May 2005

I keep having flare-ups of back pain, why do I continue to have problems?

Back pain is a very common problem.  Eight out of ten people will suffer a traumatic episode of back pain that prevents them from working or doing the activities that they enjoy.  Many times back pain starts out as an ache.  It bothers you for a couple days and goes away, but then occurs again a couple weeks or months later and this time the pain is a little more severe and lasts a little longer.  Back pain usually returns and gets more severe and frequent because of the way that we move and the way we sit, lay down and stand.  As we get older (yes the age thing) like machines, we start to break down.  Unfortunately, it is not as easy or even possible to replace our parts. What we have to do is change our mechanics (they way we do things) and improve our posture.  If we do not change these things, we continue to rub things together in our body and start to break down our parts (joints) and develop pain.  The most important change is our posture.  Most people need to get low back support, sit up straight and pull shoulders and head back. Improving posture will help our mechanics.  Therefore, if you continue to have pain that is not going away it may be the way that you are moving.  You will need to change before it is too late, otherwise you may end up with pain that never goes away.

Dennis McEntaffer, PT