Just wondering who is best to see for lower back pain and stiffness. Would you use an Osteo or a Chiro? Normally any back problems I have will come and go pretty quickly with some remedial massage but this time the stiffness is lingering for much longer so I may need some cracking to rectify the problem.
Without knowing anyone's circumstances and lifestyle I can offer you all a possibility to consider;
I've been very active physically with sport etc my whole life, and never had much trouble with injuries etc - just the odd muscle strain and rolled ankles, a few days later back to normal.
When I started teaching golf, the "bad back" issue came up very often with pupils who wanted to learn golf.
In almost every case I can think of, their lifestyle was a bit "sedentry".....office workers, sales people in cars a lot etc. I'd get the odd tradie etc with a bad back from their work, but not many.
Then, when my wife and I moved to the Mornington Peninsula to run our B&B in 1998, I was still commuting an hour each way and more as well, every day back to Box Hill.
As well as this, I was sitting on a ride-on mower for at least 6 hours per week to keep the practice fairway and the laws/nature strips in pristine condition at our B&B property. Our property was 5 acres, on a corner and just the naturestrips alone were about 1400 square metres, plus the practice fairway and other lawns around the house; approx 4 acres or so of grass all up.
After about 6 months of this, I started to get a very sore back which never seemed to go away.
We eventually sold the B&B, moved, got back to being more active and got away from all the sitting in a car and on a mower, it went away.
Compare that period to now, where most of my week involves standing up most of the day in workboots on concrete floors, bending over to take tyres off cars, lift them on, running around - basically very active and physical, and so on and so on - no bad backs and fitter now at 52 than at the B&B as a 37 year old.
So; in m experience it is definitely a factor to be considered that a bad back may be influenced by lifestyle.
Probably a regular exercise and stretching routine would make a world of difference in this regard.
Of course; things like "slipped" discs or herniated discs etc are a different problem altogether, but most of the bad backs I've seen are basically lack of conditioning and exercise, and a lot of sitting down at steering wheels and/or desks.
Don't go to a chiro - go to a physio if an active lifestyle doesn't fix it - but allow a good month or more to see real improvement.