Healing Back Pain: Solutions

Living with back pain can drastically alter the course of your life, affecting sleep, work and play. The situation can feel helpless, especially when medical professionals don’t even know what is causing your pain. Take the following forum post by a desperate parent, for example:

“My daughter, 29 has cronic back pain. Epidural injections and other treatments have not relieved the pain.? Her orthopaedic surgon says her disc problem is unremarkable. The neuro surgeon has not found any problem. She can’t sleep and the pain is always there.”

The best thing you can do for your back is to get educated on how it works and what can go wrong with it. There are many possible causes of back pain; it is impossible to answer this parent’s question about her daughter’s back pain without more information, such as where the pain is located, what kind of pain it is and what kind of lifestyle the woman leads. However, a little research makes it possible to offer some advice.

We can begin with what we know does not work for this woman’s pain: epidural injections. These are used to reduce inflammation and relieve pain around the nerves within the spinal cord. Nerve impingement is a rather common cause of back pain, particularly sciatica, and epidurals are considered highly effective in treating this type of pain. We have reason, therefore, to rule out nerves as a cause of pain.

Another reason is that the woman’s neurosurgeon did not detect any problems. Neurosurgeons are trained in the diagnosis and treatment of conditions within the neurological system.

Without nerves in the picture, we’re left with bones, muscles, ligaments and tendons. The other information that we have in the above quote is that the woman was examined by an orthopedic surgeon. Orthopedic surgeons specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of bone and joint conditions. We can, then, rule out the discs, bones and facet joints of the spine as culprits.

This leaves us with muscles, tendons and ligaments. Chronic tension can develop through repetitive use of a muscle or long-term improper biomechanics. If you lift with your back or while twisting, for example, you practice bad biomechanics. Bad posture is a static form of improper biomechanics. These actions and positions can strain muscles by making them work harder than they are meant to. Ligaments and tendons can be overstretched, inflamed or torn during these activities.

Another possibility is the development of trigger points. These hard, small knots can develop in myofascia, the tissue surrounding muscles. These knots cause localized pain and result from chronic tension and inflammation of a muscle. The points can also refer pain to other parts of the body by impinging nerves.

For muscle problems, it is important to both seek treatment that reduces the inflammation and to identify the habits that caused them. There are various types of massage therapy that target specific muscle problems. Deep tissue massage and trigger point massage are the most relevant to those with chronic pain from tension, overuse, improper biomechanics and/or trigger points.

Of course, it is possible that the medical professionals this young woman sought for help missed something. Second opinions are always a good idea. Once you research your own pain, you are in a position to walk into your doctor’s office and propose a plan. Leaving it up to the professionals is not always the best path; being a partner in your own recovery guarantees that you receive proper attention and care.

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