Myths About Back Pain

Myths About Back Pain

Myths About Back Pain

We see a lot of patients and a lot of them have back pain. When we take our thorough case history, as we do with all our new patients I often hear some interesting theories and remedies from patients as well as some interesting understanding of their back pain. I thought it would be a good idea to put some of those common wrongly help beliefs to rest.

1. Exercise is bad for back pain. Generally being more active is better for both your chances of recovery and the speed of recovery. Long gone are they days where 2 weeks of bed rest would be prescribed for back pain. Now there is a limit to what is sensible particularly when you have a sore back or neck and limited movement. I definitely wouldn’t recommend a heavy weights session in the gym. However, gently walking around the block or maybe paddling round in the swimming pool is going to do far more good for you than lying in bed or sitting on the sofa all day. Get up and moving, but do it to your tolerance. Listen to your Chiropractors advice as we want to work together to get patients back to exercise quickly and safely.
2. Pain killers will fix my back pain. There is a time and place for over the counter pain relief such as ibuprofen and paracetamol or prescription pain killers like naproxen and co-codamol. There is a common misconception that they ‘fix’ the problem. Pain killers inhibit pain signals to the brain through various chemical mechanisms therefore reducing the pain you feel, this doesn’t help the tissue damage or healing. The aim of pain killers in back and neck pain is to allow you to keep moving, this in turn helps the body’s natural healing process. We know from the evidence that the longer patients remain inactive the longer and worse outcomes are.
3. I need injections or surgery for my back problems. In some cases this is true, however the vast majority of patients we see do not need surgery or injections and respond fantastically to Chiropractic treatment. Like with pain killers there are situations where injections or surgery and needed, most of the time they aren’t. There are good studies that show a year after having either back surgery or Chiropractic treatment patients have exactly the same improvement levels as each other. The benefit with Chiropractic is not undergoing a significant surgical procedure using anaesthetic and the risks associated with this.

If any of these back pain myths are familiar or you’re suffering with back issues then give us a call at the Guildford Spine Centre. We would love to answer your questions and help where we can.