Low Back Pain and Disability

Did you know that low back pain causes more disability than any other condition globally? As such, the development, or ‘pathogenesis’, of low back pain has long been investigated by research groups and programs. Most recently, the esteemed Drs. Injeyan, Injeyan, and Triano compared differences in inflammatory markers in the blood between asymptomatic individuals, and patients with non-specific acute or chronic low back pain. While there are limitations to every study, their results highlighted a distinct increase in pro-inflammatory mediators and a marked decrease in anti-inflammatory mediators in both groups of symptomatic patients when compared to asymptomatic individuals. Interestingly, a separate group in 2016 looked at the various effects of spinal manipulation and found that this technique may in fact activate naturally-produced anti-inflammatory mediators.