Back Pain And Its Diagnosis: Whose Problem Is It?

Back pain is an enormous subject in medical terms which makes back pain and its diagnosis very problematic. It is easy to blame your physician for not knowing much concerning your back pain, but the fact is that you are in a better place to understand why you have pain in your back that they do.

This is because pain in your back that is not congenital or due to a precise accident, illness or series of medicines is usually due to bad posture and that means lifestyle alterations.

For instance, I am heavy and have just begun having back pain. My doctor could see my size and recommended that I lose weight. We all know that that is not going to happen over night and so did he, so he gave me a prescription for 20 tablets a day and his assistant gave me a massage and an jab in the posterior.

I waited and waited until the tablets ran out and I was no better. It would have been simple to say that the doctor was of no use and, to be honest, his quick fix remedies were useless, but his advice was spot on. I lost eight kilos (20 pounds) over a week or so and could stand up straight again.

Now, I still have back pain, but I know that I can afford to lose another 20 pounds, although the actual need – the debilitating twenty-four hour pain – has passed, which will make it harder for me to concentrate on losing more weight.

That is not the physician’s fault, it is mine.

We live in a culture where we expect a tablet to cure us and some doctors pander to this culture (like mine did). Regrettably, fifteen minutes with the physician and a handful of pills will not cure all our ills. Occasionally, we have to realize that we are our own worst enemies and hold our hands up.

This is not to say that doctors are always right. I have a friend who has had debilitating back pain for thirty years and had to give up work early. His wife left him too because she could no longer cope. He sits at home alone most days very lonely.

When I told him that I had obtained relief from massage, he told me that his physician had told him 20 years ago that neither massage nor acupuncture could help him, so he has never tried them.

You could say that my friend ought to have tried them anyway and I would agree with you, but he believed, and still believes, his physician.

It is a real shame when people close their minds off to ideas that they know too little of so they are not able to make a sensible decision. It has cost my friend 30 years of mobility and his best friend.

Bob Dylan said it best when he said:

‘Come mothers and fathers Throughout the land And don’t criticize What you can’t understand Your sons and your daughters Are beyond your command Your old road is Rapidly agin’. Please get out of the new one If you can’t lend your hand For the times they are a-changin’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCWdCKPtnYE

there is a lesson there for many of us, I think.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on a range of topics, but is now involved with sciatica pain management. If you would like to know more, please go to our web site at Sore Back Remedies