Back Pain - Now What?

Estimates are that 9 out of 10 people will experience back pain at sometime in their life.  Having back pain is the fifth most common reason to visit a doctor in the U.S.  So with such prevalent numbers of occurrences, one would think we would be pretty good at treating it and have some consensus on the best methods.

Sorry, I'm not going to be able to cure everyone's back pain that reads this posting, but hopefully give you some valuable insights into finding your answers.  Also I am not going to argue for the best method to fix their back pain.  Obviously there are lots of "so called" experts that through their marketing and advertising can convince you they can cure it all in just a few simple steps.  But if this was truly the case I don't think we would see the numbers of occurrences staying the same as we have over the decades with no large changes in reduction.  Remember as health care providers we have specialties that we are trained in to solve problems.  A physical therapist, like myself, is going to use exercise and manual therapy (hopefully not many modalities such as ultrasound and electrical stimulation, as the research is not very good they actually provide much change).  Chiropractors will use their manipulation skills.  Surgeons will use surgery.  Physicians will use medication.  A massage therapist will use massage.  Acupuncturist will use acupuncture.  We are going to use what we know, and believe that is what you need.  So don't be surprised if you see a surgeon and he suggests surgery and when you talked to a different health care provider they didn't suggest surgery.

The other upsetting part is that there are some usual standard care guidelines, that research has shown to be most effective are not always followed through with by many general care practioners as found in this study.  And as pointed out in another study sometimes we have become to dependent on imaging to try and diagnosis everything.  While diagnostic imaging has made great advancements in the last few decades and has given us pictures of inside the body, we need to remember that the picture doesn't always tell us all the answers.

So what should you do if you have back pain?  Find a health care practitioner that you can trust and is up to date with current standards of care.  They should be open to other methods other than their own to assist you in your back pain.  They should be able to give you detailed explanation as to why you are having pain based on their findings from their evaluation as well as other tests such as imaging.  They should be able to back up everything they plan on doing with current research (check to see if they read current research, if not I would be cautious).  Realize that most back pain is not seriously life threatening, yes an inconvenience, but not life threatening.  It can usually be treated with conservative measures and not surgery as pointed out in this study.  If you do suffer from persistent/chronic low back pain I suggest that you learn to understand more the mechanisms of pain further.  I would suggest viewing Neil Pearson's 3 part webcast or get the book Explain Pain.