Neck Triggering Low Back Pain?
How Your Neck Might Be Causing Your Lower Back Pain: The Surprising Brain-Body Link
When someone walks into my practice with chronic lower back pain, they’re usually expecting me to dive straight for their lumbar spine. But what if I told you that one of the most common causes of lower back pain might actually be in your neck?
Yes—your upper neck. Specifically, the top vertebrae of your spine, known as the atlas (C1). At Brain and Body St. Pete, this is exactly where we begin, because this area holds the keys to some of the most powerful, surprising influences on the rest of the body—especially the lower back.
The Brainstem Controls More Than You Think
Right where your skull meets your spine lives your brainstem, a part of your central nervous system that acts like a mission control center. Housed within the upper cervical spine (the atlas and axis), the brainstem plays a major role in regulating posture, balance, and muscle tone from head to toe.
When the atlas is even slightly misaligned, it can irritate or compress the brainstem, disrupting how your nervous system communicates with your postural muscles. Think of it like a glitch in your body’s software—signals don’t get sent properly, your spinal muscles overcompensate, and over time, it shows up as chronic lower back pain, hip misalignment, or sciatic symptoms.
Why the Neck Can Shift the Whole Spine
Your spine is one continuous kinetic chain. If the top link is off, the whole structure has to adapt. A misaligned atlas shifts your head’s center of gravity, which in turn triggers compensatory shifts all the way down to your pelvis and lower back. Your body responds with muscle tension, uneven weight distribution, and joint stress—leading to pain in areas that seem unrelated to the neck.
Patients are often shocked when we adjust the upper cervical spine and their pelvis levels out instantly, or their leg-length discrepancy vanishes. That’s not magic—it’s neurology.
Meet the Postural Muscles Controlled by the Brainstem
Here’s where it gets even more interesting: your brainstem communicates directly with postural muscles through pathways like the reticulospinal tract. These neural circuits influence deep spinal stabilizers such as the multifidus, erector spinae, and pelvic floor musculature.
So, if there’s a disturbance in the brainstem (due to upper cervical misalignment), these postural muscles can receive faulty or imbalanced input. The result? Chronic tightness, imbalance, or weakness in the lower back, all originating from the top of the spine.
Upper Cervical Chiropractic: Small Correction, Big Results
Using the Advanced Orthogonal technique, we make precise, gentle adjustments to the atlas that restore alignment without twisting or cracking. This allows the nervous system to reset and the body to rebalance itself from the brainstem down.
And here’s the most powerful part: these corrections often lead to a domino effect of healing throughout the spine. Clients who came in for chronic low back pain walk out feeling lighter, more balanced, and surprised that we never even touched their lumbar spine.
Adding NET and TRT: Healing on Every Level
To deepen the healing process, I often combine Neuro Emotional Technique (NET) and Torque Release Technique (TRT) into your care plan.
NET helps uncover emotional stress patterns that may be physically stuck in the spine—especially in the lower back, which energetically holds themes of safety, fear, and support.
TRT uses gentle instrument-based input to realign the spine and restore balance to the nervous system with ease.
This approach helps patients not only feel relief in their body but also experience greater emotional clarity and resilience.
You Don't Have to Chase the Pain
If you've been treating your lower back pain with massages, stretches, and lumbar adjustments and nothing sticks—it may be time to look higher. Healing often starts in the most unexpected places, and the upper cervical spine might just be the missing link.
At Brain and Body St. Pete, we don’t just treat pain—we decode your body’s patterns and help it heal through neurological precision and emotional integration.
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