Although a common question, it is one that cannot possibly be answered as a generalisation. One of the most confusing decisions for a back pain sufferer is what treatment to undertake to deal with their problem. Everyone they speak to has a different opinion based on what worked for them and the fact that there are literally dozens of options out there, all making similar claims, doesn’t make the decision any easier.
The most common choices would be chiropractic, physiotherapy and massage, not because they are any better than the other options available but more because they have been around longer and are more established throughout the world. Because the cost of these treatments are largely straight out of a persons pocket, those sufferers who are on a limited budget tend to be impatient when it comes to waiting for a result or alternatively, they prefer to see a doctor and go down the rebated drugs and surgery route.
Most people don’t really understand exactly what it is that the different therapies are trying to achieve to fix their pain and just go on faith because a friend of theirs recommended it. They expect fast results and only stick with something if they are making progress or the therapist is very good at convincing them it will take more time and to just keep coming.
The reality is everyone is different in the way their body has developed the patterns that set up their pain and back pain is never just the product of an isolated area of the body going wrong. It really involves so many things which vary a lot from person to person.
The responsiveness of one person’s tissue to a stimulus may be very different than that of another person and that is one reason why, what worked for your friend might have provided no benefit at all for you.
Strength is definitely a limiting factor when it comes to how much a person’s problem has spread throughout their muscle system. The naturally stronger a person is, the more protected their joints are against movement and irritation that can affect the discs and nerves. Strength is usually not something a person can do too much about after they are in acute pain, because strengthening exercises often just irritate an existing problem. But it certainly is a good idea to stay strong all the time as a way of protecting your body against pain.
How a person uses their body throughout the day can also have a big bearing on whether a treatment for back pain will have any lasting affect or not. If sitting down brings on your pain and that is what your job involves all day then chances are, treatments that are traditionally slow to get results like physiotherapy and chiropractic will not give much relief. It is often a case of one step forward during a treatment, followed by one step back over the next day or so.
One of the pain sufferers who attended the Thailand conference with me recently was a good example of someone that I felt would have struggled if I was treating them with a weekly session as I usually do. Especially as they would have been trying to fit their normal life in around those treatments, with little to no exercise. It would take me a long time to get the same result as we did in Thailand over an intensive 2 week period when their diet was very good and they were able to do exercises every day to support the bodywork we were doing. Not having the 8 or more hours a day at their desk with no exercise meant we could do around a years worth of changes to their body in the two weeks.
One of the most noticeable ways a person can affect their body is of course their diet and that tends to change from person to person, sometimes significantly, making it very unlikely two people will respond the same way to a physical treatment. Because the right diet makes a body supple and naturally strong and the wrong diet leaves them stressed weak and tight, the reaction to ‘physical’ therapy work done on the body can be very different. That is one of the reasons I push the diet aspect so hard in my treatment programs and books, because I know it will greatly affect the result of a treatment and the level of pain a person feels whilst getting that result.
So the next time a well meaning friend suggests you must visit a certain therapist they know to fix your back pain, consider the above and ask yourself how similar you and your friend are in respect to lifestyle, job, diet, exercise, cause of your original problem and even emotional state. Then you will have a fairly good idea if is in fact worth you spending your money on their recommendation.
The reality is, no one persons back pain is exactly the same as another’s and that’s why a hand out sheet of exercises that everyone gets will usually do very little to give you relief. Any therapist you see needs to look at all the aspects I’ve mentioned as part of a tailored rehabilitation program that is put together after an accurate assessment of your body and lifestyle is carried out. Therefore, the better condition your body is in when you start any treatment process, the better chance you have of getting success in the shortest possible time.
If you would like to take steps to help yourself get your body into the best possible condition for whatever treatment you choose, my self treatment program will go through all the important considerations in much more detail for you. I have also added a feature to the money back guarantee it carries to ensure it’s a totally no risk purchase for you. To see what I mean exactly, visit here www.backpain.com.au/help