The piriformis muscle is located deep in the buttock. It reaches from the pelvis (sacrum) to the upper part of the thigh-bone (femur).

There are times when this muscle goes into spasm. The cause is often related to the spine or sacroiliac joints, or from overuse. If the muscle is in spasm it can cause neurological symptoms such as pain, numbness, pins and needles, tingling and weakness due to compression of the sciatic nerve. This is called piriformis syndrome.

The piriformis muscle, located deep in the buttock, can cause a great deal of pain if it goes into spasm. The chiropractic approach to diagnosing this syndrome includes a full evaluation of your spine and pelvis and the related musculature. A functional, orthopedic and neurological examination is normally also performed.

A new study confirms that rocker bottom shoes help strengthen back muscles, improving the spine’s curvature and thus reducing low back pain.

Sports physiotherapy researchers have confirmed, in a new study of their research work into back pain, that unstable shoes improve the strength of back muscles in order to maintain balance and stability when walking. This muscular strengthening contributes to reducing low-intensity chronic low back pain, which can be disabling for those who suffer it.

A call to action on lower back pain remedies has been issued by prominent international researchers in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet. They recommend:

• coordinated international leadership to drive transformational change across health and social services and occupational settings to stop fragmented and outdated models of care

• development of evidence-based medical responses to low back pain emphasizing the concept of ‘positive health’—the ability to adapt and self-manage in the face of social, physical and emotional challenges

A series of groundbreaking research reports in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet warn that low back pain is a major health burden globally—across developed and developing nations—and that the current use of X-rays and scans, opioids, injections and surgery to investigate and treat the condition is useless, unnecessary and harmful.

Traveling can be rough on the body. Whether you are traveling alone on business, or on your way to a sunny resort with your family, long hours in a car or on an airplane can leave you stressed, tired, stiff and sore.

A large percentage of patients with knee, hip and spine osteoarthritis use opioids to manage their chronic pain, especially those who are younger or have symptoms of depression, according to new research findings. Osteoarthritis, or OA, is the most common joint disease affecting middle-aged and older people. It is characterized by progressive damage to the joint cartilage—the cushioning material at the end of long bones—and causes changes in the structures around the joint.

Rainy weather has long been blamed for achy joints. Unjustly so, according to new research from Harvard Medical School. The analysis found no relationship between rainfall and joint or back pain.

With the steep costs associated with prescription drugs, chiropractic’s conservative approach makes economic sense as well. A 2012 study found that spinal manipulation for neck and back pain was cost-effective, used either alone or combined with other therapies first.

Another study based on Washington state workers found that 42.7 percent of people who visited a surgeon first for work-related back pain eventually had surgery, compared to only 1.5 percent of those who visited a chiropractor first.

It was once believed that taking pain medication and getting some rest and relaxation were the best course of treatment for a bout of low-back pain, but nowadays research supports first trying drug-free, conservative options for pain management while remaining as active as possible during recuperation.