Why is chronic back pain such a global problem with no widespread treatment moving us any closer to solving the condition?
For the answer, consider these reasons:
- We work harder, longer, and play outside less and less. Look around your office: it’s a safe bet that most of your coworkers are sitting, including yourself. As a society, we’re only starting to explore how destructive sitting is for our bodies.
- We live in a world where exhaustion rules as a status symbol. A person will answer the phone only to tell you for five minutes how busy, tired and stressed he or she is. If we have back pain, we buckle down and keep moving.
- Preventing disease and muscle weakness is a different type of work, the kind of which slips under our general awareness. We don’t get patted on the back for taking time off to work out over lunch or for breaking social norms like sitting at work.
- It’s easier to respond to urgent problems as they occur. It remains far less common to be proactive and deal with important issues before they become problems. In health care, this can be seen in the lack of focus on prevention. Instead, current medical communities focus on what it can diagnose or treat.
- Back pain progresses stealthily under a cloud of injuries, spine instability, and poor posture. Additionally, your body compensates for weak bracing muscles (the ones you need to keep your spine stable and pain-free) like no other part of your body, making recognizing the root of back pain even more difficult. We have nothing to compare it to, which means we need a new way to recognize causes and solutions.
If you struggle with back pain and rely on customary medical advice, the odds are stacked against you. Research results produced most recently essentially say nothing works when it comes to treating chronic back pain. Our medical community’s algorithms for treatment are flawed and failing.
Chronic back pain is a real problem for many of us, but there is a solution, which while simple in concept requires discipline.
UPRISE: Back Pain Liberation, by Tuning Your Body Guitar, by back pain expert Dr. Sean Wheeler, offers the starting point for a new global conversation of chronic back pain treatment and relief.
[Image Credit: The Lancet, Source: The Economist]
