The Seven Back Pain Mistakes

If you’re reading this blog, most likely you—or a loved  one—is experiencing, or has experienced, back pain. Maybe  you’ve tried some of the treatments out there but haven’t found any lasting relief. At this point, you may be wondering why you haven’t had greater success. Through my practice, I’ve found that the reasons back-pain sufferers continue to suffer are usually because they make one or more of the following seven common mistakes.

Mistake #1: 

Continuing a Treatment That Doesn’t Work 

I’ve talked to a number of back-pain sufferers who have  amazing stories of how long they tried a particular type of  treatment before giving it up. Prior to enlisting our help, one  of our clients actually went through 70 treatments with a  chiropractor—and experienced no relief at all.
I know of several other clients who spent a lot of money on  massage therapists and acupuncturists, only to get temporary  relief that disappeared within a few days.

This doesn’t make any sense. If you’re using a back-pain  solution that doesn’t work or hasn’t worked permanently, it’s  worth trying a different approach. Some treatments work for  some people, but if a treatment isn’t working for you, that’s  what’s important.
Here’s a general rule to follow: Once you’ve gone through  a three-month period of treatment, if you see no  improvement, consider making a change. It’s not so much  that you should have only X amount of treatments, but that  you should notice steady progress in your pain relief. This  relief should be of the long-lasting variety—not the kind that  wears off in a few hours.

Mistake #2: Failing to Solve the Problem the First Time 

Many people experience back pain that lasts a few days and  then subsides. When the pain disappears, rather than make an  effort to identify and address the cause of it, they simply  forget about it.

Here’s an example: About 10 years ago, my mother had  her first bout with back pain. She suffered back spasms for a  few days, then the pain went away and she went on with her  life. Two years later, it came back—much worse than before.  It got so bad, she couldn’t work. If she had taken that first  round of pain more seriously, I doubt she would have had to  go through the second one. Even if she did, it wouldn’t have  been nearly as bad and she’d have known exactly what to do  to get rid of the pain again, but this time much more quickly.  I understand why this happens. Most people believe that  when the pain goes away, the problem does, too. This is a  common misconception that I hope will be corrected as you read this blog.

The truth is, even though the pain may ease up for a while,  if you haven’t figured out what caused it in the first place,  that cause is still there, lurking, waiting to flare up again. Of  course, figuring out what causes back pain isn’t always easy.

If you have a fall or some other sudden accident, it’s not  difficult to figure out why your back hurts. But in nearly all  cases, the pain is caused by any number of things, things you  may not have even thought about. You need to investigate  what unhealthy conditions may be developing in your body  and, more important, what’s creating those conditions. I like  to call these “hidden causes,” and you’ll discover them later in  this blog.

Mistake #3: Thinking You’re Too “Healthy” or “Fit” to Have Back Pain 

You may eat right, exercise regularly, and enjoy good  health, but that doesn’t mean you can’t experience back pain.  Having been a personal trainer for many years, I’ve seen a lot  of people in excellent shape who suddenly find themselves  with lower-back trouble. The reality is that people who  exercise frequently are just as likely—if not more so—to  develop back pain. Certain groups of athletes—including  runners, cyclists, swimmers, dancers, gymnasts, and  bodybuilders—are prime candidates for back problems.

Cyclists, for example, spend hours in a hunched  position—a position that’s not natural for the body to  maintain over long periods of time. This causes a number of  problems, as you’ll discover shortly. In addition, the constant  repetitive motion of peddling a bicycle overworks one set of  muscles while underworking another. These imbalanced  behaviors are very common in many people, and frequently  they create conditions in the body that lead to back pain.

The same thing can happen to nonathletes. Even if you  don’t do any of the above-mentioned activities, your workout  program can create problems if you’re concentrating too  heavily on certain areas of your body—making the pain  worse—while neglecting others. Being fit doesn’t necessarily  mean that your body is well-balanced or devoid of other causes that could lead to back pain.

Mistake #4:
Treating Only the Symptoms 

The majority of the treatments people receive—including  cortisone shots, anti-inflammatory drugs, ultrasound,  electrical stimulation, and the like—address only the  symptoms of pain. You must understand that pain is merely a  signal that something is wrong. Even if you get rid of the  pain, the problem is still going to be there.

Here’s an illustration: Suppose the oil light comes on in  your car. You could put a piece of duct tape over the light,  which would eliminate the aggravation, but it won’t solve the  problem. Your engine is still going to need attention. And  unless you do something about it, it’s only a matter of time  before it will break down.

It’s the same with pain. You’re hurting because your body  is suffering some sort of stress or strain. If you don’t address  it, you’ll continue on with your “oil light” lit, so to speak,  until something breaks down. Unfortunately, such a  breakdown is usually very painful.

Mistake #5:
Not Understanding That Back Pain Is a Process 

Most of the time, back pain, neck pain, and sciatica take  weeks, months, or even years to develop. Usually, you’re not  aware of a problem until something starts to hurt. But rarely  is back pain the result of a one-time incident. Barring an  injury like a car accident, back pain typically doesn’t happen  overnight. And even if a fall or an accident did trigger pain for  you, the fact is that before the event you likely had several  “hidden causes” placing unnecessary strain on your body.

Consider this example. Many of us sit for hours a day,  especially if we’re required to work at a computer or be in the  driver’s seat of a car or truck. The body wasn’t made to sit  that long. (That’s why we’re seeing so many cases of back pain  now as compared to several decades ago.)
Sitting puts extra pressure on the spine. It also shortens the  muscles in the front of our hips and the backs of our legs  while weakening others, like the ones in the rear end and the  abdomen. To make matters worse, most of us adopt poor  posture when we’re sitting. The shoulders round, the head  juts forward, and the back curves like a “C.” When we stand  up again, we feel that tightness in the backs of our legs and in  our hips, and most of us retain that stooped posture even  when in the upright position.

Imagine that the front end of your car is out of alignment,  which causes the tires to wear unevenly. This also can happen  to your muscles. Doing one thing over and over (such as  sitting with bad posture) can throw the body out of its proper  alignment, forcing it to adapt and work at strange angles.

After a long period of operating this way, certain muscles,  tendons, ligaments, and joints wear down, while others that  are barely used become stiff and weak. The end result of this  long process is often a condition like back pain, but it also can  manifest itself as many other conditions, such as foot pain,  knee pain, hip pain, shoulder problems, carpal tunnel  syndrome, and dozens of others.
Unfortunately, X-rays, MRIs, and CAT scans don’t reveal  much of the uneven wear and tear we’re talking about here, so  many people are unaware of what has caused their pain. Even  after undergoing treatment that may give them some relief,  they have failed to address the underlying causes, setting them  up to likely have to deal with this problem for a very long  time.
 

Mistake #6:
Believing There Are No More Options Left 

After suffering back pain for a while, and trying various  treatments, you may tell yourself that surgery is the only  option left or—even worse—that you’ll just have to learn to  live with the pain.
If you’ve experienced little success, you may  understandably feel tired of trying. My “message of hope,” so  to speak, is that pain is not your problem. Determining what  is causing the pain is the problem. When you can get to the  underlying, often hidden cause of your back pain, it becomes  much easier to treat successfully.

Most practitioners try to get rid of back pain without ever  really trying to figure out what’s causing it. For example, two  people can experience the exact same level and location of  back pain, but for wildly different reasons.

Let’s say you’ve tried physical therapy, but it didn’t work  for you. It’s not that physical therapy doesn’t work; the  problem is that the therapist didn’t have you doing the right  combination of things to address the specific causes of your  pain. Remember: Pain isn’t the problem. It’s just a message  that you have a problem.

Forget about treatments that try to make the message go  away. Until you’ve attempted to figure out what’s causing the  pain, you haven’t come close to exhausting your treatment  options. In fact, I’m willing to bet that there are several  treatments you likely have not tried (maybe never even heard  of) and I’ll tell you about these later in this blog.

Mistake #7:
Failing to Take Control 

Many back-pain sufferers look to others to make them  well. The problem with this is that no one cares more about  your body and health than you do, and in the end, you have  to take the steps necessary to allow and assist your body to  heal.

A medical doctor looks at back pain as a muscular  problem. Prescribe the right drugs, he believes, and the  problem goes away.

The surgeon sees it as a disc or vertebrae problem—a  bulging disc is putting pressure on a nerve. She thinks that by  cutting away the problem, it will go away.

The acupuncturist feels that back pain is related to poor  circulation within the body. By using acupuncture treatments,  he encourages better circulation and believes that it will  stimulate the body’s natural self-healing powers to kick in.  The chiropractor sees back pain as a misalignment of the  spinal column. She thinks that by manipulating the spinal  column into alignment, she will fix the problem.
These treatment approaches are all partially right.

The challenge with back pain is that the cause is different  for each person—and often involves a combination of factors.  Because no back pain practitioner is well-versed in all these  areas—nor overly knowledgeable about matching conditions  with treatments—nobody other than you will ever consider  the “big picture,” or holistic aspect, of what’s causing your  pain.

This is why I found relief only when I took charge of my  own care. I certainly called on others when appropriate, but I  was personally responsible and determined to get rid of the  problem once and for all.

I encourage you to adopt the same attitude. As you read  the chapters that follow, you’ll come to understand what’s  going on with your body and learn how to finally get the  lasting relief you’ve been looking for.