Hip Pain Treatment in Warren, OH

Hip pain is confusing because the hip is a big neighborhood. A patient who says my hip hurts might be pointing at the groin, the side of the hip where the bone sticks out, the buttock, or the low back just above the belt line, and each of those is a different problem with a different cause. The one thing they share is what they take away: the first steps out of the car, rolling over in bed, putting on socks, the walk across a parking lot, the stairs, the ballgame.

Hip pain is on the list of conditions Dr. John Mistretta sees, and the first job with it is always the same: sort out which part of the neighborhood is actually the source. After 39 years of examining hips at Back 2 Health Chiropractic in Warren, he can tell you that a large share of hip pain is not the hip joint at all. This page explains what the hip is built to do, where hip pain comes from, how to tell the hip from the back, what bursitis is, how pregnancy and age change the picture, when a hip belongs with an orthopedist, and what a visit here looks like.

What the Hip Is Built to Do

The hip is a ball-and-socket joint, deep and stable, built to carry the body's weight through every step and to move in every direction. It is surrounded by some of the largest muscles in the body, cushioned by fluid-filled sacs called bursae where tendons cross bone, and connected to the spine through the pelvis and the sacroiliac joints at the back. It is a strong joint, and it rarely fails on its own. What it does is compensate: for a stiff low back, a tilted pelvis, a knee or a foot that is not doing its job, or a habit of standing on one leg.

Where Hip Pain Comes From

Pain in the groin or the front of the hip, especially with weight-bearing and rotation, usually points to the hip joint itself, whether from wear, an old injury, or a joint that has lost its motion. Pain on the outside of the hip, over the bony point, that is tender to press and worse lying on that side at night usually points to bursitis or the tendons that cross there. Pain in the buttock or across the top of the pelvis usually points to the sacroiliac joint or the low back, and it is the version most often mistaken for a hip problem. Pain that travels from the buttock down the leg is usually sciatica, which has its own page.

Sorting those out is the whole point of the examination, because the care for each goes to a different place.

Hip or Back? How to Tell

The question patients ask most is whether it is the hip or the back, and there are useful clues. Hip joint pain tends to sit in the groin, worsens with putting weight on the leg and with rotating it, and can make putting on a shoe an ordeal. Low back and sacroiliac pain tends to sit in the buttock or across the belt line, worsens with sitting, bending, or rolling over in bed, and often comes with stiffness in the morning. Bursitis sits on the side and hurts to lie on.

Many patients have more than one. A hip joint that has lost motion makes the low back work harder; a tilted pelvis loads one hip more than the other; and years of that produce a hip, a sacroiliac joint, and a low back that all hurt at once. Dr. John examines all three together, because treating one while missing the others is how hip pain becomes a permanent resident.

Bursitis

A bursa is a small fluid-filled cushion that lets a tendon glide over bone, and the one on the outside of the hip is the one that most often gets inflamed. Bursitis there produces pain over the bony point of the hip, tenderness to touch, pain lying on that side at night, and an ache that spreads down the outside of the thigh. It is common in walkers, in people who stand on one leg out of habit, and in anyone whose pelvis is tilted so that one hip carries more than the other.

The bursa is inflamed because something is loading the tendon that crosses it, and that something is usually a hip, a pelvis, or a low back that is not moving evenly. Care aims at that cause as well as at calming the irritation, because a bursa that is iced and rested calms down and then flares again the moment the same tendon is loaded the same way.

Hip Pain in Pregnancy

Expecting moms get hip pain more than almost anyone, because the growing belly shifts the center of gravity, the low back deepens its curve, the pelvis tilts, and a hormone loosens the ligaments around the pelvis in preparation for birth. The sacroiliac joints at the back of the pelvis carry the load, and the result is a sharp catch at the back of one hip when climbing stairs, rolling over in bed, or getting out of a car. Dr. John is trained in the Webster Technique for pregnant patients, care is adapted at every step, and the prenatal care page on this site covers it in detail.

Hips After Fifty

A hip that has carried a person for decades shows it. The joint stiffens, the range shrinks, the groin aches after a walk, and getting the sock on becomes a project. That is wear, and Dr. John will not tell you an adjustment reverses it. What care honestly aims at is the part that is not wear: the motion the joint has lost and can regain, the low back and pelvis that have been loading it unevenly, and the muscles around it that have weakened. A worn hip that moves through its full range and is loaded evenly hurts far less than the same hip doing the low back's job. When a hip has worn to the point that a replacement is the conversation, that conversation belongs with an orthopedist, and he will say so.

Athletes and Active Hips

Dr. John works with youth, high school, and college athletes in the Howland area and has coached baseball, basketball, and softball. A pitcher's hip, a runner's hip, and a hockey player's hip each get loaded in specific ways, and the hip is usually part of a chain that runs from the low back through the pelvis to the knee. The examination looks at the whole chain, because a hip that has lost its rotation shows up as a knee problem, a low back problem, or a hamstring that keeps pulling.

How Dr. John Evaluates the Hip

Health care is not one size fits all, and hip pain is the clearest case of it, because the same complaint can come from four different places. So the first thing Dr. John does is find out which.

He starts with your history: exactly where it hurts, when it started, whether there was an injury, what makes it worse, whether it wakes you at night, what you have tried, and what you want to get back to. Then comes a thorough examination of the hip joint, the sacroiliac joints, the low back, the knee and foot, and how your spine, nervous system, and joints are working together, with specific tests that separate the hip from the back and the bursa from the joint. When it is needed, X-ray imaging is done right in the office.

Then he explains what he found, in language you can understand, and exactly what it is going to take to correct it. You will know whether the problem is the hip, the pelvis, the low back, the bursa, or a combination, and why.

Care That Fits the Hip

Dr. John uses evidence-based care and specific, scientific, gentle adjusting techniques, applied to the joints the examination showed are not moving, which may be the hip itself, the sacroiliac joints, the low back, or the knee and foot. Restoring motion where it is missing takes the load off the structure that has been compensating. The plan is tailored to you and built to get the best results in the shortest time. When you are in pain, the most important thing is to get you relief as quickly as possible, and that is where care begins.

Tools Between Visits

Hips are loaded by habits. Standing on one leg at the counter. Sitting with the legs crossed the same way. Sleeping on the sore side. Carrying a child or a bag on the same hip. Which movements strengthen the muscles around the hip so the joint stops paying for the low back, and which to avoid while the bursa settles. Dr. John will walk through your day with you and point out the ones that matter, because those are the tools you keep.

What Care Looks Like Over Time

Early on, visits are closer together, because the first job is relief and a hip that has been compensating for months does not hold a correction after one adjustment. As the pain eases and the joints start holding their motion, visits spread out, and Dr. John re-checks what he found at the start so you can see the change. Our goal is not to keep you coming in forever. It is to get you feeling better and to give you the tools to manage your own health. Everyone responds differently, and he will tell you honestly what he expects.

When a Hip Needs a Physician First

A hip that cannot bear weight after a fall, especially in an older adult, may be fractured and needs the emergency room. A child with hip pain, a limp, and no injury needs the pediatrician promptly. Hip pain with fever, with unexplained weight loss, or with a history of cancer needs a physician. And a hip that has worn to the point that a replacement is the conversation belongs with an orthopedist. Those are not chiropractic problems until they have been ruled out. For everything else, the examination here will tell us whether your hip is something we can correct. If your problem is something we can't help you with, we will get you to someone who can.

Back 2 Health Chiropractic in Warren

Dr. John Mistretta has practiced chiropractic for 39 years and has been part of the Howland area for the last 20 of them. Back 2 Health Chiropractic is at 260 Niles Cortland Rd NE, Suite B, Warren, Ohio 44484, and sees patients from Warren, Howland, Niles, Cortland, Champion, and across Trumbull County.

Office hours are Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 9:00 to 12:00 and 2:00 to 6:00, with Tuesday and Friday appointments available by arrangement. The practice is rated 5.0 on Google across more than 300 reviews.

If your hip has started deciding how far you walk, call (330) 856-3236. We are thorough, we communicate, and we have the experience to know what works.