When it comes to back pain, it can be really devastating. Proper precautions, if not taken at the right hour, can aggravate a simple back strain, which may be converted into a herniated disk. However, people have mixed views and understanding about back pain which, most of the time, is wrongly construed and handled. Let’s discuss some top myths and facts about back pain and the most appropriate ways to deal with them.
Learn to live with the pain, there is nothing you can do
Most pro-active back pain sufferers accept and live with the misconception that a back pain cannot be resolved, and they will have to live with it for their whole life. However, the fact is that each case of back pain requires individual personal solutions. With early treatment, it is possible to avoid long term discomfort. There are many survival strategies available to alleviate and smartly manage back pain.
If your problem is debilitating and interferes with your daily chores, professional help is quite crucial for you if you want a break away from your present condition. Not only would it prevent loss of energy and stress caused due to excessive pain, but would also enhance long term healing by having a positive impact on your immunity system. With the introduction of alternative health modalities and newer methods of managing chronic pain holistically, it has become simpler for people to deal with their pain.
It’s all in the head
Family members, close friends and even physicians make you believe that the pain is all in your head and has no real significance. Severe pain, undoubtedly, leads to depression and anxiety which is closely monitored by your state-of-mind. However, it is not completely a psychological problem though. A pain is a pain, even if doctors fail to detect the physical cause behind it. A patient experiences a pain only when his nervous system processes and transmits information associated with the sufferer’s painful stimuli. The best way to capitalize on the fact is to seek proper medical pain management assistance. They would entrust you with a proper regime and daily program with several favorable components which would keep things under control and even enable you to carry out your activities of daily routine independently.
Bed rest is the best cure for back pain
Most of us have this misconception that if we have a back pain, we should stay in bed to get a faster relief from the problem. This solution stands true only in very acute conditions when a patient suffers from an acute back injury. However, such a phase lasts only for a few days during which staying in bed can help heal the tissues at a faster pace. Henceforth, the same applies in case of people suffering from non-specific low back pain too.
Excessive bed rest restricts the healing procedure and may worsen it further. Experts advise such patients to indulge in stretching and strengthening of their body tissues and muscles which can prevent further injuries. Also, proper exercises and movements can speed up the healing pattern by pumping out wastes, increasing flexibility and even relieving one of depression by inducing generation of endorphins within the body.
You need to visit your chiropractor every week
A chiropractic treatment encourages and prescribes manual medicines, and promises a surgery-free and drug-less patient care. In the initial phases of your aggravated back pain, you might be recommended and encouraged by your chiropractor to make consistent visits to the clinic several times within a week to get your broken tissues adjusted systematically. However, once your condition stabilizes, this prolonged treatment paraphernalia would definitely be cut down to as less as once a month, so as to maintain the positive changes initialized within your body via the treatment. There are no rule books which claim that the patient opting for a chiropractic treatment therapy for pain relief has to be bound with it for the whole life.
You can never do hiking or do gardening
Having back pain does not mean that it would restrict your activities and bereft you of all your favorite sport activities. It is definitely not the be-all and end-all of life. Chronic back-pain sufferers can also live life on their own terms. The mantra behind it is you have to listen to your body’s call and respect its limitations. However, with a proper well designed and meticulously followed rehabilitation program, which includes flexibility exercises and core conditions, it is possible to get back to enjoying your favorite recreational activities like hiking and gardening. While carrying out your favorite hobbies, you should always remember to indulge in good body mechanics. This would prevent you from slipping back into your past painful condition.
Only an MRI can reveal the cause
You can often be misguided that only an MRI can diagnose the root cause of back pain. However, the reality lies behind the fact that a good qualified medical practitioner is capable enough to comprehend the reason for the pain by conducting a simple physical examination in co-relation with the past medical history of the patient. Diagnostic tools no doubt assist in determining damage caused to the nerve root and inter-vertebral disc, but these are opted only after the preliminary round of conservative treatments fail to show any effective result to the patient, and surgery becomes as the last resort to provide relief to the sufferer.
A surgery is inevitable
Statistics prove that 90% of patients suffering from back pain heal on their own with simple pain management therapies and by following proper daily regimes. Only the remaining 10% undergo surgery, that too in advanced stages of chronic pain or in case of medical emergencies like a broken neck or progressively worsening condition of weakness in the legs, which may result in causing bladder and bowel incontinence with the aggravating back problem.
Being overweight does not contribute
An ideal body alignment is a must to avoid muscular imbalances and acute back pain. To initiate this, it is very essential to maintain one’s ideal body weight in accordance with one’s height. Being overweight leads to compression of the spine and squeezing of inter-vertebral disks, which makes them prone to herniation and degeneration. Also, people who have large bellies are exposed to greater risks of developing anterior pelvic tilt which ultimately causes lordosis, an abnormal spine condition. The bottom line of the fact is that being overweight does contribute to back pain.
Back pain comes with age
One misconception which most of us carry is that back pain comes with old age. Experts have mentioned time and again that back pain has nothing to do with old age. They are in no way inter-related. Back pain can happen at any age and in any intensity. The only role that old age plays in aggravating or causing back ache is the accumulated muscle tension, which is a result of aging.
We all have a separate specific muscular reflex pattern that we follow to respond and relieve our daily life stresses, which in turn become unconscious and involuntary over time, leading to a condition called Sensor Motor Amnesia. This is one of the major reasons for causing chronic back pain. However, back pain can be easily reversed by opting for the right treatment at the right time.
Abdominal strengthening cures back pain
Core conditioning undoubtedly lends support to your entire body structure. But, repetitive abdominal sit ups and leg lifts can tighten your back and worsen the pain all the more. In an attempt to strengthen your abdomen to relieve back pain, you would only end up inviting more trouble. You can get rapid relief from chronic back pain by training your sensory motor system, which assists the brain in regaining both sensation and control over body muscles and its movements, as per your body requirements. If you can learn to excel in the art of moving more efficiently and effortlessly, you can get immediate and permanent relief from your back ache problem.
If you have back ache, you cannot lift anything
A person suffering from lower back pain is always instructed not to lift anything heavy in weight. Experts say that it is not what you lift that makes a difference, but it is how you lift it. You can definitely lift articles from the ground level, even if you have a perpetual backache problem. But, the condition is that you should know the right way of doing so. People with chronic backache problems should make sure never to bend down and utilize their back in lifting a weight. Instead, they should always engage their legs in carrying out the activity by lifting from their base. By doing this, they can carry out their daily activities without seeking help from others.
