BACK PAIN ISN'T A MYSTERY, IT'S A PRODUCT OF LIFESTYLE.

In brief...

Prevention is always the best approach, always be very conscious of your posture especially when you are sitting and standing and recognise that diet plays a key role.

Keep your body balanced and flexible with the right exercise program for your level of health and fitness and get regular massage . In general terms most back pain results from an accumulation of stress in the body from physical, emotional or chemical imbalance. This includes a combination of one or more of them. When you overuse an area of your body affected by this stress you cause muscle fatigue or spasm, then irritation. inflammation and pain.

It is important to know yourself well enough, so that you can identify the causes of your stress and learn how to deal with them on a day to day basis.

When you hurt your back don't waste time and money with treatments that don't work. If the therapist or doctor knows what they are doing, the results should be fast and lasting, and when you find the right solution follow the program and don't try to cut corners.

Take a pro-active role in your recovery. For the best results, get a good understanding of what is wrong with your back and seek out the right treatment for YOU. What works for one person doesn't always work for another.
Look at all your options before you make decisions that are going to cost you your valuable time and money and never think of yourself as incurable.

Mary was a typical 20-year-old who worked as a waitress, went out with friends and enjoyed her lifestyle until a fall at work caused sciatica pain from a bulging disc in her lower back. After numerous visits to the specialist and referrals to physiotherapy she was no better and after nine months was told nothing more could be done for her. She would have to go to a pain management clinic and learn to live with her pain.
Not being content to accept this diagnosis Mary began searching alternative treatments and eventually found a unique form bodywork that concentrated on correcting the imbalances in her muscles that came about because of her fall. The treatment involved one hourly session weekly and follow up exercises for 1 hour a day and after 4 weeks she was significantly better, off all medication and able to keep her discomfort to a minimum with the daily exercises. Exercise in the past hadn't worked because they aggravated her pain as the therapy she was receiving didn't take away her pain before her exercise program started.

In Mary's case her decision to look elsewhere rather than accept the prognosis from her specialists led her to finding a cure, but many others haven't been so lucky and their search continues as they spend large amounts of time and money without success. In fact in many cases irritating the pain they started with. Others still, have given up the search and just live with their pain every day.

WHAT YOU MAY, AND MAY NOT KNOW.

Up to 80 percent of adults will experience some form of back pain at one or more times in their life and at least 50 percent of them will never find out the cause of their pain. This is probably because 85 percent of back pain can be attributed to muscular causes with only 15 percent able to be diagnosed using an x-ray or scanning equipment. Unfortunately medical specialists rely on these machines to discover the cause of a person's pain, consequently many of them are left in the dark and are unable to give a confident diagnosis or prognosis.

The commonly spoken myth that most people who get back pain will get better within 6 to 12 weeks regardless of treatment they receive and even with no treatment at all was dispelled by a recent study published in the British Medical Journal. It found that this myth came about as a result of figures based on the doctor's appointment book.

When the majority of patients go to a doctor for low back pain and the treatment does not effectively addressed the problem, the patient naturally does not return for further treatment. This led the doctors to believe the patient was cured when in fact it was found that even after 12 months time had passed only a minority of people reported a full recovery.

Back Pain is not an illness as some believe, rather the result of a physical, emotional or chemical imbalance in the body that has manifested itself as stress. Often due to overuse this results in an area where irritation and inflammation occurs, where a person feels pain.

If left untreated the body starts to compensate which can lead to wear and tear on joints, including the vertebrae, discs, muscles, nerves or ligaments and a weakness in various parts of the body. If the inevitable pressure or tightness is severe or left untreated, a more serious problem can occur, causing pressure on a nerve resulting in acute pain episodes that can last weeks at a time.

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU GET BACK PAIN.

Back pain will usually creep up on you. You wake up in pain one morning or make a sudden movement that causes a muscle to go into spasm. Very often you cannot relate it to a particular incident. Often the pains comes in the days following physical activity such as lifting, gardening, or sport/ exercise, because these things highlight the potential problems you have in your body by raising the already present levels of stress or tension in the muscles enough to cause an acute pain episode.

When your pain first strikes, rest is very important especially accompanied by heat, like a hot bath, and deep tissue full body massage, everywhere but the site of the pain where it may be a bit inflamed. If the spot where you first feel pain is hot and inflamed you may be best to put an ice pack on it for 10 minutes or so, just the once. If at the onset of your pain you feel like you have put a vertebrae out a spinal adjustment can help if it's done fairly quickly and if your body and spine is generally healthy and flexible. If you normally undertake regular exercise such as yoga, swimming or walking, then doing these every day should help, but only after sufficient rest to allow the pain and inflammation to subside.

Be careful of too much rest without any exercise and if the exercise causes you pain, then deep tissue bodywork will be a suitable replacement, provided the therapist is experienced at dealing with back pain.

Invariably the biggest mistake people who get back pain make is to try and carry on their lifestyle despite the pain without taking a couple of days to rest and allow the initial irritation and inflammation to settle down. Once your body starts compensating for pain as you try and stay active, patterns of imbalance can be set up that that will keep the pain hanging around a lot longer than it should.

Drugs such as an anti inflammatory or muscle relaxant can be of use, but only in the short term and when combined with a couple of days rest, rather than using them to mask the pain so you can continue with an active lifestyle.

Whenever your back pain is accompanied by any of the following symptoms it indicates a nerve involvement and it is wise for you to consult a back pain specialist for their diagnosis.

Pain down the leg making standing difficult.
Bladder or Bowel problems.
Pain that doesn't disappear in a week by following the previous advice.
A history of cancer.
Pins and needles in any of your extremities.
Muscle weakness.
Pain after a trauma such as an accident.

Although other causes of back pain such as cancer or other diseases are rare (occurring in 1 or 2% of cases) it is worth being safe and seeking a diagnosis from your doctor if you have any real doubts or the pain keeps hanging around.

If you are referred to a specialist or therapist for your back pain, expect a confident diagnosis and quick relief if you are seeing the right person. Don't put up with expensive drawn out treatments that don't give you significant results in the short term. You will instinctively know when you are getting the right or wrong treatment, so follow those instincts and don't be 'sold' by a slick talking therapist

SEEKING TREATMENT.

As 85 percent of back pain is caused by problems with the muscles and of the other 15 percent, most of these are set up by muscle imbalance problems, you can expect that the best results are likely to come from a therapist who specializes in muscle work. It is also important they have a good understanding of the body and take a holistic approach, considering all things, including your diet and stress levels.

Although this will rule out many of the conventional treatments, it probably also explains why many people with back pain go on suffering for a long time, eventually having to manage their pain through a change in lifestyle or activities.

It's impossible to suggest any one treatment for all back pain sufferers as no blanket diagnosis can be given. Whereby some people will respond well to an adjustment from an osteopath or chiropractor, others will need expert muscle work or rest and others again attention to diet or other causes of their stress levels. What definitely does not work for acute cases is stretching and exercise. These should be avoided at least until the acute phase has passed and even then I wouldn't recommend stretching as it will most likely aggravate the problem and bring the pain back. If you are seeing a therapist who advocates stretching then you are probably seeing the wrong therapist

SURGERY.

For every surgery success story you hear about you will find at least one where it didn't work and in many cases made the person worse. Unfortunately there is no formula you can use to know when surgery will work for you and when it will not, which is probably the reason why most people use it as a last resort. It would be my recommendation to first try the other safe and less invasive treatments available to relieve your pain as surgery is not only very expensive and risky, but can involve long periods of rehabilitation. Also when it doesn't fix the pain, the changes made to the body's structure will often hinder other treatments from being able to help.

Whenever you seek relief from your chronic back pain the best advice is not to rush to surgery, get a second and even a third opinion and investigate the alternatives yourself by looking in such places as the internet for the latest information. The most important thing is that if you do decide to get surgery, you do so after being very well informed, without doubt that it is the best option for your particular problem. Always remember that, if you go to an orthopedic specialist or surgeon to discuss your back pain you are more likely to be advised you need surgery, just as if you go to a podiatrist you are more likely to be told you need orthotics, etc.

EXERCISE.

Exercise is particularly good for back pain sufferers because it strengthens the body which helps fight against acute pain episodes happening in the first place. Especially if the exercise works towards balancing your muscles and strengthening your stomach, lower back and pelvis such as a good yoga class or Pilates. Normally exercise is best undertaken as preventative measure and not as a solution to an established problem because it will invariably cause more compensations rather than get the problem muscles to extend and contract. Normally by the time back pain strikes the muscles have tightened up to the point whereby doing exercise will just tighten them up more and although the strength factor can be good to protect you from pain, you will do nothing toward fixing the problem that already exists and is the cause of your back pain in the first place.

Some forms of exercise can assist in your rehabilitation from back pain, such as gentle forms of water-based exercise like hydrotherapy, even slow almost isometric forms of yoga or Pilates, or perhaps walking. But not always and any indication that an exercise is irritating your problem it's a sure sign you should stop doing it. Massage is a form of exercise especially full body deep tissue massage that helps loosen up and align the deep structural muscles in the body and stimulates the nerve activity in flaccid or weak muscles. There's no doubt SLM bodywork is one of the best but unfortunately not readily available. Getting this form of bodywork helps the body to better respond to the rehabilitation exercises that will strengthen the body against further episodes.

The legs are an important part of the body to have worked on when you have back pain because they are the foundations that support your back, and are responsible for carrying the majority of the weight you generate as you move around in gravity. Ideally the muscles in your legs should operate like springs or shock absorbers to minimize the pressure being placed on the muscles in your lower back. So they should be supple, healthy and strong. When the muscles in your legs are tight and stiff and your legs become more like posts than springs, a lot more of your weight and movements have to be supported by your back muscles which puts them under additional strain. Also when the muscles in one leg are tighter or pulling more than the muscles in the other leg, it can set up a tilted or rotated pelvis which is a very common cause of back pain. It's amazing to me, that the majority of people treated for back pain by conventional forms of therapy never get their legs worked on.

STRESS AND IT'S ROLE IN BACK PAIN.

A big part of today's problem is that people don't maintain their body at the necessary level to keep up with their chosen lifestyle. As a result their body becomes stressed and begins to break down with injury and illness far too often. Everything that contributes stress to the body brings it that much closer to an injury or an illness.

Stress is the body's worst enemy and on its own can be the cause of many of the pains and illnesses from which people suffer. If you have chronic back pain, high stress levels will make the intensity and incidence of your pain much greater than it needs to be. So it's logical that one of the ways you can work on your chronic back pain is by addressing the things that cause you stress.

When you use the word 'stress' most people immediately think it is when you worry too much or have too much on your mind to organize or think about. Although this is a common source of stress, just as importantly, there are many other things that can create high stress levels in the body. Things like over eating or eating the wrong foods such as too much sugar or foods you may be allergic to, or foods that don't contain the nutrition necessary to support your activity levels. Stress can also come from over exercise, not enough sleep, an unbalanced physical body, in fact anything that puts your body out of balance either physically, chemically or emotionally, will be a source of stress.

Some healing methods such as spiritual healing and meditation, counseling or hypnotherapy much like psychiatry and psychotherapy, work on the mind as a way of releasing the stress that is causing pain or symptoms in the physical body, in some cases with great success. For one, they work on changing the way you look at things so something that normally would cause you to worry, no longer does.

So if you are attempting to deal with an acute or chronic back pain, give some thought to the things in your life that cause you stress. You should find that if you can put a plan in place that will lower these stress levels it will be a positive step toward a long term solution to lowering your pain levels.

DIET AND IT'S ROLE IN BACK PAIN.

A balanced, healthy diet will help lower your stress levels and your incidence of back pain because it helps to balance your body at a chemical level. When you combine it with a balanced physical body you will always feel at your best, with good energy levels and in the best condition to fight off and recover from injury or sickness like colds and flu's.

Unfortunately for us many food manufacturers are particularly good at making products that are bad for you, look and taste really good. Also marketing people are very skilled at making you believe it's OK to eat them. But the reality is more often than not, the information we are being given is false and, we are unwittingly eating food that is detrimental to our future health. In reality, it's been left up to us to work out the difference between what is fact and what's just marketing hype, so that we eat the right diet for our body type and activity levels. One of the worst things you can eat when you suffer from chronic pain or any sort is sugar. Soft drinks, alcohol, chocolate, sweets, cakes biscuits, bottled fruit juice and sugar added to coffee and tea should be avoided at all cost when you have pain. You will be amazed at the difference it makes.

A diet containing only fresh, raw, healthy foods won't make you fat, give you bad skin or any number of the diseases that are becoming all to common in today's world, so that must tell you something. But eating these foods only occasionally won't counter the harm the wrong foods are doing to your body. If you want to feel at your best all the time, you need to eat a good diet all of the time.

For more comprehensive information on back pain "The Bad Back Book' is available online as a free e book or in hard copy from our clinic or go to our SLM products page or phone your order through on 61 2 94189991

©2000-2006 S.J.Lockhart Pty. Ltd. Australia  All Rights Reserved

TOP