Some back and neck pain needs a doctor today, not a chiropractor. Some back and neck pain is not a case for a chiropractor and needs a doctor the same day. Go to an emergency room, not to us, if you have numbness in the groin or inner thighs, if you have lost control of your bladder or bowels, if a leg is becoming weak rather than just painful, if the pain followed a serious fall or a car crash, if you have a fever with back pain, if you have unexplained weight loss alongside it, if you have a history of cancer, or if a headache came on suddenly and is the worst you have ever had. We would rather you rang your doctor and never rang us at all.
Lower back pain is the most common reason people walk through this door and it is also the most over-dramatised. The overwhelming majority of it is what gets called non-specific low back pain, which is an unsatisfying name for a real and painful thing: a joint that has become irritated and stiff, and a considerable amount of muscle around it that has locked down to protect it. It hurts a great deal, it frightens people badly, and it is not a sign that anything is crumbling.
What we do about it is unglamorous and reasonably effective. We work out which movements provoke it and which relieve it, get the stiff segment moving again by hand, release the muscle that has been guarding, and give you two or three specific things to do at home. Then we get you moving — because the single most useful thing most people with a sore back can do is walk, in short bouts, several times a day. Bed rest was the standard advice for decades and it reliably made people worse.
The other half of the job is knowing when this is not our problem. Pain running below the knee that is getting worse, weakness in a leg, numbness in the groin, a fever, unexplained weight loss, a history of cancer, or pain that started with a serious fall — these are not cases for a chiropractor and we will tell you so the same day. It is a small minority of what walks in, and it is the reason a first visit is an hour of questions rather than ten minutes and a table.
The four patterns we see most
Different backs, different plans. The examination is largely about working out which of these you are.
The sudden lock-up
You bent, twisted or lifted, something caught, and now you are stuck at forty-five degrees and walking like a much older person. It is frightening and it is usually mechanical. It typically responds well and quickly: most people are substantially better within two weeks, and hands-on treatment plus early gentle movement tends to shorten that. We keep same-day slots for exactly this.
The one that has been there for months
Long-running low back pain is a different animal and needs a different plan. Less hands-on work, more loading and strengthening, and an honest conversation about sleep, stress, work and everything you have quietly stopped doing because it hurts. It moves more slowly, it moves unevenly, and it is measured by what you can do rather than by how it feels on any given Tuesday.
The one that goes down the leg
Pain, pins and needles or numbness travelling below the knee usually means a nerve root is irritated, often by a disc. It needs proper neurological examination rather than treating blind, because the small number of cases with progressing weakness need imaging and a surgical opinion rather than a course of care here. The sciatica and disc injury care pages cover that.
The stiff-in-the-morning one
A back that is worst on waking, takes half an hour to loosen and improves with movement is a different pattern again, and in younger adults with months of it, one worth mentioning to your doctor as well as to us. We will treat the mechanical part of it, and we will say plainly when we think somebody else should be looking at the rest.
What actually helps
In rough order of how much difference it makes over a year, which is not the order most people expect.
Movement, early and often
Walking is the most useful thing most people with a sore back can do, and doing it in five ten-minute bouts beats one fifty-minute march. The instinct to lie still is strong and it is wrong: prolonged rest stiffens the joint, deconditions the muscle and reliably lengthens recovery. Move within what you can tolerate, and expect tolerance to grow week by week.
Hands-on treatment
Adjustment, mobilisation and soft-tissue work tend to buy a window in which movement is easier and less frightening. That window is the point of the treatment — it is what lets you walk, sleep and do the exercises. Treatment on its own, with nothing changed between visits, is a much weaker intervention than the same treatment plus the homework.
Two or three exercises, most days
Ten minutes. Written down. Specific to what your examination found rather than a printed sheet handed to everybody. This is the part that changes what happens over months, and it is the part everybody drops first. If what we gave you is too long or too dull to actually do, tell us and we will trade it for something you will do.
Sleep and load
A back that is not sleeping does not settle. Side-lying with a pillow between the knees suits most sore backs. Beyond that: how you sit for work, how you lift at work, how much you have taken on and how little you are moving. These are less satisfying than a treatment table and they account for a great deal of who is still sore in six months.
When it is not a job for us
A short list, but the most important one on the page. If any of these is you, ring your doctor rather than booking here.
Numbness in the groin, or loss of bladder or bowel control
Numbness in the groin, buttocks or inner thighs, difficulty passing urine or losing control of your bladder or bowels, alongside back pain, is a surgical emergency. Go to an emergency room now. Do not wait for an appointment here, do not wait until morning, and do not ring us first — the delay is the thing that causes the harm.
A leg that is getting weaker
Weakness rather than pain — a foot that catches on kerbs, a leg that gives way, difficulty pushing up onto your toes — and particularly weakness that is worse this week than last, needs assessing urgently. That means imaging and a specialist opinion, not another treatment. We will make that referral the same day if you present with it here.
Fever, weight loss, or a history of cancer
Back pain with a fever, with unexplained weight loss, or in someone with a history of cancer, is treated as a medical question until proven otherwise. So is night pain that wakes you and will not settle in any position. These are uncommon, they are why we ask, and they go to your doctor rather than onto our table.
Serious trauma
Pain that started with a fall from a height, a road collision or a direct blow needs a fracture ruled out before anybody puts hands on it — particularly over fifty, and particularly with thinning bone. If you were in a car crash, the auto accident care page explains how that pathway works and why the paperwork matters from day one.
Lower Back Pain in western Queens
The single most common reason anybody rings this clinic. Most of it is a joint and the muscle around it, most of it improves inside a few weeks, and most of it does not need a scan.
Every course of care here starts the same way: a full hour, a proper history, an examination, and then a plain statement of what we think is going on and how confident we are about it. You are told what we propose, roughly how many visits it ought to take and what should have changed by when — and we agree a date to stop and look at whether it worked. If the honest answer at any point is that this needs somebody else, you get that instead, and we write to them the same week.
Chiropractic care is not a substitute for medical diagnosis. Chiropractic care is not a substitute for medical diagnosis, and nothing on this website is medical advice for your particular problem. We are not physicians: we do not prescribe medication, we do not perform surgery, and we do not treat disease. What we do is examine how your spine and joints move, work on them by hand, and give you something to do between visits. If your problem turns out to be outside that, we say so and refer you — which happens often enough that you should expect it as a normal outcome rather than a failure.
What chiropractic does not treat. We treat musculoskeletal problems: the spine, the joints, the muscles and the nerves that are irritated by them. We do not claim that adjusting a spine treats asthma, allergies, ear infections, colic, digestive disease, high blood pressure, infertility, immune function or any other internal illness. Chiropractors who make those claims are making them without good evidence, and you should be wary of anybody who does. If somebody has told you that spinal care will fix a condition on that list, we will tell you honestly that it will not.
Questions
Lower Back Pain — the questions we are asked most
How long should this take to get better?
For a sudden lock-up with no leg symptoms, most people are substantially better within two to four weeks and we would expect to see meaningful change inside three or four visits. If there has been no change at all by the fourth, we stop and reconsider rather than booking a fifth — that is agreed with you at the first appointment. Long-running pain is slower, less linear, and measured by what you can do rather than by a daily score.
Do I need an MRI?
Almost certainly not, at least not yet. Imaging changes what we do in a small minority of cases, and scanning ordinary back pain routinely does more harm than good, because it turns up bulges and wear that are present in plenty of people with no pain at all and frightens them into avoiding movement. An MRI earns its place when there are neurological signs, when red flags are present, or when a problem has not settled as it should.
Should I rest or keep moving?
Keep moving, within what you can tolerate. Bed rest was standard advice for decades and it made people worse: joints stiffen, muscle deconditions, and confidence drains away faster than the pain does. Short, frequent walks beat one long one, and doing a little of something several times a day beats doing nothing and then overdoing it on the day you feel better. If a movement sharply worsens things, avoid that one specifically rather than avoiding everything.
Is my back pain caused by a slipped disc?
Probably not, and discs do not actually slip. The overwhelming majority of low back pain has no single identifiable structure to blame, which is why the honest label for it is non-specific — irritated joint, guarding muscle, sensitised tissue. Disc-related pain has a fairly recognisable pattern, usually involving symptoms travelling into the leg, and the examination is largely about telling the two apart. The disc injury care page describes that pattern.
Can you cure my back pain permanently?
No, and nobody honest will promise you that. Back pain recurs in a good proportion of people whatever they do, and a clinic guaranteeing a permanent cure is guaranteeing something outside anybody's control. What can genuinely be done is to settle the current episode faster, make the next one less likely and less severe, and leave you knowing what to do in the first week of it rather than frightened by it.
My back went yesterday. Can I be seen today?
Usually yes — we keep slots open across the week for exactly this, because a back that has just locked up is both the most common thing we see and the thing that responds best to being seen early. Book the first free hour on the booking page or ring the clinic. If you have any of the red-flag symptoms on this page, go to a doctor today instead and come to us afterwards.
Related
Often seen alongside this
Spine & Nerve Pain
Chiropractic Adjustment
The technique the whole trade is named after: a short, shallow, quick movement through a stiff joint. It takes a fraction of a second, it is usually a relief rather than a pain, and it is not the only thing we do.
Read more
Spine & Nerve Pain
Neck Pain
A neck that will not turn, a shoulder that aches with it, and a headache creeping up the back of the skull. Treatable — and treatable without high-velocity manipulation if that is what you would prefer.
Read more
Spine & Nerve Pain
Sciatica & Leg Pain
Pain, pins and needles or numbness running from the back into the leg. Usually an irritated nerve root, usually settling over weeks to months, and occasionally a reason to be examined urgently.
Read moreA fee agreed before the visit, not after it
Book an appointment
Pick a chiropractor and an hour from the calendar — it shows only the times each of them genuinely has free. A first visit is a full hour and costs $95 for the examination on its own, or $145 if we treat you at the same appointment. You decide which after the examination, not before.