Back Pain Is Driving Us Crazy

[uber]

My mother has suffered from back pain for years but the last year or so it seems to be getting worse and she now spends every day sitting at a dinner chair from 9am until very late in the evening.

She attends an NHS pain clinic who take weeks or months to do anything and it seems more of a conveyor belt of suffering people leaving with bags of pain killers than a viable solution. She was given some injections (cant remember the name but it was a series of small injections all around the nerve endings) which did not seem to work.

Last month I paid for her to see a one of the NHS pain clinic doctors in a private hospital and she went in herself and came out saying very little can be done apart from acupuncture and a tens machine.

I have taken he to see an acupuncture chap and she is now on her sixth session (twice a week) and she says its not got any better.

Im not stuck for ideas, I very much doubt sitting at a dinner chair for 15 hours a day is doing her any good but can anyone recommend another course of action or an exceptional clinic / doctor anywhere in the UK I can take her to?

[HootersGsy]

I suffer with pretty much continual lower back pain and once had a book called "Treat your own back" by Robin MacKenzie recommended to me by a physio. It is some pretty simple exercises and if I keep up with them I find I have far fewer episodes of pain. The other thing my physio said was sitting/laying still was about the worst thing I could do as you need to get blood flowing into the area.

It might be no help whatsoever to your mother but if everything else is failing might be worth a shot?

[theholygrail]

Have you tried a Chiropractor or an Osteopath? X-rays and/or an MRI scan might be useful too to help with diagnosis. Sitting all day, regardless of how good her sitting posture is, is not going to help!

[croyde]

I find long walks, ie 3 or more miles, eases my almost continual back pain. I have to keep walking though, not ambling around the shops. That kills it.

Trouble is I now have an arthritic big toe which makes walking a pain. Did 6 miles yesterday and my back was fine but I was hobbling later when I took the kids a mile down the road for dinner.

Getting old is a biatch

[Hoofy]

Try EFT. Should make a difference in the first session otherwise you'll know that it doesn't work. I do find it works for all kinds of pains, though.

[mattikake]

I deal with and fix various back pain issues in people of all ages all the time.

What's the diagnosed cause of the pain? Is it muscular, joint, nerve?

I'm guessing the site is lumbar, but it could spread from anywhere from feet to head. See here:- http://www.mptp.info/pages/articles/deskposturecor...

Whatever of the 3, it's almost certain that sitting is making it worse. Our spines are not designed to sit, it causes massive pressure in a direction the lumbar spine is not designed to take - it is designed for vertical pressure up/down the vertebrae, not lateral or sagittal pressure across it. Sitting does exactly that.

The most common back pain is through muscular atrophy (95% of cases are) and if your mum keeps spending more and more time sitting, with the pain getting worse, it's most likely there is some serious muscular atrophy is happening. This often requires counter-intuitive fixes - trying to fix by exercises causes even more pain than doing nothing, although when tried hard and often enough, your body will start to fix itself. But doing nothing only makes the pain worse year on year, and worse pain makes you want to do even less. This is an ever-decreasing circle and you will not win.

So applying Occam's Razor, if it is atrophy, then she need to strengthen and stretch the affected muscles. These will be whole connected groups and will require a lot of different exercises.

Pain killers, physio, immobility even surgery are usually procedures that aim to alleviate the symptoms but do not work towards a fix. This is why they fail.

[Hoofy]

So... deadlifts.

[mattikake]

Amongst many other things, yep. I've had many female OAPs deadlifting 40-50Kg in a few weeks, by which time they start to notice improvements in pain, posture, mobility and flexibility.

It's a crime that I only get £40ph.

[Hoofy]

My gym buddy used to suffer from back pain until he started doing deads.

[Red 4]

mattikake said:

I deal with and fix various back pain issues in people of all ages all the time.

What's the diagnosed cause of the pain? Is it muscular, joint, nerve?

Any advice for me ?

I have dysfunctions of both sacroiliac joints, a dysfunction of the facet joints at L5/S1 and a condition called central sensitisation which has developed over time (essentially nerve damage).

I have constant pain and discomfort and my legs are also affected; my hamstrings are always "tight" and painful - my right leg is actually painful to touch on the back of the thigh.

I've had loads of physio, oral meds and SI joint and facet injections (the injections dampen down the pain a bit) but nothing has really helped. I try to keep mobile and stretch often but I suffer from "locking" of my spine (powerful muscle spasms which lock my spine and can render me crippled for weeks !).

Any advice would be appreciated ! OP - apologies for the thread hijack.

[mattikake]

Red 4 said:

Any advice for me ?

Unfortunately, no.

Essentially I can only work with muscle imbalances. Imbalances are by far the most common thing in the sedentary modern world, but are largely the only structures that are fixable without surgery (fast self-healing).

Muscles can be strengthened to help support joints and in turn, cushion nerves by guiding them through natural channels, but if the nerves are already hyper sensitised it's already too late for any of that. I mean, you could try to build up supporting muscles in that area (erector spinae group) which will help dyfunctional joint stabalise that is say, misaligned due to musclar weakness causing pinching/rubbing of a nerve, but it's not going to undamage a nerve that is already damaged.

I could only suggest a diet high in HDL's and EFA's as these are the primary structures involved in the protective coating around nerves.

[Red 4]

mattikake said:

Unfortunately, no.

Not to worry, thankyou for the reply.