7 Back Pain Breakthroughs

Are you hurting? Here's help.

By Michael J. Weiss
From Reader's Digest
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End Back Pain Agony

Ouch, that aching back! If you've ever moaned in agony from back pain, rest assured -- albeit uncomfortably -- that you're not alone. About eight in ten Americans will suffer from it at some point in their lives. After colds, it's the No. 1 cause of missed work. It's a major drain on the American economy, costing more than $90 billion a year in medical bills. Yet a cure for the common backache is as elusive as ever.


Part of the problem is the complexity of the spine, a miraculous structure of bone and cartilage that surrounds nerves linking the brain to the rest of the body. The lower back, called the lumbar region, bears most of a person's weight on five vertebrae separated by disks that work like shock absorbers to provide cushioning and flexibility. Muscles and ligaments supply further support. But over time, the effects of aging decrease bone mass and muscle elasticity, and contribute to disk degeneration, leaving the lower back vulnerable to injury -- and millions of people susceptible to pain.

Back pain can originate from many sources, and treatments are just as varied, from conservative approaches like exercises and massage, to more risky prescription medications and surgery. Unfortunately for many patients, these choices often provide only temporary relief, and some have debilitating side effects.

But the search for a magic bullet continues, and we may be closer than ever. Doctors and scientists are reporting success with these new and coming-soon treatments that can ease back pain for some sufferers while offering hope to all.
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There is a new back stretching chair Ergositter from Sweden I us, to keep my spine pain free. When I use the chair I feel how my lower spine stretches out and that keeps my spine in a good health. I hope that my comments can help other who is suffering from low back pain. Here is a link that explains how it works: http://ergositter.com/en/animering_en.htm greetings from Sweden. Tommi Wallinus

By Wallinus, on 02/22/2009
There also needs to be more Pain Management doctors set up across this country. Regular doctors do not know how to manage "Chronic Pain Patients" properly. People don't realize that "chronic pain" feels very different than "acute pain" signals in the body. Regular family doctors don't realy know how to treat "chronic pain" patients properly. Pain management doctors do one thing, "PAIN MANAGEMENT", that's their speciality field of medicine. We need more of them in this country!

By BABSMULLAN, on 07/08/2008
I must mention that my back was injured while I was working in a nursing home as a Nurses Aide when I was injured. My back pain was in no way from a sedentary lifestyle. I kept working for the next 10 years after I was injured while going through all my treatments and only taking off work to recover from the surgeries. Not everyone's back pain is from a sedentary lifestyle, most are caused from a work injury like mine. A small % is from a sedentary lifestyle.

By BABSMULLAN, on 07/08/2008
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