This ENTIRE page is for those who have
Low Back Pain
There is a very good chance I can help you with your problem, but I have to do two things:
- I need to prove to you I can find your problem areas.
- I need to show you how laser therapy can fix fundamental problems in your muscles which in turn can help your pain.
This will not solve every lower back problem, but it can help many long term low back pain suffers. I cannot promise a thing, but you owe it to yourself to at least take a look. Eventually this will be main stream knowledge and many will know about it. But as of now you most likely know nothing of what I'm going to show you.
I look at low back pain cases differently than surgeons or physical therapists. Instead of using x-ray, CAT or MRI scans, I take a different approach of just feeling the muscle tissue. I do so, because it’s often the muscles, tendons and ligaments that are causing a persons pain yet problems in these tissues don’t often show up on scans unless there is damage. Nothing wrong with the scans, but they only tell half the story. I feel the tissues for the other half of the story. The person usually says, oh yea, that’s it when I touch the problem area.
My Top 5 Common Causes of Low Back Pain
that Few are Looking For
#1 On My List is MUSCLE KNOTS in the Lower Back
I find muscle knots can be a common source of low back pain. You can’t typically massage them out nor would you want to remove them because it’s healthy muscle that’s simply in a state of contraction.
WHAT IS A MUSCLE KNOT?
Flex your bicep right now and notice that it bulges. Why does it bulge? It bulges because the two ends of the muscle approach each other and the muscle tissue in between has to go somewhere so it bulges outward.
It’s the same with a muscle knot. You can feel a muscle knot with your fingers because they bulge outward as well. They’re often hard like your contracted bicep, but only involve a small part of the muscle instead of the whole muscle. They can feel like marbles and are somewhat moveable as you push on them. They also can feel like ropes and as you rub them they flick underneath your fingers.
But there’s a big difference between a contracted bicep and a muscle knot. You actively control whether to flex your bicep. But knots are just there. You have no control whether they’re tight or not.
CAN MUSCLE KNOT’S HURT?
Absolutely they can hurt. People massage the knots and ropes to try to get them to loosen up, but they’re always there and no one knows how to get rid of them...until now!!!
WHAT CAUSES MUSCLE KNOTS?
A lack of cellular energy in the muscle cells cause constant contraction and hence your muscle knots or ropes.
Think of it like Rigor Mortis. Rigor means stiffness and mortis means death. When a person dies all their muscles tighten up so much that the person is stuck in the position that they died in. Now of course you’re alive, but the reason for the rigor (stiffness) in a dead person and in a living person is a lack of Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) energy production in your muscle cells.
Rigor in a dead person is due to lack of circulating blood. Rigor in your muscles is due to a problem in your cells which can be corrected.
HOW ARE MUSCLE KNOTS TREATED?
Tight and knotty muscles exist due to a chemical problem in the actual knot. Trying to treat them physically through manipulation of the muscle usually doesn’t work, but they can be treated chemically with laser light. Laser light enters the knot and does something truly unique. The light interacts with clogged molecules that previously were used for energy production in the muscle cells, but now are useless because they’re clogged. When enough light hits these molecules, the clog is removed and they can immediately be used to make energy again. This lasts even after the lasers are removed from the treatment area. It is truly remarkable. More on this further down the page.
Progression of Worsening Muscle Tissue:
Healthy Muscle
No marbly knots,
soft, smooth.
Poor Muscle
Ridges of contraction,
stiffer, not smooth.
Really Poor Muscle
Large marbly knots,
stiff, lumpy
Terrible Muscle
Huge marbly knots,
very stiff, very lumpy
#2 On My List is Leathery/Tight Muscle
What am I talking about?
Compare a stiff leather jacket verses flannel pants. Your muscles should be soft and loose when they're relaxed, like the flannel pants. And your muscles should only be hard when they're contracted. BUT when your muscles are only slightly stretched and they feel like leather, you have a problem.
CAN LEATHERY/TIGHT MUSCLE HURT?
Absolutely it can hurt. Just like with knots, people massage the tight muscle to try to get it to loosen up, but it rarely does and no one knows how to soften it up...until now!!!
WHAT CAUSES LEATHERY/TIGHT MUSCLE?
Remember how the muscle knots were a localized problem within a muscle. Well leathery/tight muscle is a global problem within a muscle. It to is due to a lack of cellular energy in the muscle cells which cause constant contraction throughout the muscle.
Now the rigor is through the entire muscle or a good chunk of it instead of being a marbly type knot.
It's helpful to think of it as many knots all right next to one another so that the whole muscle is tight and you don't feel the individual knots.
HOW IS LEATHERY/TIGHT MUSCLE TREATED?
It's treated the same way as knots. By applying laser light directly to these muscles, their ATP production increases and it's this increased ATP production that loosens the muscle.
To add a touch more detail here. The laser doesn't directly loosen up the muscle. Instead the laser corrects a metabolism problem in your muscle cells. This allows the cells to increase energy production which relaxes the muscles. It's an indirect effect.
Progression of Worsening Muscle Tissue:
Healthy Muscle
No marbly knots,
soft, smooth.
Poor Muscle
Ridges of contraction,
stiffer, not smooth.
#3 On My List is Tight Sacroiliac & Sacrotuberous Ligaments
What am I talking about?
These two ligaments shown to the right with purple and green shading can become very tight and prevent proper motion of the pelvic bones. Technically this is sacral pain, but everyone including me still refer to this as low back pain.
CAN THESE LIGAMENTS CAUSE PAIN?
Absolutely. Just like with knots and leathery muscle, ligaments can stiffen up. There's no way for you to really feel this on your own, but you can see me evaluate this in the videos of me at my office working on a patient. Laser therapy helps loosen ligaments, but not over loosen them. It just normalizes them.
WHAT CAUSES THESE TIGHT LIGAMENTS?
I don't know why this works, it just does. I also use the lasers on peoples feet all the time where there's lot's of tight ligaments preventing normal foot motion. I believe it works by stimulating ATP production as well, but I just don't know.
EXTRA
The other thing that gets treated when I'm working on these ligaments is the Gluteus Maximus which crosses over these ligaments attaching the sacrum to the femur. Both the ligaments and the Gluteus Maximus are usually tight together. You can see this in the image of the back above.
Reference Images:
Sacroiliac Ligament in Purple
Sacrotuberous Ligament in Green
Sacroiliac Joint shown in purple, but the joint is inside just to the right of the purple line
#4 On My List is Tight Hip Flexors
What am I talking about?
Looking at the second image with the psoas muscle highlighted in purple are low back muscles. But trying to treat these from the back is difficult because they're so far forward on the spine.
CAN THESE MUSCLES CAUSE PAIN?
They can but often don't. But when the psoas muscles are tight, they apply crushing pressure on the lumbar spine AND pull the body forward which makes the lower back muscles contract to keep you upright.
WHAT CAUSES THESE TIGHT LIGAMENTS?
This is the same ATP production problem I've spoken about in #1 #2 and #3. But in life, it's probably that all the sitting we do could be a source of causing this tightness.
EXTRA
I have to treat these muscles through the abdomen. I know this seems odd, but watch the video on this. You'll see how I do it. The laser energy goes right through the abdominal muscles and treats them. The laser energy goes right through the intestines and treats them. The laser energy also gets to the Psoas muscles and Quadratus Lumborum muscles that are just behind the Psoas muscles (not well shown in the images).
Reference Images:
Abdominal muscles shown here.
Abdominals removed to show the psoas muscles.
The left psoas is shown in purple.
#5 On My List is Tight Gluteal Muscles
What am I talking about?
People often mention to me pain in the low back that also travels outward into the buttocks or hips. So this area needs to be evaluated and treated if they are tight.
CAN THESE MUSCLES CAUSE PAIN?
Absolutely. Knots and leathery bands of tightness are often found in these muscles. You may have even felt some of these tight muscles on yourself. But there are certain hip positions that make these tight muscles stand out. I put people into this position so I can evaluate and treat effectively. Laser therapy helps loosen muscles as well.
WHAT ABOUT HIP PAIN?
These muscles are key to treating hip pain. All three gluteal muscles insert into your hip. This tissue is very thick since many muscles insert into the hip. I always need to treat in front of the hip as well, but this page is about low back pain more than hip pain.
WHAT ABOUT SCIATICA?
You can see the sciatic nerve (shown in yellow) in the reference images. I you have true sciatica you'll have shooting pain going down the back of your leg. It's much more common for people to have pain shooting down the side of their leg. This is a different problem however.
WHAT ABOUT PIRIFORMIS SYNDROME?
You can see the piriformis right above the sciatic nerve as it dips under the sacrotuberous ligament in the last two reference images. When I treat the gluteal muscles, I get the Piriformis and all those other small muscles you see around the sciatic nerve, all at the same time.
Reference Images:
Gluteus Maximus
Gluteus Medius
Gluteus Minimus
Why Doesn't Heat Work to Loosen Our Muscles?
Heat is produced when I use the laser. So a question I asked myself and couldn’t answer was, “Why doesn’t a heating pad do the same thing as a laser?” I’m an electrical engineer and I didn’t know. So I asked another and he didn’t know. Then I asked a PhD Professor and he told me why a heating pad and laser were not the same and it all came down to the wavelength of the infrared photons (invisible light particles) emitted from the two sources. Basically, the photons from the heating pad did not have enough energy per photon to change the needed chemistry in the muscle cells. These photons were far infrared way down in the spectrum. But photons from the laser were just slightly infrared, just out of the reach of our eyes to see. These photons do have enough energy to achieve the needed chemistry in the muscle cells. It’s unfortunate that a heating pad doesn’t work, because if it did, our body heat alone could correct our own chemistry. The reason being our body heat is far infrared just like the heating pad. Heat is a by-product of the laser treatment, but not the treatment itself.