Bubonic plague, or Black Death, is one of the great scourges of human history. In the 14th century it was responsible for the deaths of 25% — 60% of the European population alone. Today, while Bubonic plague has not been eliminated entirely, its effect on humans has been vastly downgraded from a death sentence to a treatable infection. This progress is the direct result of modern medicine and its discovery that the plague is one of three types of bacterial infection caused by Yersinia Pestis, usually resulting from the bite of an infected flea present on rats. When the rat dies, the fleas search for a new host.
Why is this important?
Because, before the cause of Bubonic plague was found, it affected — and took — the lives of millions. It was not until the cause was found that the medical community was able to discover the antibiotics to effectively work against the bacteria and create the public health measures necessary for prevention. In other words, identifying the cause directly resulted in an effective treatment.
The similarities between Bubonic plague and chronic low back pain are extraordinary.
Yes, people don’t die directly from back pain. Yet, in the US alone, 65 million people are living with chronic low back pain, which has a significant negative effect on their lives and the lives of their loved ones. Low back pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide. Yet, somehow, we continue to be told (or sold) that the cause of low back pain doesn’t matter as long as we can treat the pain — temporary as that may be. The generally accepted and pervasive mindset among the healthcare and medical communities has been one focused on treatment — procedural, rather than diagnostic — with little regard to addressing the cause of back pain in the context of progression. Back pain specialists want to treat back pain like a surgeon treats abdominal pain: find one cause and treat it. The problem with this approach is that it ignores the progressive nature of back pain. Identifying and treating the true cause of chronic back pain — Bracing Muscle weakness — is the key to chronic back pain prevention, amplified by public health measures to decrease the number of people affected, and a forum to improve our care of low back pain.
There are a lot of people in this world who claim to have a miracle cure for back pain. Without a known cause, they all resemble the snake oil salesmen working out of the back of a wagon in the middle ages. How is one able to tell what works? I spent six years writing UPRISE: Back Pain Liberation, By Tuning Your Body Guitar — in which I clearly present the cause of chronic low back pain and provide a roadmap for getting out of pain — for good. My hope is that, in the future, this book, this method, Bracing Muscle weakness, will be viewed as significant an advance as the identification of the flea in the cause of the plague.
It changes everything.
Learn more about Dr. Sean Wheeler, Bracing Muscles, Healthy Posture, and how we can finally treat the cause of chronic back pain in UPRISE: Back Pain Liberation, by Tuning Your Body Guitar.
