No one would disagree that having back and neck pain causes stress, but what about the other way around? Could stress be the primary cause of back pain?

How does stress cause back pain?

There are a variety of theories about the causes of stress related back pain. Importantly, the overriding tenet in all of these theories is that psychological and emotional
factors cause some type of physical change resulting in the back pain. In most theories of stress- related back pain, the pain cycle continues and is exacerbated as the pain leads to the patient becoming timid and anxious about daily activities. The pain cycle is characterized by:

• The patient becomes unnecessarily limited in many functions of daily life, as well as leisure activities
• This decrease in activities is due to the patient's fear of the pain and injury
• This fear may be made worse by admonitions from doctors (and/or family and friends) to "take it easy" due to some structural diagnosis (which may actually have nothing to do with the back pain)
• The limitations in movement and activity lead to physical de- conditioning and muscle weakening, which in turn leads to more back pain

Of course, this cycle results in more pain, more fear, and more physical de-conditioning along with other reactions such as social isolation, depression and anxiety.

Leg pain may be caused by a problem in the leg, but often it starts with a problem in the lower back, where the sciatic nerve originates, and then travels along the path of the nerve.

Sometimes a headache may be caused by a problem with the occipital nerve, which travels through a segment of spine in the neck.

Joint dysfunction in the spine can produce pain, and mobilizing the spine joints through manipulations (also called adjustments) can decrease that pain.

The term "subluxation" is used by doctors of chiropractic to depict the altered position of the vertebra and subsequent functional loss, which determines the location for the spinal manipulation.