Do you ever wake up in the morning with a deep ache in the low back or tailbone? Do you ever recall twisting and turning throughout the night, waking up from time-to-time registering the pain, and then falling back to sleep? How about the inability to get comfortable in bed because of tailbone pain? If even one of these rings true for you, it is very likely you have a sacral subluxation.
Subluxation, in chiropractic terms, is a fixated joint. Joints that do not have freedom of movement cause pain. The sacrum, or the tailbone, has three major joints: two sacroiliac joints (SIJs) and the lumbosacral joint. The former are on each side of the pelvic (almost buttock) region, while the latter is at the very bottom of the arch of the low back. Each one of the sacral joints can fixate, and all three at once can appear non-moving. The sacrum is the seat of the spine and the sexual energy center – subluxations at this spinal level restrict movement and creativity.
Often people with sacral subluxations complain of sciatica, a sharp, electrical pain that can radiate into the buttock and down a leg. Sciatica from the sacrum will be deep into the buttock and down the back of the leg sometimes down to the fifth or smallest toe. Occasionally tingling is felt in the heel. Sciatica is a condition that brings people into my office regularly. While many can deal with low back pain, sciatica is a different beast altogether. The unrelenting neurological discomfort of sciatica is unnerving; it disrupts the mind and leads to a sense of desperation in most. People suffering from sciatica more often than not come in as emergency patients. Very few people can wait for a week when in the throes of sciatica.
Additionally, because the piriformis muscle attaches to the sacrum, it can become short, tight, and spasmed, contributing to the neurological tingling of sciatica. This makes a sacral subluxation easily misdiagnosed as piriformis syndrome. Piriformis syndrome is treated much differently than a sacral subluxation, and thus getting the diagnosis correct from the start will save you much time and discomfort.
In a handful of people, sacral issues are due to a condition called spondylolisthesis. In this scenario, there is a permanent fracture in one or more of the bony structures of the joints. This leads to a slipping forward of the lumbar spine on the sacrum. A characteristic protrusion at the lumbar spine will be present, and can be felt by anybody palpating that region including the sufferer. In other words, a prominent bump in the lumbar spine is easy to feel. These situations are not terribly different from a sacral subluxation, but the diagnosis must be accurate because of the danger of adjusting the wrong segment in the spondylolisthesis, which can lead to worse low back pain, and possibly worse. The doctor evaluating the pain I am describing in this article, then, must be skilled at differentiating between the two similar conditions.
In my Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, and West Hollywood chiropractic office, I have been helping people with sacral conditions for twenty years now. I also have a spondylolisthesis, so I understand both how it feels, and how to differentially diagnose a low back pain issue properly. If you are having pain while lying in bed, are unable to find a comfortable position in which to sleep, and you have low back pain first thing in the morning, then call my office to receive the best chiropractic care and assessment in the Los Angeles area. If you are suffering from the numbness and tingling of sciatica, then do not hesitate. Get rapid low back pain and sciatica relief with safe and effective chiropractic care.
