It`s early morning. And still dark. The alarm clock goes off. You twist around, lift your head off the pillow and reach for silence. You yawn and stretch. Your muscles are a little stiff. Your neck aches. Your lower back feels sore.
Up and at `em, anyway. You slurp some coffee. Scarf half a doughnut. You walk back into your bedroom. Put on some clothes. Sit down on the bed to slip on your shoes. One sock, one shoe. Another sock, another shoe . . . and . . . WHAM!
Huge pain explodes in your back. You can`t straighten up, can`t even move. Panic takes hold. ”What`s going on?” your mind screams. ”All I was doing was putting on a shoe!”
But is that really all? Or is there more? Such as years of physical inactivity, poor nutrition, poor posture, poor body mechanics, poor sleeping habits.
Sound familiar? You`re not alone. Back pain in some form strikes an estimated 80 million Americans each year, making the common cold the only ailment more prevalent. And back pain is the No. 1 cause of workers`
compensation claims, costing as much as $60 billion per year in health care and lost productivity.
Hurting your back was the easy part. Stopping the hurt, now that`s the hard part. Back pain is inherently a good news/bad news situation.
The good news: Most back pain will go away on its own in a matter of days or weeks.
The bad news: If the pain persists for more than three months and becomes a persistently negative factor in your life, the choices you must make in your quest to achieve painlessness can boggle your mind.
– Chiropractors: They believe they are effective in treating most causes of back pain, including degenerative diseases such as arthritis, congenital malformations, some disc injuries and almost all biomechanical problems.
”The cornerstone of our treatment approach is spinal adjustment and improving the overall biomechanics of the spine,” says Dr. Randolph Harding, a chiropractor in Holiday, Fla. ”For degenerative joint problems such as arthritis or degenerative disc disease, we do know that by preserving or improving flexibility and mobility, we can reduce discomfort.
”A small percentage of people with disc damage will inevitably need surgery. For bone infection or cancer, we refer out. We have no effect on that at all.”
Chiropractors don`t prescribe medication or perform surgery. They depend on the body`s ”natural ability to heal,” and believe their techniques correct spinal alignment and prevent impingement on the spinal nerves while also relieving pain.
– Physiatrists: Doctors of physical medicine, like chiropractors, specialize in the rehabilitation of the body by natural means. Unlike chiropractors, however, physiatrists are medical doctors.
When it comes to chronic back pain, a physiatrist (pronounced fizz-EYE-uh-trist) relies mostly on conservative, drug-free treatments such as physical therapy and exercise. Physiatrists do not perform surgery. They can prescribe drugs, but they prefer to say they prescribe exercise more than medicine.
– Physical therapist: Exercise with education is the chosen method of physical therapists, whose patients are referred to them by doctors and even some chiropractors. Physical therapists are state licensed and undergo training in the health sciences and often are required to have clinical internships.
They work out of hospitals and independent treatment centers, use heat, cold and massage as part of their overall treatment program. They also are trained in the use of ultrasound and electric muscle and nerve stimulation.
”A lot of what we do is educate people regarding proper posture and body mechanics,” says Shari Feldman, a physical therapist who specializes in chronic low-back pain at RehabWorks in Spring Hill, Fla.
”We also determine what muscles are tight and what muscles are weak and need to be strengthened. We set patients up on an individual exercise program to strengthen weak muscles and stretch out tight muscles.
– Acupuncturist: Acupuncture physicians, who are state-licensed non-medical doctors, practice an ancient branch of Chinese medicine.
Acupuncture can be a passive but often effective treatment for people who have chronic back pain but don`t require surgery.
Traditional Chinese acupuncture involves inserting needles into selected sites in the body. Some acupuncturists now use electrical needle stimulation, which they claim adds to its effectiveness. Medical research has shown that acupuncture causes the release of endorphins, the body`s natural pain-killing substances.
Critics, however, say it could mask pain that may be a sign of an undiagnosed disorder.
– Massage therapist: One thing that may cause back pain is tight, inflexible muscles. If that`s the case, then massage therapists-trained to stretch and lengthen muscles-could be a solution.
”The more you lengthen the muscle, the better the blood flow,” says Gary Genna, a licensed massage therapist in Tampa. ”The more blood flows, the less waste products. The less waste products, the less tightening. And it`s that tightening that leads to the pain.”
Massage therapists claim to be effective when dealing with damage to the muscle. To reduce the pain of tight or swollen muscles, they press on trigger points, which are areas of heightened sensitivity where overburdened nerves
”fire” into a muscle and cause pain.
However, most massage therapists readily admit that nerves entrapped or compressed in the spinal cord are beyond their domain and will refer those patients to medical doctors or chiropractors.
