David Perna, D.C.

Many patients perform some self-care when they first hurt their lower back, hoping this will keep them out of a doctor's office. While home remedies can sometimes make the pain go away, sometimes they don't. It just depends on what you try. When the back is first hurt, it's often a sprain/strain type of injury [..]

We all know it's important to maintain good back health by doing things that help strengthen it and avoid the things that cause harm. This is just common sense. But just what are the "things" we need to avoid and what are some simple activities we can do to prevent back problems from occurring in [..]

Subluxation is a term used by some chiropractors to describe a dysfunction involving the vertebral joints when such joints are out of their normal position. But how does a joint get out of its normal position? Usually, the culprit is some sort of trauma but not necessarily at the level of a high fall or [..]

People who injure their lower back on the job often consult a chiropractor. A 2007 study (J Occup Environ med 2007;49:1124;Wasiak R, Kim J, Pransky GS) looked at the use of chiropractic care to treat on-the-job low back injuries and found that about 89% of workers included in the study initiated chiropractic care within 30 [..]

When pain strikes the lower back, we usually think it's a new problem or injury. But why was coughing, shaving, doing the laundry, or whatever activity you were engaged in so different this time? These are things you probably do every day. So, what is the problem? The problem is a joint dysfunction or subluxation [..]

For many of us, low back pain is somewhat of a middle age problem. Lots of sufferers begin to seek chiropractic care in their 30s and 40s and wonder how it all happened. Perhaps it was a sneeze, a long drive, or gardening in the yard that set the pain off. But you were always [..]

Your "back pain" might be a misnomer. We commonly confuse pain for a problem. Doctors don't often help matters by not doing thorough examinations, and just offering a prescription of pain pills or anti-inflammatory drugs when the patient comes in with a complaint of pain. So what is the difference? The pain is part of [..]

With any health condition, most doctors agree an accurate diagnosis is important. But with low back pain, it seems that many sufferers postpone a visit to the doctor in hopes that it will go away on its own. It's no wonder many patients take this approach, since advertisements continually tell us that relief comes in [..]

Our sense of balance comes from a few different areas of the body. The inner ear gives us input on the position of our head and whether we are moving. This is combined with input from the eyes, which gives similar information. Most people think this is where it ends, but the spine is also [..]

One important concept in spine care is making the patient an active participant in their rehabilitation. It's important to change our sedentary lifestyles so that we not only get well, but also do things that prevent problems from occurring in the first place. But first, it is important to understand how back injuries occur. When [..]