Written by Dr. James Mayne, DC ~ Vernon Chiropractor

Have you ever had pain in your body and don’t know why it is there? I see frustrated patients all the time ask me about pain, especially in the hips, which comes about for apparently no reason. After helping people with unexplained hip pain over and over again, let me give my best explanation.

There is almost always an instability to a person’s pelvis, more specifically their sacroiliac joints (SI joints). If you’ve had kids you’ve seen them fall out of trees, wipe out on their bikes, and crash on trampolines. We all did this, too, when we were younger. So, basically, our youth was made up of many, many wipeouts that sprained our SI joints over and over again and have led to this instability.

Now, if I ask you to think back and remember how much more energy you felt you had 10 years ago, there is probably a difference. If you think back 20 years ago, even more of a difference. Your SI joints and pelvis are held together and supported by the muscles of your backside, legs, abs, and back muscles. So, we have a previously sprained and unstable joint that is not supported as well as it used to be due to a decrease in muscle energy.

It is more likely to “go out” now when we overwork, sit for too long, or do something as gentle as sneeze or lean over to brush our teeth. Basically, your butt muscles don’t have the support and muscle tone they once did. Our hips can “go out” and “flare-up” more and more frequently as time passes, often without us realizing what set it off, prompting “where did this hip pain come from?”

The good news is there is help. As a chiropractor in Vernon, I can assess the sprained hips, work on getting them back into alignment, and then help to keep them there. You can also help by eating high energy foods and exercising regularly to keep the hip muscles strong. Stretching and walking daily will help accomplish this. Keeping your hips stronger and properly aligned will mean that hip pain will happen less frequently and less intensely in the future.