This post is for anyone suffering from rib pain and wants to know how to get on top of it as quickly as possible.
Part one of our 2 part rib pain series explores the common causes of rib pain as well as some issues not to be missed in case you have rib pain.
Part 2 will follow shortly and discusses the Align chiropractic approach to assessing people with rib pain.
Rib pain is a common condition that most of us will suffer from at some point in our lives. As a Chiropractor for South Melbourne and Albert Park I can say that our practice sees a lot of clients suffering from rib pain on a weekly basis.
It can arise for a whole host of reasons and if you have ever suffered from rib pain, you know that it can feel like the end of the world!
Rib pain can make it harder for you to sleep, work, exercise, enjoy time with your friends and family or even just breathe.
Pain through the ribs can be a symptom of more serious conditions as well, so it is important that you take care of it right away.
More serious problems that can cause rib pain will be outlined below.
Rib pain can often refer to areas such as your shoulders, arms, upper back and middle back as well as your lower back and the front of your chest.
COMMON CAUSES OF RIB PAIN INCLUDE:
Poor posture (the way your body is positioned when standing or sitting.
Sleeping in an awkward position.
Upper back and neck muscle tension.
Injury such as a muscle strain.
Whiplash.
Prolonged sitting, especially when using a desktop or laptop computer.
Previous injury to your ribs.
Stress.
Sneezing and coughing.
You will notice a common theme to the list above and that is; all of them appear relatively trivial when compared to the impact that rib pain has on our lives.
In fact, for a lot of our clients suffering from rib pain, that adds to the frustration. It doesn't matter if the pain is mild or severe, recent or decades old, most frequently, our clients will say that it just doesn't add up. “Why they are in so much discomfort? Why won’t the pain just go away by itself? Why does it keep coming back?”
HOW CAN SOMETHING SO MUNDANE CAUSE SO MUCH PAIN?
In these situations it is highly likely that there is an underlying imbalance of function that meant that their body was ‘on edge’.
There was a build up of tension in an area of their spine and that mundane event was just the straw that broke the camels back (for the want of a better term).
Does it make sense to you that if your spine is functioning well that a trivial stress would be enough to make your mid back and ribs hurt?
If your range of motion was symmetrical, your muscles, ligaments and tendons were relaxed, elastic and strong does it make sense that it would suddenly start to hurt you?
Of course it doesn’t.
An underlying imbalance of function is most likely why you notice rib pain that comes out of no where, or won’t calm down, or keeps coming back.
This is why our initial assessment of someone with rib pain looks for two things:
What is the cause pain and how do we get it to calm down as quickly as possible?
Is there an underlying imbalance and if so, what can you do to address it to minimise the chances of it coming back?
For a more detailed account of how we assess these 2 features, be on the look out for Part 2 of rib pain which will be posted soon.
As stated earlier, there are also more serious causes of rib pain that, although much more rare than the list above, we need to screen for and you need to be aware of.
Some of the more serious causes of rib pain are:
Fractured ribs or vertebrae,
Disc prolapse compressing on nerves,
Cancer,
Pleurisy,
Heart attack,
Shingles
We have designed our assessment to be able to determine if your rib pain arises from an issue that we can start to address immediately, requires referring for further testing (such as X-rays or MRI etc.) or if you require immediate referral for medical assessment.
SO HOW DO I KNOW IF I NEED TO SEE YOU OR GO TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM?
If you are experiencing intense rib pain after a severe injury, have intense pain when breathing that stops when you hold your breath, have lost or severely altered bowel and/or bladder function, your rib pain is linked to intense fever and/or unexplained weight loss, your rib pain also shoots down your arm or is accompanied by a rash, we advise that you visit your ED as soon as is possible to make sure that you aren’t suffering from more serious conditions.
As always, if you are concerned that you might be having a heart attack, contact 000 IMMEDIATELY, you are better to be too eager to call for an ambulance than not eager enough.
If you have any questions or concerns about rib pain, please do not hesitate to get in contact with us at Align.