The Back Pain Blog

Something to ponder – According to the statistics there are more than 200 million people that suffer back pain in the good ol’ US of A alone. Medical costs and loss in productivity costs the economy an estimated 60 billion dollars every year!

These figures, in my mind at least, lead to a couple of questions.

1. Is there enough known about the causes of these injuries so that the best form of therapy or intervention is being recommended?
2. Is our lifestyle a contributing factor in the number of people suffering back pain?

In my opinion the answer to the first question is No. I’m sure not everyone will agree with me on this but from my experiences with searching for a solution to my back problems I have felt like I was alone. Sure, our family doctor immediately sent me off to a Physiotherapist and filled out a prescription for a months supply of Panadeine Forte which got me through the worst of it but when the pain persisted I found it very hard to get any answers.

I find the lack of ‘concrete’ information and answers puzzling. Going from one ’specialist’ to the next has only drained our back account by many thousands of dollars and left us with more questions than answers. It seems that everyone has a different perspective on the problem and a different idea of how it should be treated.

I may be being a bit harsh here and I do understand that the human body is a very complicated piece of work but I just get the feeling that a lot of what we read and are told about back pain is more an opinion than cold, hard fact.

I mean everything is ok for me at the moment, I have my supply of pain killers and luckily enough I am not forced by circumstances to be out working but I feel for the people that do have to be out there and trying to find a solution to their back problems. It must be a very hard road to travel.

Moving on before I get too worked up! You don’t have to be Einstein to realize that the world we are living in is moving at a frantic pace and I for one believe that our lifestyles play a very big part in the numbers of back pain sufferers.

I know how I came about to suffer the injuries that I did. I was a self employed motor mechanic and I can tell you that when you have the pressures of turning a dollar the last thing you are thinking about is preserving your body! Many times I caught myself doing things that I should not have been doing, plus the fact that working more than eight hours a day was necessary if you really wanted to get ahead.

So I guess the answer is to slow down and look after your body. Eat well, get eight hours of sleep a night every night and exercise daily. Who does this?? I’m pretty sure that Bill Gates could take time out of his day to fit all of those things in but what about us people that are pushing to make ends meet and have families to take care of?

If you ask me the pressures of modern day life and the fact that people are working longer and harder than ever before has a huge impact on the number of people not only with back complaints but other equally as problematic medical conditions as well. The question is where will it stop?

Craig