Your hips are considered “ball and socket” joints which makes them essential for all different movements including walking, standing, playing golf, tennis, pickle ball and other important functions.
Chiropractic adjustments help keep your hips balanced and in alignment. Studies have shown that unbalanced hips can be the cause of lower back pain. Dysfunction in the hip joint can not only cause pain but can also cause arthritis.
Understanding the underlining causes of what triggers hip flexor pain creates several benefits. This allows us to prevent ourselves from getting this kind of injury.
Our hip flexor connects the top of our femur to the lower part of our back as well as our hips and groin. The femur is the largest bone in the human body and the hip flexor is just as important by association. Let us take a look at the activities that may create this injury:
- Dancing
- Martial Arts
- Athletics
- Stretching improperly
- Hamstring strains
- Gymnastics
- Sitting
- Sleeping position
- Tendonitis
- Etc.
Think of real estate when it comes to hip pain. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!!! It is important to be extremely specific when speaking with Dr. Kuskin when discussing hip pain. This will help in the diagnosis as well as treatment protocol for your specific hip pain.
When a patient comes to United Joint and Spine Center with hip pain a good portion of the visit(s) are spent discussing where the hip hurts. The hip pain can move to other areas as you progress. When the pain moves, your body is reverting to the original injury location. There are three typical locations of “hip” pain. Front, side, and back. Let us take a look at theses 3 areas so you can have a better understanding which location best describes your injury.
Front
Pain in the front of the hip, or groin, is true hip pain. This is the typical location of pain when there is pathology within the ball and socket joint itself. In young patients, this can be caused by a labral tear or impingement. In older patients, groin pain is typically from arthritis of the hip.
Side
Lateral pain, or pain on the outside of the hip, is typically caused by irritation or inflammation in the area where the iliotibial (IT) band meets the uppermost part of the thigh bone, the greater trochanter. Traditionally this has been referred to as “trochanteric bursitis”. We now refer to this as “peritrochanteric pain” because it is more inclusive of the problems that can cause lateral hip pain. These include IT band syndrome, hip abductor tendon tears, and bursitis.
Back
Posterior hip pain is most often caused by a pinched nerve in the lumbar spine. Nerves in the lumbar spine are pinched when a disk herniates or there are bone spurs pressing on the nerve. In addition, to buttock pain patients can experience pain radiating down the back of the leg to the foot. If pain radiates past the knee, it is likely nerve pain.
If you are experiencing hip pain, pay close attention to where it hurts. This information will help Dr. Kuskin choose the most appropriate treatment plan specifically for you
