I myself have suffered from sometimes debilitating low back pain since my early teens. I am an active person having had my fair share of injuries from sports activities and bike as well as car accidents. Combining that with a bunch of sitting...there is the pain.

Trying to eliminate that pain has been an interesting journey. When it comes to understanding where the pain comes from, confusion already starts. We often feel like the pain is in the muscle...they sure contract like crazy! Other times it feels like the sciatic nerve is simply inflamed driving us crazy. Reviewing current literature makes us understand that the most pain producing structure in the low back is the disc followed by the smaller facet joints behind the disc connecting two vertebrae.  

Great! We can target the disc and get rid of most of the pain! ....Well, over years of suffering and then practice fixing low back pains has shown me an interesting connection between the pelvis and the disc that has a huge impact for many of my patients who haven't gotten relieve by simply treating the disc. For many years I thought I was a little crazy, but then I found out that even Janet Travell, JFK's personal physician described this connection in her book.

In my examinations, I often find one side of the pelvis being higher then the other side. These patients complain of pains in the low back, but also sometimes in the groin going down into the thigh. By treating the high pelvis with gentle adjusting techniques and leveling it, many if not all the symptoms disappear in the patient. They often get relieve for weeks or more after only a few applications. Even patients after lumbar disc surgery or many injections, this fairly simple procedure can help the patient greatly decrease pain and increase activity, but also free them from many medications and unnecessary surgeries. 

As far as understanding the connection, consider that the lumbar spine has a forward curve when looking at it from the side.  This curve is natural and needs to be there. The disc is very strong protecting that curvature. Now let's imagine looking from the back. In this view, the spine should be a straight line. The top of the right and left pelvis is level. Well, that is where there often is a problem. If the top of the pelvis is not balanced and one side is shifted higher then the other, the spine will lean to one side a little bit. It's kind of like the 'Leaning Tower of Pisa'.  This will create extra pulling forces on the side of the discs stressing them. That area of the disc is very pain sensitive. Leveling the pelvis decreases the stress on the side of the disc eliminating pain from it and letting it heal.

Self evaluation to see if you have an imbalanced pelvis: Stand in front of a mirror; on each side of your waist, find the pelvic bone; rest your hand on the bone on both sides comparing if one side is higher than the other; Tip: Keeping the hand and fingers straight.