Latest / Scoliosis with Dr. Chris Gubbels / Back Specialist Warns: Avoid This Mistake If You Have One-Sided Back Pain

Transcript

Back Specialist Warns: Avoid This Mistake If You Have One-Sided Back Pain · Scoliosis with Dr. Chris Gubbels

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: If the same side of your back keeps hurting, there's one mistake I would avoid.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's a mistake that can make one side of back pain drag on for months or possibly even years.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Even when the treatment seems to be working.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: And the frustrating part is you can keep getting just enough relief that makes you think that you actually found a long-term solution.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: But then weeks or months later, that same pain keeps coming back.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, I'm Dr.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Chris Goobels here at Scholar Care Denver, leading specialist in the non-surgical treatment of scoliosis and hyperkyphosis.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: And in this video, I'm going to show you the mistake why one side of back pain keeps getting mistreated and what may be the actual root cause of your back pain that your doctors may have entirely missed.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now, why does everyone keep treating the same spot over and over?
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: You see, the first thing people usually assume is that the painful side is tight or weak or inflamed, or somehow that's just their bad side.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: So naturally all the attention goes to that spot.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: That side tends to get stretched, massaged, adjusted, strengthened, maybe even injected.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes that probably does help relieve some of the pain.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: The problem is, constantly chasing that temporary relief can eventually take over your entire life.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: You feel better for a few weeks, maybe a few months, but before you know it, you go back to the same thing over and over again.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: And frankly, there are a lot of practitioners who make a pretty good living giving people that short-term relief over and over again.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the mistake I'm talking about.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Getting stuck in endless treatment that only focuses on symptoms and only focuses treatment on the side that hurts.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now, to be fair, sometimes that does need to be the focus.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: But sometimes that painful side is just reacting to something happening somewhere else in your spine and the way your body is positioned.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: And if you never figure that out, you can keep treating that same side over and over for years.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: And at some point, we have to ask the question that changes everything.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Why does the same side keep hurting over and over again?
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Why does that same pain keep coming back over and over?
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if the same side keeps hurting, I start to wonder if your body is putting more stress on that same side over and over.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: You see, sometimes the reason can actually be pretty simple.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Your desk baby setups are always turning or putting yourself in the same awkward position.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe your job has you lifting, reaching, or twisting the same way over and over again.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you play one-sided sports like golf or tennis.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're always carrying a bag or a child's, or even just carrying your weight on that same hip.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Things like that over time can make one side repeatedly work harder over and over again.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: But sometimes that imbalance is actually built into the way your spine is actually positioned.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where scoliosis comes in.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: You see, with adult scoliosis, the spine can be bending and rotating, so one side of your back can be working harder whenever you're standing or sitting or walking.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: That side might feel tight, it may ache, it may keep flaring up in the exact same spot.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: And if everybody just keeps treating the pain without figuring out why that side is under more stress or strain, the relief is never gonna last.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Which brings me to one of the most common mistakes people make with one side of pain, and that's continuing to stretch the side that feels tighter.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: So let's take a dive into the stretching mistake.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if one side of your spine always feels tight, I'm guessing you're gonna stretch it.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe it feels good for a few minutes, but if you keep having to stretch that same side every day, I would stop assuming that that side just needs to be loosened up.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: You see, it may be tight because it's having to work harder than the other side.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: So if your spine is shifting or twisting and rotating, the muscles on that spine may be constantly working all day long, just trying to keep your body upright in a normal position.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now you just come along and you keep stretching it because it just feels tight.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: But that can be the wrong move, especially with scoliosis, because with scoliosis, the direction you stretch really can make a big difference.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: You see, you and someone else can both have pain on the same side of your lower back, but need completely different things based on the shape and rotation of your individual spines.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've been stretching that same side over and over and the tightness always comes back, stop asking what stretch should I do?
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: And start asking why does that side keep getting tight in the first place?
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: And if this is sounding familiar, where the same side keeps getting tight and you keep treating it and relief never lasts.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is exactly the kind of problem we treat here at School A Care Denver.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now we offer a free discovery call.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: We can review your individual case.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: You can tell us what you've done in the past, what has worked, what hasn't, and we can evaluate your spine and tell you exactly what's going on and tell you what the best treatment recommendations are.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: All you have to do is click on the link below in the description and request a free discovery call.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then our team will reach out to you and set up a time where you can actually talk to me one-on-one about your case.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if the same side keeps tightening up and hurting, no matter what you do, here's where I would stop treating it like an ordinary case of back pain.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: And this is one pain pattern that I always pay close attention to.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: You see, one side of back pain really gets my attention when you can almost set your watch to it.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Meaning you stand for 15 or 20 minutes and that same side starts to ache.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: You walk farther than usual and it tightens up.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: You do some kind of yard work and there it is again, that same exact spot.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it sits just above one of your hips.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it actually spreads into your butt cheek or your thigh or your groin.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you have one whole side of your body that just feels worn out before the other side does.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: And after a while, you start changing your whole life around it.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: You do things like you sit down sooner, you start to lean on the counter, you grab a shopping cart because it allows you to stay on your feet longer.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: You skip those longer walks, or you decide to trip sounds like too much because you already know what your back is going to end up doing.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: And at that point, I don't care what you rate the pain.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: A 3 out of 10, 5 out of 10, 8 out of 10, it doesn't really matter.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Your back pain is starting to make decisions for you.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And if the same side keeps hurting every time you stand or walk, I would not keep writing that off as simple stubborn aches or pains.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: You see, that's exactly how someone can spend years treating one bad side before finding out really how their entire spine is positioned.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now, does one side of back pain absolutely mean a scoliosis?
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: No, not necessarily.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: You see, muscles can be irritated, a joint can hurt, disc can be involved, even a hib can be contributing to the pain you feel on that side.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: I would never diagnose someone with scoliosis because they keep pointing to one side and they say that's where it hurts.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: But if the same side keeps hurting for months or years, treatment wears off, and standing or walking for longer periods of time becomes harder and harder because of the pain, I would absolutely want to rule out adult scoliosis or any other type of spinal imbalance.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because plenty of adults with scoliosis don't walk in my office and say, I think I have scoliosis.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: They say I have low back pain on one side that hurts for years.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: I can't stand or walk very long.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: I've had injections, physical therapy, chiropractic adjustments, and although I may get short-term relief, nothing really lasts.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: That same pain keeps coming back over and over again.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then we look at their entire spine and we find something nobody else notices.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a reason this happens so often.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: So why can scoliosis get missed?
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: See, most back pain evaluations start by focusing on the exact spot where you have pain.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you have chronic low back pain, you may get a lumbar MRI.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: If a nerve is irritated, attention goes to that individual nerve.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: If a joint is painful, attention goes to that joint.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: But when someone has recurring one side of pain, I want to know what the entire spine is doing when looking at it from the front and from the side.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: And we want to do that when you're standing in an upright position because you don't spend your life lying down like you do when you're getting an MRI.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: You spend it upright.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: In a scholar care denver, we use standing full spine x-rays so we can look at the curve, the rotation, and the overall spinal bounds and how the spine is positioned under gravity from the front and from the side.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that can start to answer very different questions.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Not simply what hurts.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: And it can start telling us why there's a certain spot or side in your body that continues to hurt over and over.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: And if nobody has answered that for you after years of recurring pain and treatments, you need a better evaluation.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: So what would I do if this was my back?
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you just lifted something heavy yesterday and you have one side of your back that hurts the day after, like today, I would not immediately assume you have some kind of major structural problem.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: But if the same side has been bothering you for months or years and keeps returning after all the treatments you tried, I would stop doing the same thing over and over.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'd stop stretching that same tight side over and over again until it feels a little better.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I wouldn't just treat the spot where there's pain because that's where the pain shows up.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I would absolutely not accept you just have back pain as an explanation.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Especially if your ability to do things like standing or walking from longer periods of time has been getting worse.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: I would want to know why my body keeps putting stress on that one spot.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: And if scoliosis is part of the answer, your treatment needs to be very specific to your individual curves and your spine, not just the side that keeps on hurting.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a completely different approach than just treating the side that always hurts.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're ready for a proper evaluation, book one by clicking the link in the description below.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: And if you want to know what other symptoms can point towards adult scoliosis, watch this next video.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: I answer the scoliosis questions patients ask me all the time, and I explain what I would pay close attention to before deciding what to do next.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see you there.