Backpain

✔ Holistic treatment
✔ Individual therapy program
✔ Orthodox medicine and alternative therapies

«I am happy to help you in my orthopaedic practice in Berlin-Mitte to permanently relieve you of your back pain and to improve your quality of life again.» – Specialist Dr. med. Martin Ihle

Back pain as a widespread disease

Almost everyone knows back pain in one way or another. Around 80 percent of the population in Germany suffer from recurrent back pain, 20 percent even have chronic back pain.

A cross with pain

The areas in the neck and lower lumbar vertebrae are particularly affected. These often radiate to the head or lower extremities. When we talk about lumbago or sciatica, we usually talk about unspecific low back pain. However, a specific cause such as a herniated disc must be ruled out.

Functional syndromes or structural problems

Back pain is often caused by functional syndromes such as muscle tension, fascial trigger points and joint blockages.

In addition, there are structural problems of the spine that cause the corresponding complaints. These include, for example:

• Arthrosis of the small intervertebral joints (facet joints).
• A narrowing of the nerve exit channels due to impinging intervertebral disc tissue or bone (neuroforamenstenosis).
• A narrowing of the spinal canal (spinal stenosis).

While pain in the shoulder and arms often originates from the cervical spine, complaints in the pelvic area and in the legs can often be explained by problems in the lumbar spine.

Posture problems and incorrect loading

The main cause of back pain, however, is posture problems and incorrect strain during everyday activities without the possibility of physical compensation. In particular, incorrect posture leads to muscle shortening and tension with painful trigger points, which solidify the sensation of pain. In addition, stress at the workplace or in the personal environment due to misdirected stress reactions can trigger or perpetuate such symptoms.

The body tries to compensate for muscular strain by adopting a compensatory posture. In such cases, even a small additional load can cause the system to overflow and cause pain, resulting in a vicious circle of misalignment, overload and pain.

From acute pain to chronic complaints

Acute complaints can often turn into chronic complaints. This is why it is important to recognise risk factors early on and treat complaints in a timely manner.

In my practice, I therefore start with a thorough anamnesis, because in conversation with the patient, additional causes and risk factors can be identified. These include, for example:

• Poor posture of the body at work
• Psychological stress at the workplace
• Unfavourable sports activities
• Training methods that have been carried out incorrectly
• Pregnancy

Then I make a subtle manual medical and functional assessment of the entire body statics from head to toe.

In principle, in functional back pain, ascending chains (from the sole of the foot via the knee and hip joint to the pelvic region) and descending chains (from the head joints and temporomandibular joints via the cervical spine to the lower back) must be considered and treated. In most cases, a diagnosis can be made without x-rays. In the case of complaints that prove to be resistant to therapy, the findings can be confirmed by an X-ray or, in the case of indications of nerve root involvement, by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Individual therapy program for your back pain

All these points are taken into account in my programme of individual targeted spinal therapy. Manual therapy can be used to mobilize myofascial structures and release blockages. Severe acute pain may require an infusion therapy with muscle relaxants in order to achieve therapeutic efficacy.

In the case of persistent complaints, neural therapy makes a valuable contribution to alleviating the complaints. Possible treatment approaches include trigger point acupuncture (“dry needling”) or infiltration acupuncture. This can lead to a reorganization of the muscle and joint connections.

For a given indication, microtherapy of the spinal column with targeted infiltrations into the facet joints or the spinal canal is also suitable in order to break through the pain circulation. Especially herniated discs and structural constrictions of the spine respond well to this treatment.