Use our back pain guide to get peace of mind while working to find relief. Learning some basic facts about back pain and the best forms of treatment will really help you to feel much better without compromising your health or sanity unnecessarily.
We have been helping people with acute and chronic back pain for more than 15 years online with our completely free web resources. We provide education and advocacy services for people who need help due to severe back pain symptomology. Most importantly, we provide a sense of community to let you know that you are not alone in your suffering. When it comes to back pain, we are the experts, with more combined clinical experience than any other online source.
This back pain guide will get you started on the optimal path towards relief. We will provide expert guidance on self care, diagnosis and professional treatment to facilitate cures for everyone who is affected by the substantial torture of back pain.
Self Care Back Pain Guide
When back pain strikes unexpectedly (almost always!), many people do not really know what to do and some actually make matters much worse with their choice of self care practices. A great number of people head off to their local hospital emergency room. However, emergency care for back pain is almost always a waste of time and money, since it is statistically very unfulfilling. The exception to this rule is back pain that occurs after a known serious trauma, such as a car accident. This type of pain should always be investigated by a qualified trauma doctor. Pain that occurs after typical onset scenarios is almost always ignored by emergency staff and the patient will be charged exorbitantly, left waiting for hours and sent home with some OTC drugs and a prescription to follow-up with a private doctor on their own…
Many people simply go to bed and hope that the pain will ameliorate by itself. This is not a bad idea, but it is generally best to move about regularly and not simply recline in bed for days at a time. This inactivity can be counterproductive for the body’s organic healing process. Some simple movement can really help the body to bounce back quicker and better than lying motionless in bed.
Using OTC drugs is ok, but regular, excessive or long-term utilization of any type of medication (no matter how seemingly innocent) should be avoided. Drug therapies create a serious negative collateral toll on general wellness and the damage done can make back pain seem like a walk in the park… Likewise, using illicit drugs or alcohol to manage pain create a dangerous path that should also be avoided in all cases.
Most people are best off going about their normal day, but taking it easy and not stressing mind or body or focusing too much on the pain.
Back Pain Guide for Accurate Diagnosis
If pain worsens, recurs regularly or becomes a chronic problem, then it is definitely time to consult with a specialist about the issue. Choosing the best type of back doctor for each type of pain is important. For most conditions, we highly recommend spinal neurologists, although orthopedists and physical therapists are also useful.
Diagnostic processing should include medical imaging, but these tests should not be used to make a diagnosis without complete evaluation of the actual expression, including a physical exam and symptomatic correlation. Misdiagnosis is the most common hurdle facing patients who seek medical attention for back pain, explaining why so many people are in treatment, yet so few actually realize cures. If the diagnosis is not correct, then any effort to treat the diagnosed condition is guaranteed to fail before therapy even begins.
Patients should always take an active role in their diagnosis and thoroughly research all possible and proposed causes of their suffering to avoid financial exploitation and unnecessary treatment.
Back Pain Guide for Successful Treatment
If an accurate diagnosis is made, then it is time to consider the best way to treat the condition. This is a highly case specific topic, since some conditions truly do benefit from surgery, while most others will be better managed using conservative care or even alternative medicine. Statistics suggest that the majority of people with back pain will fare best without any treatment at all. There are reasons why this is true and we discuss these in our back pain scapegoat dialog.
We provide a complete view of dorsalgia, including all the possible causes of back pain due to injury, degeneration, disease, systemic factors and mindbody causation. It is important to learn about your diagnosis and then read up on all the available therapies before choosing one. Doctors will generally recommend the treatment that they offer, since this makes the most financial sense for them. However, these recommendations do not always take the patient’s best health interests into account, so be wary of all recommendations and always seek at least one second opinion before proceeding with any type of care.
