Hip Pain and Chiropractic Care?

There are a lot of different types of hip pain. Pain can occur in the back of the hip near the spine.  It can hurt deep in the joint, down the side of the leg and even in the front of the groin.

The Hip is an amazing structure.

It is a ball and socket joint which allows great mobility, yet it is the focal point of some of the largest and strongest muscles in the body.

As a clinician, I really enjoy working with hip pain patients.  It is one of what I like to call a “gateway” joint. What I mean by this is that people come in complaining of hip pain, but by the time they are done with their care, most of them realize how interconnected the human body really is.

It is easy to look at the body in regions; the neck, the mid back and the low back….as if they were different organs.  The fact is however, the spine from top to bottom is one functional organ.  What happens in the neck – without a doubt – affects the low back.

When treating hip pain, it is important to look at the lumbar spine and the knees and the ankles and the feet!  That’s a lot to look at for one region of pain! But… due to the way the hip is designed, it has to be done that way.

I like to look at the body as a stack of joints that work together in alternating function of mobility and stability.  Believe me, this is a ridiculously simplified version of looking at this subject, but for this website, it is enough to make the point.

The foot should be strong and stable so it can form a rigid lever and produce ground reactive forces to allow us to run!  

The ankle should be very mobile – that is what it is designed to do.  

Then knee should be strong and stable.  It is a hinge joint whose major function is flexion and extension.

The HIP should be very mobile.

And the Low back should be very strong and stable.  

If a joint becomes fixated or it doesn’t move the way it should, it will force the joint above and below it to alter it’s function.  For example, if someone were to sit for long periods….day after day after day, then they would most likely develop short, tight dysfunctional hip flexors and long, weak, dysfunctional hip extensors. In other words, they get stiff  and immobile hips.  When this happens, it forces the lumbar spine and the knees to become less stable and more mobile than they should be.

So, rather than simply looking at the hip as a stand alone joint…whenever I evaluate a patient with hip pain, I remember to look at it as the LUMBO-PELVIC-HIP complex.

Hip pain can be debilitating, after all….hip replacement surgery is very common in the United States. However, chiropractic has been shown to be very effective for treating some types of hip pain.