause great concern with low back pain. These are:
Sudden change in toilet habit – finding it difficult to pass urine
Numbness in the genital area and bottom
Pain or Numbness in BOTH legs
Recent Injury or fall
Recent loss of weight without diet change
Recent history of cancer

Managing Low Back Pain

Pain Management. – getting your pain under control is really important. This will enable you to function as normally as possible whilst your body heals.

Get a Diagnosis – see your Osteopath or other musculoskeletal health therapist to diagnose the cause of the pain.

Keep Moving. – going to bed to lie down may help rest the back in very short bursts but research has shown that staying active speeds up recovery.

Do your Advised Exercises. – listen to your Osteopath or musculoskeletal health therapist and follow their advice. They will discuss your lifestyle and work out ways for your to effectively stay active and be on the healing path to recovery.

If you need our help and would like to book an appointment, Please Call: 0208 977 6396

If you have aches and pains, don’t wait, just call the clinic and come in and we will be able to diagnose the problem.

You can email info@osteopathuk.co.uk or call 02089776396

Click the link for our website:
http://www.osteopathuk.co.uk/

CONTACT US

Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us for any reason, we are here to help and welcome any feedback. Click here for more information.