A Hiatal Hernia is possibly something you have heard of before but you might not know what it is. You probably have no idea of how it relates to back pain.
What is a Hiatal Hernia?
As you know, when you eat food or drink water, the food or water travels down a tube called the esophagus. Your chest is where your lungs and heart sit. At the bottom of this space is the breathing muscle called the diaphragm. This area is airtight so when your diaphragm contracts it can bring in air to the lungs. For the food and drink to get to the stomach, the esophagus goes through a hole in the diaphragm and then empties into the stomach. this stomach sits just below the diaphragm.
A hiatal hernia happens when the top part of your stomach pushes through the hole in your diaphragm. You may be wondering What this could possibly have to do with back pain!
Hiatal hernia can be the cause of back pain. Most of the time this pain is more toward the mid back. But sometimes, the pan of a hiatal hernia can be down in the lower back. This pain is known as referred pain.
How do we get rid of the pain?
Hiatal hernia is often treated with antiacid medication. This is because Hiatal hernia most often causes symptoms of GERD, which is a reflux of acid from the stomach. Although this is a common treatment for GERD symptoms, this is probably not going to help any back pain, The back pain is more likely going to be caused by the interaction of the stomach and the diaphragm. In order to help this, the stomach must physically be removed from the diaphragm.
Surgery is one way to do this. Surgery is very invasive, and the success rate is less than 50% for long-term relief.. There is another option. Some chiropractors are trained in a method that can pull the stomach down from the diaphragm. This is not a common technique so you may have to search hard for anyone who can perform this procedure. This work does have a much better degree of success. You may have to have it repeated to keep the relief. Once you keep the stomach out of the diaphragm long enough, the hole will repair. This will make it harder for the stomach to go back up.
In summary, a hiatal hernia can be a cause of back pain. If it is, you require either surgery or some way to pull the stomach out of the diaphragm,
