The common article about back pain
This is a common article on back pain. I tried to avoid it as much as possible, really, but I cannot help myself anymore, and here we are.
What lead me to write it is simple: the huge confusion (and business) that run around this theme.
Let’s make a deal: I’ll try to make the article useful and interesting, you’ll try to be patient by reading it all to get a more complete picture.
Let’s begin….
First thing first, it’s important for you to know: we all suffer from back pain.
When I say all, I mean everyone: it has been estimated that over 80% of people in the world suffer from it at least once in their lives (Source PubMed.gov ).
The situation keeps getting worse: hundreds of millions of people suffer from back pain every year, making it the first cause of global disability.
Key point 1
Low back pain is a symptom, not a condition.
Where’s the good news? The probability of a serious issue behind your back pain it’s very small! To better understand how much, consider, for instance, that in an Australian study about the possible serious causes of acute back pain, only 0.9% of people (they were over 1000) had a serious issue, mainly due to vertebral fractures (source: PubMed.gov).
Key point 2
Back pain is often caused by different factors (also known as multifactorial), and not just a single cause. These include not only physical causes, but also psychological, and social factors.
Pain is an EXPERIENCE.
Factor such as your mood, your fear of serious consequences, misconceptions about what to do and not to do in case of back pain, can help making your pain worse, making it something that you hardly would get rid of.
In addition, the use of temporary solutions, medications for example, proved to be ineffective in treating the cause of back pain, sometimes even dangerous to health, (Source: The Bmj) reduce once more your chances of recovering.
Key point 3
Very often what is found through imaging examinations (such as a discal protrusion, a herniation, bulging disc), are very common components caused by aging, and they may not have any connection with your pain.
This means that chasing a certain diagnosis at any costs often reveals to be, not only impossible, but even dangerous, because the treatments that you receive for your back pain will be inadequate, as well as expensive.
Key point 4
Your posture does not have any direct link with the back pain!
It has been said for years, and still today we continue to speculate about it, but it seems that sitting “poorly” has nothing to do with that low back pain.
Keep that in mind, the next time someone tries to link the posture you have with the pain you feel.
Paradoxically, much less flashy elements (like a scar for example) can play their role: a thorough physical examination evaluate these possible connections.
So what should you do in case of back pain?
Ok, I’ll start to follow four handy tips:
Tip 1: There are no Shortcuts!
Let’s be clear and honest: smoking, obesity and (above all) low levels of physical activity, are related to low back pain exacerbation. Source The Lancet).
So far, only physical exercise (correctly performed, I would say) has proven to be able to prevent the onset of low back pain (source: PubMed.gov).
Tip 2: Did they tell you that those colourful tapes (kinesio tape) are a “cure-all” for your backache?
Ouch, that was such painful to hear! People with chronic low back pain, do not seem to benefit much of the application of this type of bandages, I’m sorry. (source: PubMed.gov). Go back to Tip 1!
Tip 3: You’ve heard that physical therapies with instruments like ultrasound, TENS, diathermy (like Tecar, for example), also back belts are useful?
I am sorry, once again, it has been proved they are generally ineffective and not to be advised in persistent back pain (over 12 weeks). Source: (PubMed.gov) Back to Tip 1!
Tip 4: The Health professional
It is important to have a dialogue with a healthcare professional that knows how to direct you to the best choice for you, and that would explain to you what and how you should do to get back in shape.
What about osteopathy?
Treatment such as spinal manipulations have been proved to be effective if exercise and education fail, or with their integration. Numerous studies (here I cite one of the many) have confirmed the effectiveness of Osteopathic Treatments in case of back pain, both acute and chronic.
Check out the original Italian version of my dear friend and colleague Mr Antonio Di Presa.
