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Neck and Back Care: Chiropractic & Physio

Neck and back care at Chiropractic Specialty Center (CSC) in Kuala Lumpur joins chiropractic, physiotherapy and exercise rehab in one plan, without drugs or surgery. It starts with a check to find what is loading the neck or back, such as long hours of sitting, repeated tasks or changes that come with age.

A herniated disc often shrinks on its own, and larger herniations are the most likely to shrink (Chiu 2015).

For more information about neck and back care, contact the Bukit Damansara (KL) main center: WhatsApp+60 17 269 1873 Call+603 2093 1000

Key Points to Know

  • Care is planned around each person’s own check, not a set package.
  • Drug-free care is the starting point for both new and long-standing low back pain.
  • Disc changes on scans are common in people with no pain, so the scan must match the symptoms (Brinjikji 2015).
  • At CSC, hands-on care and machines support exercise. They do not replace it.
  • No one can turn a worn disc back into a 20-year-old disc. Care works on the load, the movement and the muscles around it.

What Causes Neck and Back Pain

Common causes include:

  • Poor posture and long hours of sitting
  • Repeated movements at work or in sport
  • Slips, falls and sports injuries
  • Heavy phone and screen use
  • Weak muscles, extra body weight and smoking

Conditions linked with neck and back pain include disc wear (degenerative disc disease), bulging or herniated discs, spondylosis, spondylolisthesis, arthritis, scoliosis, and weak or tight muscles. Pain can also be “referred,” which means it is felt in one place but comes from another, such as the shoulder, hip, jaw, ribs, or an irritated tendon or bursa.

What Changes in a Disc, and What Care Can Reach

A review of 31 studies with repeat scans found that herniated disc material often got smaller without surgery: 96 in 100 sequestrations, 70 in 100 extrusions, 41 in 100 protrusions and 13 in 100 bulges (Chiu 2015). At the same time, disc wear shows up in 37 in 100 pain-free 20-year-olds and 96 in 100 pain-free 80-year-olds (Brinjikji 2015).

Care cannot make an old disc young again. What it can change is the load passing through the spine, the movement that has been lost, the muscles that stopped protecting it, and the daily habits that keep setting it off.

Booking Neck and Back Care at CSC

To book a neck or back check-up, contact either Kuala Lumpur center:

For travel, parking and opening hours, see Bukit Damansara address, hours and phone or Bandar Sri Damansara address, hours and phone. The chiropractic price in Kuala Lumpur and physiotherapy fees in Kuala Lumpur pages list current fees.

NSD Therapy® for Neck and Back Care

At CSC, disc-related neck and back care uses NSD Therapy®. It joins spinal decompression, non-rotatory chiropractic, focused physiotherapy and exercise rehab. Decompression is done with the RxDecom® system, which applies slow, measured traction to one part of the spine. Other tools, such as shockwave therapy (ESWT), interferential current therapy and Spinercise®, may be added when the check supports them.

The aim is to ease the load on irritated discs and nerves, restore movement, and build the muscles that support the spine. It is not a promise that a disc will be repaired or reversed. In one small trial of 30 people with a herniated disc, both decompression and ordinary traction eased pain and disability, with no clear difference between them (Choi 2015). Read more about NSD Therapy® at CSC.

What the Research Says About Hands-On Care and Exercise

Reviews find that spinal manipulation and mobilization are reasonable options for low back pain, and work about as well as other common treatments for long-term back pain (Bronfort 2008; Bronfort 2010). Exercise therapy eases pain and improves function in long-term low back pain, and no one type of exercise stands out as best (van Middelkoop 2010).

Massage may help some people with low back pain, especially when joined with exercise and education (Furlan 2002). At CSC, hands-on therapy is paired with specific exercise.

Neck and Back Health Talks

CSC holds neck and back health talks in Kuala Lumpur from time to time, on posture, daily habits and the spine. They are paused at the moment. For the next date, send a WhatsApp message to the Bukit Damansara center at +60 17 269 1873.

When to See a Doctor First

Some neck or back pain should be checked by a doctor first, such as pain after a bad fall, pain with fever, or pain in someone with a history of cancer. Weakness in an arm or leg that keeps getting worse should be checked promptly by a competent provider, and careful non-surgical care may still be a reasonable route afterward. If you are receiving chiropractic or physiotherapy care for back or leg pain, alone or together with neck pain, get urgent medical attention, a thorough assessment by a competent clinician the same day, for new or worsening numbness around your genitals, between your genitals and anus, or around your anus. The same applies to new difficulty passing urine, even if you still have bladder and bowel control, and to any loss of that control. Several causes are possible. Some may call for an invasive procedure, but an assessment helps establish what is happening and what care is appropriate; surgery is not automatically required.

You may also find these pages helpful: neck pain, back pain and disc problems, care methods for neck and back pain, gentle backache care and back pain in pregnancy. The back pain guide brings lower back, pelvis and leg topics together.

Peer-Reviewed Reference Citations

  1. Chiu CC, Chuang TY, Chang KH, et al. The probability of spontaneous regression of lumbar herniated disc: a systematic review. Clin Rehabil. 2015;29(2):184-195.
  2. Brinjikji W, Luetmer PH, Comstock B, et al. Systematic literature review of imaging features of spinal degeneration in asymptomatic populations. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2015;36(4):811-816.
  3. Choi J, Lee S, Hwangbo G. Influences of spinal decompression therapy and general traction therapy on the pain, disability, and straight leg raising of patients with intervertebral disc herniation. J Phys Ther Sci. 2015;27(2):481-483.
  4. Bronfort G, Haas M, Evans R, Kawchuk G, Dagenais S. Evidence-informed management of chronic low back pain with spinal manipulation and mobilization. Spine J. 2008;8(1):213-225.
  5. Bronfort G, Haas M, Evans R, Leininger B, Triano J. Effectiveness of manual therapies: the UK evidence report. Chiropr Osteopat. 2010;18:3.
  6. van Middelkoop M, Rubinstein SM, Verhagen AP, et al. Exercise therapy for chronic nonspecific low-back pain. Best Pract Res Clin Rheumatol. 2010;24(2):193-204.
  7. Furlan AD, Brosseau L, Imamura M, Irvin E. Massage for low-back pain: a systematic review within the framework of the Cochrane Collaboration Back Review Group. Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 2002;27(17):1896-1910.

These references describe non-surgical spine care, decompression and manual therapy in general. None of them tests a care program at Chiropractic Specialty Center.

The Author of Neck and Back Care: Non-Invasive Methods in KL

Neck and Back Care: Non-Invasive Methods in KL was written by Yama Zafer, D.C., who has 30+ years in chiropractic and physiotherapy and founded Chiropractic Specialty Center in Kuala Lumpur in 2006.

Last Updated: Neck and Back Care: Chiropractic & Physio

Neck and Back Care: Chiropractic & Physio was last reviewed and updated on October 3, 2026.

This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. Hemant Shroff February 6, 2021 Reply

    Myelomalacia, Cervical radiculopathy, Lumber PIVD and Radiculopathy, Diabetic neuropathy. I also have balance difficulties. Lower back pain, tingling, and heavy ness on both legs. Cannot walk continuously for more than 300 steps. Treatable?

    1. Yama Zafer, D.C. February 7, 2021 Reply

      This combination needs a direct answer rather than an encouraging one, because one item on your list changes what is appropriate for the rest.

      Myelomalacia means damage has already occurred within the spinal cord itself, usually from prolonged compression. That is not a mechanical problem that responds to treatment of the neck, and it is a clear reason not to have the cervical spine manipulated. Your balance difficulty and the heaviness in both legs fit cord involvement rather than a nerve root, and taken together they belong in front of a neurosurgeon, not a therapist, as the first step. Where compression is ongoing, the purpose of surgical decompression in this situation is generally to halt further loss rather than to reverse damage that has already happened. That distinction is the honest core of your question.

      Your leg symptoms also have more than one possible source, and separating them changes management. Lumbar disc herniation with radiculopathy produces symptoms in a defined nerve pattern. Narrowing of the lumbar canal produces heaviness and a limited walking distance that eases when you sit or lean forward, which is worth testing against your 300 steps. Cord involvement from the neck produces a different, less positional walking difficulty. Diabetic neuropathy produces symmetrical tingling and numbness that typically begins in the feet and is not positional at all. With diabetes present, circulation should also be checked, because reduced blood flow limits walking distance in its own right and is treated differently again.

      So the first task is not treatment. It is establishing which of these is limiting you most, through current imaging of both the neck and lower back, a neurological examination, and a vascular check.

      What can genuinely be helped alongside that: supervised balance and gait retraining, safe strengthening that avoids loading the neck, fall prevention, foot care, and treatment of the mechanical lower back pain that sits on top of everything else. Glycemic control is part of the neuropathy management and nothing manual substitutes for it.

      Seek medical attention without delay if walking becomes harder, if your hands become clumsy or you begin dropping things, or if bladder or bowel control changes. With myelomalacia already documented, those signs are not something to monitor at home.

  2. . September 24, 2018 Reply

    If a person cannot squat as it will be painful, would you treat this condition? An X-ray revealed that I have bone spurs, which hinders the movement at the socket.

    1. CSC Clinical Team September 25, 2018 Reply

      Pain that stops you squatting, with spurring reported around the socket, is usually one of two situations, and they are managed differently.

      The first is impingement. Where extra bone sits on the rim of the socket or at the junction of the femoral head and neck, the two surfaces meet earlier than they should when the hip is bent and turned inward, which is exactly the position at the bottom of a squat. The typical description is a sharp pinch felt in the front of the groin at a specific depth, in an otherwise reasonably mobile hip.

      The second is joint surface wear, where the spurs are a consequence of cartilage loss rather than the primary problem. That usually presents with a more diffuse ache, morning stiffness that eases with movement, and a general loss of rotation rather than a pinch at one point.

      Location tells you a great deal before any scan. Pain in the front of the groin points to the hip joint itself. Pain on the outer side over the bony prominence is more often tendon or bursa. Pain in the buttock or across the back of the pelvis is frequently referred from the lower back or sacroiliac joint, and a hip X-ray showing spurs does not prove the spurs are the source of your pain. That distinction is worth insisting on, because spurring is common on films taken in adults with no hip pain at all.

      On what treatment can and cannot do, an honest answer. No conservative care removes a bone spur. What it can address is everything around it: restoring rotation within the range the joint still has, releasing the hip flexors and adductors that shorten in response to guarding, and strengthening the gluteal muscles and deep hip rotators, which are almost always weak by the time squatting has been avoided for a while. Squat technique is part of it too. Widening the stance, turning the feet out slightly, and limiting depth to the range that does not pinch will often restore useful function without touching the joint surface. Restricted ankle movement and a stiff upper back both force the hip into deeper flexion than it can tolerate, and both are correctable.

      Many people regain a workable, comfortable range that way. Some do not, and if pain continues at rest or at night, if range keeps reducing, or if walking distance falls, orthopedic review is the appropriate next step rather than more of the same treatment.

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