Most people treat lower back pain the same way they treat a headache: take something for it, rest, wait for it to pass. And it does pass — usually. The problem is it comes back. Sometimes within days. Sometimes a few months later after a long drive or an awkward lift. And each time, it tends to come back a little worse.
This pattern has a clinical explanation. When a joint in the lumbar spine becomes restricted — fixated, not moving the way it should — the surrounding muscles compensate. They tighten to protect the joint. That tightness reduces load on the restricted segment, which is why the pain eventually subsides. But the joint restriction is still there. The compensation pattern is still there. The moment you do something that exceeds what the compensation can handle, the pain returns.
The problem with treating the symptom
Anti-inflammatories and muscle relaxants address the inflammatory and muscular component of back pain. They’re useful tools. But they don’t move the restricted joint. They don’t restore the mobility that the lumbar segment lost. So the underlying mechanical problem — the restricted facet joint, the fixated lumbar segment, the dysfunctional sacroiliac joint — remains untouched. The pain goes away because the inflammation quiets down and the muscle guarding subsides. Not because the problem was corrected.
This is the core of what chiropractic care addresses. Manual adjustment is directed specifically at the restricted segment — restoring motion to the joint, reducing the reflex muscle guarding around it, and allowing the lumbar spine to function as a mobile, load-distributing structure rather than a series of segments locked into compensation patterns.
What “resolved” actually means
Resolved means the joint moves. The muscle tone around the segment is normal. You can load the spine through a full range of motion without recruiting compensation. Pain going away is a byproduct of that. It is not the goal itself — it is confirmation that the goal was achieved.
If your lower back pain keeps returning, the question to ask is not “what can I take for it” but “what is still restricted that keeps causing this.” That’s the question a chiropractic assessment is designed to answer.
Written by Dr. Arthur Chakrian, DC — Spine Bar Chiropractic, Toluca Lake