The Role of Muscle Restorative Neurostimulation in Relieving Low Back Pain

You used to lead a much more active life, but ongoing low back pain has benched you from many of the activities you once enjoyed. Even worse, active or not, the pain and discomfort seem to follow your every movement.

For the 65 million Americans who experience back pain (16 million of whom experience chronic back pain), finding suitable solutions can be tough. Many don’t want to go down roads that involve medications or surgery, leaving them frustrated with what’s still available.

Well, we want you to put that frustration aside for a minute so that you can take a look at an emerging and effective approach to resolving low back pain — muscle restorative neurostimulation. 

At our practice, Dr. Ali H. Mesiwala and our team are leading experts in neuromodulation and restorative neurostimulation, and we’ve seen the incredible benefits of addressing low back pain with this safe and effective treatment avenue. Let’s take a look.

Beyond your spine

We’re going to do a quick dive into the anatomy of your back to better illustrate how restorative neurostimulation works. Many people think of their back as only involving their spine, but there’s much more to it than that.

Yes, your spine forms the foundation of your back, but it hardly works alone. The 33 vertebrae and 23 intervertebral discs are surrounded by connective tissues — namely large muscle groups — that are designed to provide key support for your spine.

These muscles in your back can be divided into three groups:

1. Superficial or extrinsic muscles
2. Erector spinae 
3. Deep intrinsic muscles

Included in the deep intrinsic muscles is the multifidus, which runs the length of your spine and plays a key role in stabilizing the structure.

Many people with low back pain have a weak multifidus, which makes sense given that they can’t move much due to the pain. And when you have a weak multifidus, all the support duties fall to your spine, which is likely causing, or at least exacerbating, your low back pain. This is what we like to “atypical” back pain because its strictly the back that 

So, the primary goal of restorative neurostimulation is to beef up this stabilizing muscle to take the pressure off of your spine. And you don’t have to hit the gym to get there.

Restoring the support along your spine

With restorative neurostimulation, we deliver electrical stimulation to your multifidus that causes contractions. These contractions effectively “exercise” your muscle, causing it to strengthen.

To deliver the electrical stimulation, we insert leads into the area that are controlled by a remote. All you need to do is simply turn on the stimulator for 30 minutes, twice a day, and the electrical energy does the rest.

To give you an idea about how effective restorative neurostimulation is, we want to draw your attention to a study that used neurostimulation in patients who have been struggling with refractory low back pain for a decade or more. After using restorative neurostimulation, 59% of participants reported that their back pain went from severe to mild and remained that way after a year.

The benefits of restorative stimulation

Based on our description, you can see why restorative neurostimulation is gaining traction in the world of low back pain.

First, it’s an approach that doesn't require traditional spinal surgery. Second, it can also reduce a patient’s need for pain medications. In fact, in the same study we mentioned above, 28% of participants were able to stop taking opioid-based medications.

Lastly, restorative neuromodulation leads to sustainable results that will allow you to get back to your life without low back pain nagging at you.

Dr. Mesiwala has utilized this treatment modality for a multitude of patients with atypical back pain - patients who don’t have the usual degenerative disc and/or joint disesase. Based on a series of provocative physical tests, confirmation based on radiological findings on a MRI and a trial, patients are selected for this outpatient procedure. Additionally Dr Mesiwala continues to participate in the research efforts to advance the field of muscle restorative technology. 

If you’d like to learn more about restorative neurostimulation, we invite you to contact one of our offices in Newport Beach, Marina del Rey, or Rancho Cucamonga, California, to schedule a consultation with Dr. Mesiwala.