Of all the conditions people think of when they think of acupuncture, back pain is probably number one. Sure, we all overstretch, twist too fast or even sleep the wrong way and get a pain as a result.  Most of the time we can fix it. But so many times the places that finally get hurt were places that were already having problems.

I have had people tell me that the cause of their severe back pain was just a sneeze or bending over to pick up something. More than likely it was not the simple action that they took, but the pre-condition that was heading there anyway. Most of the time, once they are in crisis, they forget that they’d had some sense of this same area of pain for a long time.

Chronic Back Pain

Disregard the car accident or the sneeze or even the more real overstrain at the gym or the fall on the ice.  We can look at chronic back pain and have some ideas beforehand where the source of our pain might come from.

The most chronic is the low back. Of course, if there is a possible posture issue, and I have seen many. This requires some exercises and some hyper-consciousness regarding how you are sitting or standing to begin the change. Barring that, there can be some real imbalance issues. The most common is Kidney deficiency.

With Kidney deficiency, the core energy of the body resides in your lower abdomen. As it is called in Chinese Medicine, the ‘dantien,’ is weak. Your body does not just ride on bones and muscles but is supported by this kidney energy that needs to be strong. If it is weak, you may ride ultimately bone on bone. The trick here is to prop up your kidney energy as fast as possible and find ways to sustain it.

Kidney Energy, Winter, and Chronic Back Pain

Kidney Energy is most likely to be at its worst in the Winter. Often, these people may also suffer from ‘Seasonal Affective Disorder’ and depression too. As it gets worse, darker circles will form under the eyes, the head hair will become dryer and overall they will become more fearful and scare easily.   During the Winter they will also just ache more, but the worst time is in the morning when they are very stiff and sometimes just have to hit the showers to get moving in the morning at all.

There is a whole line of herbs tailored to the Kidney deficiency sufferer. When people are in terrible shape we may also use many days of energy treatments in a row to build it up quicker. There are a lot of other things to think about to find out why it is so low in the first place.

The Left Scapular Area

The upper left back, unless you have been truly over-using it, might be aching a lot.  This may be because of your stomach or the worry you endure over a time to cause your stomach to prolapsed or fall.

While this sounds absolutely ridiculous to most of you, it can be absolutely true. If it is the stomach, you may have some sense of it pulling you forward. This puts some pressure on your left side of your neck and down the upper left side of your back. If you are constantly getting just this area treated, you might want to put an end to it by coming in and letting us check out if your stomach has actually fallen.

This condition could also affect the hip on the lower left side as well.  This may also go down the side of the leg causing a form of sciatica on that side.

The Right Scapular Area

This most likely is a result of either extreme stress affecting the Liver or more likely, congestion in the gallbladder. This congestion comes from the ‘good life.’   Too much oil from fried food or nut butter or nuts, chips or too much cheese are some causes. On top of all that, throw in things that affect the liver as well. These are things like coffee and especially chocolate and you have right shoulder and neck pain.

This pain is bad all the time and you just can’t get it to free up.  It is the worst in the middle of the night when it will wake you up for several hours. It feels just like a nail sticking below your scapula that you can’t get at or pain in the right rib area.  Just like its opposite side, it can also affect the right hip. It also may go down the outside of the leg like sciatica.

You are probably grumbling right now as your wife is reading this to you. Maybe the result of the liver and the gallbladder causing you to be short-tempered and irritable most of the time.

Between The Shoulder Blades

It is probably stress, but this is a reaction area emanating from pain in the solar plexus.  Press deep into the solar plexus halfway between the belly button and the xiphoid process (that little bone at the base of the sternum).  You will find it quite tender and if you work it all out, that pain between the shoulder blades will go away. Why this happens is quite involved and I’m running out of space and time here.

The Middle Of The Back At The Base Of The Ribs

People always suppose that this kind of pain is coming from their actual physical kidneys.  But that usually reflects in the low back as well. It is more than likely a bowel problem. This could be a constipation or maybe exhaustion of the bowel by too much activity. Of course, constantly working in a prone position can do it as well.

Conclusion

All of these chronic back aching and paining conditions can become the big problem at the end of the sneeze or some other twist and turn. Like all other things, it is a sign that you are out of balance and heading for a fall. Or if you do fall, you’re heading for a real back pain.