Did you know statistically, low back pain is one of the most common reasons why people visit a healthcare provider?
If you’ve been plagued by pain in your low back, you’re absolutely not alone. In fact, the lifetime prevalence of low back pain is approximately 60-70%! If someone’s fortunate enough to go through their whole life without an episode of low back pain, they’re actually in the minority.
Unfortunately, many people don’t quite know how to handle this issue. Rest? Surgery? Injections? Physical therapy? That gadget or doodad that you saw on a late night commercial? The list goes on and on.
It’s important to mention that while sometimes back pain will come and go on it’s own, this is not always the case. In fact, some research has suggested that approximately 20% of low back pain that develops will persist and become a chronic issue. At this point, that back pain is likely to contribute to a lower quality of life, medication overuse, and missed days of work, among other not-so-pleasant things. If back pain isn’t getting better over the course of weeks or even months, get it looked at sooner than later to minimize the likelihood of this happening.
So, what to do?
Let’s go through some of the common options for back pain management: Rest: One of the most intuitive things to do when a pain starts is to rest the affected area. And for a short duration of time, this may be reasonable in some cases. However, once the pain is no longer ‘new’ (more than a day or two), movement has been shown to be way more helpful than staying still. Rest and immobility have actually been shown to be harmful, and can prolong or worsen the low back pain.
Injections/Medication: Medications and injections do have their time and place, but often aren’t the best first step to take. Pain is only ever a symptom, and all pain has some kind of underlying cause. Pills and injections tend to mask the pain, meaning that the underlying cause still exists. Unfortunately, in many instances, that means that the back pain returns once the medication use ends, or the injection wears off. There are also many instances in which medication and injections don’t improve a person’s pain at all, which can leave folks feeling hopeless and disappointed.
Surgery Versus PT: Current research suggests that physical therapy is at least as effective, if not more effective, than back surgery for improving low back pain. Unlike surgery, physical therapy does not increase a person’s risk for developing a blood clot, infection, or other nasty post-operative complications. In short, a physical therapy exam should involve a thorough examination to figure out exactly what factors seem to be creating your back pain, and developing a structured game plan to reduce symptoms and restore function. In a large majority of cases, these interventions are successful at reducing and eliminating back pain. Conditions such as stenosis, muscle strains, disc issues, and joint problems often respond great to physical therapy.
Now, there is no such thing as a silver bullet in the world of pain and healthcare. In some scenarios, it’s possible that the cause of your back pain doesn’t respond to physical therapy (it shouldn’t take more than a few visits to figure this out).
Everything has a time and place, and surgery can be beneficial for certain cases. In this case, at least you’ll know that you did your due diligence in trying to allow your body to heal through its own devices. If it does get to this point, you should go into surgery with a well informed mind. There are different kinds of back surgery, each with their own considerations, but generally
speaking, you can expect a successful outcome roughly 50% of the time.
50% is not what anyone wants to hear, but honesty is the best policy, and this is one of the major reasons why hastily jumping into surgery isn’t usually the best option.
Are you or someone you love dealing with low back pain? If so, we would love to hear from you to see how we can help to get you moving better! Give us a call at (239) 232-8155, or send us an email at Contact@serendipityPTW.com.
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