For Back Pain Relief first find the cause.
There are literally tens of millions of people around the world crying out for back pain relief.
They’ve tried everything, physio, chiro, drugs to mask the pain and may even have been under the knife.
With respect to the knife, the chat rooms of the internet are full of pleas for help from people who after spending tens of thousands of dollars having discs sliced still experience persistent pain.
Doctors who are meant to be able to diagnose the cause of the problem frequently don’t know where to look. Their attention is drawn to the spot where it hurts, little realizing that the cause of the pain is rarely at the site of the pain.
They send their customers for an X-Ray, but ironically, diagnostic imaging doesn’t provide any useful information as to the underlying cause of the problem either; it just shows what is.
But knowing that, ‘… there is a central disc protrusion with a focul annular tear … facet joint arthropathy and ligamentum flavum hypertrophy … there is a disc bulge which is paracentral to the left side and extended in to the foramen and far laterally … there is mild crowding of the cauda equine … there is no evidence of spinal canal stenosis …’ is all well and good, but doesn’t tell you what’s causing the central disc protrusion – and all the other stuff that goes with it.
As likely as not the physios and chiros will want to rub, heat, crunch, vibrate and shock the spot where it hurts, but back pain isn’t caused by a lack of rubbing, heating, crunching, vibrating and shocking. There will be a palliative effect, but you can’t fix the problem unless you treat the cause of the problem.
Back pain is definitely not caused by a lack of Nurofen either. Masking the pain isn’t the same as doing something to restore poor function to good.
What the white coat industries don’t realize is that they’re dealing with a fitness problem, not a medical problem and you can’t solve a fitness problem with a medical or palliative solution.
If that’s news to you, consider this. Pure and simply, back pain is a symptom of bones being out of alignment.
The Back Pain Relief Solution
Get the bones back into alignment, not by rubbing and crunching, but by going to the underlying cause of the problem – which is tight and weak muscles that have allowed the bones of the body to move out of alignment.
The usual suspects are tight hamstring, buttock and hip flexor muscles that move the pelvis out of alignment. When that happens the bones of the vertebrae immediately above the pelvis move out of alignment in ‘sympathy’. You can call it collateral damage.
As the bones of the lower back gradually move out of alignment, the ligaments, tendons and muscles are stretched beyond their pain threshold. Discs become herniated, not by lifting enormous weights but by doing something as trivial as swiveling round to pick up a phone book or putting a bag of groceries into the car.
Weak muscles in your trunk – front, back and core won’t make the situation any better. Neither will being 20 Kg or more over weight.
You can search the medical research literature, comb through the Cochrane Collaboration and delve into the recommended clinical guidelines of medical research authorities but nowhere will you find recommendations for where to look for the cause of the problem. Nor will you find lists of exercises which will get the body back into better alignment. The literature always presumes doctors know where to look, without ever spelling out what it is doctors should be looking for.
It’s a classic example of selective evidence, of health professionals working within silos. It’s a classic case of doctors being prepared to refer their patients up the medical feeding chain to a surgeon, but not down the feeding chain to a fitness practitioner.
The vast majority of people with back pain don’t have a good strength and flexibility training program. That’s because the medical industry doesn’t recognise back pain as a fitness problem. In fact they don’t know much about fitness, of which strength and flexibility – along with aerobic fitness – are core components.
With neither a general strength and flexibility training program for the musculo-skeletal ecosystem nor a specific training program for the muscles that are specifically causing the problem, it’s almost inevitable bones will move out of alignment.
When that happens they cry out for back pain relief, unaware that they have it within their own power to get themsleves back into better alignment.
In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned and remember; it’s a big ask expecting to get back pain relief by having someone do something to you, sooner or later you have to do something to yourself.
John Miller