Sports medicine and back pain expert Dr. Sean Wheeler is not alone in seeking back pain liberation for chronic back pain sufferers.
For example, Dr. Haleh Agdassi, a rehabilitation doctor with the Palo Alto Medical Foundation in California, sees back and neck pain so frequently among computer users that she refers to the condition as “Silicon Valley syndrome.”
“There’s no magic bullet out there for back pain,” she says. “That can be overwhelming for patients. It’s an anxious, vulnerable crowd — they’re looking for solutions.”
By one estimate, lower back pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide. In the United States alone, costs relating to the condition are estimated to cost more than $100 billion a year.
In the same story quoting Dr. Agdassi, over a year and a half ago The New York Times wrote of Esther Gokhale, a “posture guru” in the Silicon Valley and author of the book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back.
Ms. Gokhale [pronounced go-CLAY] believes people suffer from pain and dysfunction because they have forgotten how to use their bodies.
As the Times notes, Ms. Gokhale is not the first to suggest that changing posture is key to a healthy spine. Practitioners of the Alexander Technique and the creators of the Aplomb Institute in Paris similarly help clients find more natural and comfortable ways to position themselves. Pilates and physical therapy can improve posture and bring awareness to it. A handful of companies, like Lumo BodyTech, now sell personal posture monitors, offering smartphone users constant feedback about the way they hold their bodies.
In his soon-to-be published book UPRISE, Dr. Wheeler will reveal that while good posture is important to achieve liberation from chronic back pain, true relief for sufferers will come only when medical professionals and healthcare insurers embrace a new way of thinking about about how back pain is caused, and how it may be relieved, for patients everywhere.
