Common Causes of SI Joint Pain | Chiropractor for SI Joint Pain in Springfield, IL
Hey everybody, this is Dr. Pat from the Springfield Wellness Center and today we’re going to be talking about SI joint pain. And I wanted to review some of the common causes of SI joint pain because this is a very common problem that affects a lot of different people.
So just to start off the SI joint pain to get you oriented is where the sacrum, which is at the bottom of the spine meets the ilium bone of the pelvis. So there’s three bones in the pelvis, one of them is the ilium, where we have the the iliac crest here, and that joint that forms between them is the SI joint or sacral iliac joint. So this is a powerful joint doesn’t move a whole lot, nor does it need to, but it needs to provide stability for the spine and for the pelvis in the lower extremity. So a lot of force gets transmitted through there. So it’s important to keep it healthy and functional. Now, there’s a lot of different things that can cause it, I wanted to review five common causes of SI joint pain today.
Trauma
So the first one would be trauma. So if we take something like a car accident, for example, this is a very common cause of SI joint pain. So if we’re sitting in the car, and we get rear ended or hit from the side, there’s a lot of force that goes in through the legs. And that can sometimes jam that SI joint in here. And that can cause inflammation, irritation, could cause some ligament damage around there, those ligaments connecting the bones together, that can be a source of a lot of pain and frustration for people, especially over the course of the healing process. So you know, that’s a very common cause. Obviously, other follow up things like falls or slips, or sports injuries, those are also considered traumas as well. But car accidents are a really common one that we see a lot of SI joint pain with here at the office.
Pregnancy
Second would be pregnancy. So whenever a woman is pregnant, there is a lot of mobility occurring in the pelvis because the body is getting ready to labor and deliver a child. And so when that happens, there is a hormone called relaxin that goes throughout the body. And it helps make some of these joints and ligaments that are meant to be more rigid, starts to make them looser, and one of them is the SI joint. And so when that happens, the most added mobility of that joint can be uncomfortable for those who are experiencing that. So one thing that’s definitely helpful is chiropractic, making sure everything stays in the right alignment. But outside the office, a lot of women will use what’s called the chokey enteric belt. And what that belt does, is a wrapper around the pelvis here at the level of the SI joint. And it helps to just keep everything stable, keeps everything from moving too much, especially with things like walking, bending that kind of stuff, and provides more relief for helping keeping things stable in that regard there.
Arthritis
The third one would be arthritis. So arthritis means degeneration or joint inflammation of a joint. And when that occurs in that SI joint, it’s usually called sacrum, Ely, itis. So, when this happens, a joint space is reducing, which means we’re going to feel more of the effects of the walking the force that goes through that joint at any given moment. And so with arthritis, it’s important that we need to keep things moving as much as possible, as much as able to be possible because obviously, it’s a one way street with arthritis, there’s no going back or reestablishing that joint space, we have to make the most of what we have at that time. So if you have sacroiliitis or you have arthritis in your SI joint, it’s important to maintain what mobility that we can.
Scoliosis
The fourth one would be scoliosis. So scoliosis is where the spine has curvatures from side to side. So when we look at the spine, from here, we can see that there’s a curve here and curve here and a curve here, those are normal curve. Whenever we have a curve that goes to the side, this is an abnormal curve known as scoliosis. Now a lot of times scoliosis is idiopathic, which means that there’s no known cause it’s just happens from birth. And what a lot of times we’ll see is that pelvis being tilted higher, one side versus the other. And what that does is that creates a lot of abnormal and unequal force between these two SI joints. So if the spine is straight, walking is going to be normal, we’re going to feel that force equally. Whenever it’s tilted. Now it’s going to be unequal, we’re gonna see more stress on one side versus the other. And over time, that can cause more problems in the SI joints. So whenever we’re working with scoliosis patients, we always want to make sure that we’re taking care of the spine, but also really taking care of those SI joints, as well.
Spinal Fusion
And the last one would be a spinal fusion. So a fusion is where the bones in the spine are fused together using plates and screws. Usually what happens is the disc has fully deteriorated, it’s practically bone on bone, and they put the plate and screws to lock that joint together, so now it can’t move anymore, and cause that discomfort. Now, what that means is that the movement that occurs has to come from somewhere else since it can no longer occur at that joint. So what’s needed is the other joints around it have to pick up the slack. Sometimes that’s the SI joints and when that happens They can get irritated as a result of that. And so it’s always important to maintain good spinal health, good SI joint health to make sure that you can be as functional and happy as possible as you’re navigating life.
So, that’s five things that can cause SI joint pain. Hope you found this video informational. If you have any questions, please leave us a comment or contact us. Otherwise, we’ll see you on the next video.