Lower back pain/hip/leg and groin ache

by Sally
(United Kingdom )

About 4 months ago I started getting shooting pains in my left outer thigh. It comes and goes. I also get lower back pain and ache.


About a month ago I started getting groin pain and ache too. I do not take any medication for it. Sometimes I feel I have like restless leg and can't find a comfy position.

About 2 yrs ago, 6 months after giving birth to my second child I fell off a horse onto my left hip. It took me a good 3 weeks to feel better. I also pulled my groin; it was all very sore and painful.

I have since put on about 3 stone and am really overweight.

The pain comes and goes but the other day I had a shooting pain from my back, through my hip and down my thigh. Could you help? I don't know what to do and I'm also really worried.

Hello Sally,
What's needed is a diagnosis for your lower back pain radiating to the hip, leg and groin. They could all be connected, or separate conditions.

Let's start with the lower back pain. What will help your chiropractor is if you can identify what provokes the pain in your back, and what relieves it. For example, does coughing hurt? Does bending forwards, or to the side increase the ache in your back?

Then the pain in the groin. Lie on your back and pull your knee to the chest, and then to the opposite shoulder. Compare with the other side. Is there a stab in the groin? What does Patrick's Faber test do?

The pain in your leg could be coming from your back, or from your hip. The Slump test for sciatica can be done at home, but a femoral nerve test is more difficult. Find them in the navigation bar.

You need to be really worried; if it's not getting better after four months you are faced with expensive tests and even the prospect of surgery if it's a seriously pinched nerve in your back.

Your weight is a huge complicating factor; it will make you seriously disabled, and that's even worse than the pain; very frustrating, and you're probably feeling it already. You just can't do the things you want to do.

Get it off; forget diets, they just don't work, but do learn about the meaning of glycemic index. Getting off the high GI starches is what will help you lose weight. It will take some discipline, change of what you eat rather than how much you eat, but it's important. Diabetes, high blood pressure and host of nasties go along with obesity.

Lastly start our lower back exercises which you'll find in the navigation bar at chiropractic help.

Good luck and I hope this contributes. Let me know how you get on with your chiropractor.

Dr B


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