Back Pain, Back pain is perhaps the most common aliment in America affecting 90 percent of the population at one time or another. The estimated cost is in excess of 100 billion a year. By contrast to the medical system the chiropractic approach is to find structural misalignments  in your spine and correct them through an adjustment. These imbalances known as subluxations are quite common in the population and can include an individual’s discs, nerves, ligaments and different aspects of  biomechanical function. Once your chiropractor can clear these from your spine the mind and body can function more effectively.  Chiropractors have helped millions with back pain for over a 100 years, frequently saving them from surgery or medical treatments . It is for this reason that chiropractic should be the method of first choice with sciatic or back pain. If the problem persists after a course of treatments then surgery should be considered.  For many, surgery for back pain is not the answer.  Patients can have a recurrence of back pain within a year or two with the symptoms severe enough to warrant an additional surgery   In a study by Manca A, Kumar K, et al,  Eur J Pain, it was reported that 20 to 40 percent of the 300,000 back surgeries performed each year fail. Chiropractic treatments are generally painless and have helped millions with low back pain without the use of drugs or surgery. Chiropractic has also been shown to be particularly effective with the fairly intractable type of back pain known as sciatica. Sciatica can start from any number of different onsets, from arthritis, herniated discs or severe muscle spasms where the large sciatic nerve is involved. This is the longest nerve in the body and runs from a person’s low back , thru the pelvis and down to the toes. This can produce a burning pain similar to a ‘ pins and needles ‘ sensation. Although surgery is frequently performed for this condition chiropractic care should be tried first due to it’s non-invasive approached.