If you have lower back pain with or without lower extremity pain (leg pain), have you ever felt a bit tipsy – that is, sort of in a state in imbalance? Do you feel unsteady walking? Well, join the crowd! Other La Grande lower back pain patients do, too. Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC reduces the back pain that leads to this walking imbalance and gets you walking the straight-and-narrow once again!

Fascinatingly, pain intensity has been shown to correlate with postural sway (sort of like a dizzy walk). Conversely, as pain is reduced, a person feels more balanced with a normal gait or walking stance. Some of Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC’s patients even hang onto the hallway walls as they walk to their chiropractic treatment rooms.

So just how much pain reduction has been found to reduce postural sway? If pain is expressed on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being the least pain and 10 the worst), it was found that a drop of 4 points equated to significant decrease in postural sway. (1) Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC will have you report on your pain at every visit. We want to keep track of your progress.

Now, think that if the pain were not decreased. There could be an increase in postural sway to the point of possibly causing difficulty in getting through the day or being more prone to falling. In this study, postural sway remained similar to baseline for lower back pain patients who did not report significant pain reduction. So Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC uses our chiropractic treatment plan to help reduce your back pain as fast as possible.

Know that postural sway changes are closely related to your self-reported pain intensities on that 1 to 10 scale. Pain interference seems responsible for the altered sway in lower back pain sufferers. This is why Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC uses sway measures as an objective monitoring tool during lower back pain treatment and/or rehabilitation starting during your chiropractic examination.

Your La Grande chiropractor at Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC is trained to recognize postural faults that occur with lower back pain or leg pain. Contact Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC for relief of both your lower back pain and imbalance issues. You’ll be glad you did!