Dr. Chung
Why Does My Back Hurt When I Breathe? What is it and how to fix it?
Pain from the ribs. How'd it happen?
Why does it hurt so bad?
Painful but fixable
"It hurts right here (points to middle of back), especially when I take a deep breath in.""It's like someone is poking a knife in the middle of my back""Every time I try to stand up all the way, my back spasms.""I just want to crack this pinch in my back." There are times when pain can literally take your breath away. I know this feeling well because it's one of the main things that brought me to the chiropractor's office for the first time. That sharp, stabbing pain coming from a very pinpoint spot in the middle of your back. Sometimes it's just a really annoying feeling that won't go away, but other times it can make you feel crippled by back spasms. In many cases, this pain comes from the joint where your ribs connect to your spine. Sometimes people will say that you have a rib head that's "out of place", misaligned, or sprained. For the sake of today's article, we'll just call it rib pain. It's a frustrating problem because it can happen out of no where. Sometimes you just wake up with the pain, other times it's from twisting or turning too quickly, and in my case, it was from lifting too much weight overhead. Fortunately, even though we don't know much about the pain, we do have effective strategies to help manage it when you feel it.