I’ve been told I’m quite thorough. Occasionally, to the surprise and complaint of someone! Why you wouldn’t want your health care provider to be thorough is beyond my understanding, but I digress…
For all of my 23 years of clinical practice, the first visit in my practice involves a comprehensive health history, and physical assessment. I’ll look at all the areas of the spine and how the body is moving in general, regardless whether someone comes in with a specific complain or not (if you’re wondering why people would see a Chiropractor without having any pain read this blog post or this one on healthy neurological function and kids, or listen to this podcast episode.).
The reason why I will always look at the whole spine is roughly summarized with this research:
A study dug into how forward head posture ties directly to chronic low back pain—and the results are eye-opening.
Researchers looked at 100 adults with chronic low back pain. They measured head position (craniovertebral angle) alongside spinopelvic alignment—things like lumbar lordosis, sacral slope, and pelvic tilt. Then they compared all of that to pain scores.
What they found:
- More forward head posture was linked with more pain
- Lumbar lordosis (that curve in the low back) showed a very strong positive correlation with pain. More curve = more reported pain.
- Sacral slope (angle of your tailbone) also tracked closely with pain.
- Pelvic tilt, interestingly, showed the opposite: higher tilt actually reduced pain intensity.
Why does this matter for you?
This study simply reinforces what many Chiropractors see daily—spinal health isn’t just for one area of your spine, it’s for the whole thing! The head, neck, pelvis, and lumbar spine are in constant conversation. If the head drifts forward, the pelvis compensates, and the lumbar spine follows. Over time, those compensations can be a big driver of chronic low back pain.
All this to say, if we aren’t looking at the entirety of your spine, regardless of what complaint brought you to see us, we’d be missing part of the picture that will give you the best results. So I’ll stick to being thorough in my assessments, and it’s certainly something to look for when choosing your own Chiropractor.
Want to experience a thorough, whole spine chiropractic assessment yourself? Book your visit here.
