Oh! My Aching Back!
DO YOU suffer from back pain? If so, you have a lot of company. In the United States, it is estimated that there are more than seven million persons at any one time who are going to doctors because of back pain. Each year sees up to two million new sufferers. Annually more than a half million back injuries cost employers one billion (a thousand million) dollars. In fact, it is reported that back pain is the second most frequent reason why Americans go to a doctor.
Causes of Back Pain
What is the cause of it? Why is it increasing? What can you do if you suffer from back pains?
According to a leading orthopedic surgeon (Dr. R. Addison): “Some people’s backs look beautiful on the tests, but they hurt like [everything]. Others are walking around with gross deformities that don’t seem to bother them a bit. There is a lot about back pain we don’t know, to say the least.”
A recent survey of 20,000 backaches at the prestigious Mayo Clinic revealed twenty-eight different reasons for backaches. But they are generally considered to have one of three primary causes: First, it could be something physical, such as an accident that upset the spinal structure, either recently or some time ago. A sudden or quick movement could cause physical harm. Likewise, trying to lift something heavy or stretching to reach something often causes a nurse or housewife to have a backache. Such things may irritate the sensitive tissues surrounding the spine.
Secondly, “referred pain” may be the cause of the backache. That is, while the pain may be felt in the back, it could be one of the internal organs that is to blame. Syphilis, cancer or other disease conditions also can cause referred back pain.
And thirdly, a spinal deformity or some other primary disease, either inherited or acquired through the years, can cause back pain.
A Symptom of a General Condition?
However, there are others in the field of orthopedic surgery who, while granting that perhaps as many as 20 percent of back pains might be due to the above causes, view backaches as the symptom of a general condition. According to these, the industrial or auto accident, the lifting, the stretching, the quick or sudden movement on the part of the housewife or nurse that brought on the pain are most likely only the precipitating factors. Back pain would not have resulted, they say, if the general health of the victim had been satisfactory.
A recent textbook, Clinical Treatment of Back and Neck Pain by Hans Kraus, professor at the New York University School of Medicine, puts the blame for back pain primarily on the way people live in modern “civilized” countries. In an interview he stated: “Our sedentary, over-stimulated society deprives us of physical activity while submitting us to constant stress.” In a study of over 5,000 patients with back pain it was found that in over 80 percent of the cases muscular deficiency and overtension “were at the root of their problems.”
The fact that people generally engage in ever less physical activity (using the family auto to go to the grocery store just a few blocks away, for example), while subjecting themselves to ever-increasing stimulation and tension, largely by pleasure-seeking and materialism, would therefore be a factor in the increase of back pain. And if these things are indeed at the root of the problem, it can readily be understood why some good-looking spines cause much pain and why some poor-looking spines do not. The general health of the individual rather than the way the spine looks would determine whether there is back pain or not.
What You Can Do About It
Seldom is the situation so serious that an operation is required. In fact, according to Dr. Henry L. Feffer, professor of orthopedic surgery, fewer and fewer of such operations are being performed.
If the back pain is severe and brought on by some mishap, bed rest, partial or complete, may be advisable. However, some orthopedists recommend use of medication such as aspirin or a surface anesthetic such as ethyl chloride spray, to be followed immediately by limbering-up exercises. Or rubbing the painful area with ice may prove helpful. Therapeutic massage, or manipulation by an osteopath or chiropractor may bring relief, even as may the application of heat, either in the form of hot packs or hot baths.
In considering what you can do about your backache you may find that you also need to consider psychosomatic factors. Do you suffer from too much tension because of irritations caused by those under whom or with whom you must work? Then you must learn to become more tolerant, charitable, regarding the failings of others. The same, of course, is true if you experience stressful conditions at home.
Or, are you so ambitious to get ahead that you do not get sufficient rest and fail to take vacations? Then you must learn to slow down, to be content with less. Or do you have deadlines to meet? Try to view them objectively, calmly, intellectually rather than emotionally. Frustrations can bring about back pain.
Then again, your backache may be due to “soft living, soft chairs, soft beds,” as one physician put it. Generally, a chair with a firm cushion and straight back is best for a person with a sedentary occupation. Try using a posture chair and sit clear back on it.
The same principle applies when driving an auto. Should you be driving on a long trip, stop every two or three hours, get out and stretch and walk about a bit. You will be doing your back a favor.
As for your sleeping habits: Do you sleep on an old mattress that sags in the middle? If so, you can blame your backache on it. Or do you enjoy sleeping on a soft mattress? That also can contribute to back pain. Not a few persons have found that hard chairs and hard, springless mattresses, with a board underneath, do much to keep their backs happy.
Important also is the matter of posture—not only your stance when walking but also your posture at your job. Unless you walk erect, shoulders back, chin up—but not like a ramrod—you are courting back trouble. Do you needlessly assume an awkward or bent-over position at your work? Avoid that if you can. If your job requires you to stand in a certain position for long periods of time, then look for opportunities to stretch and move around some.
In particular, certain orthopedists stress the need of exercise, especially for all those engaged in sedentary occupations. Often one-time athletes who now engage in such an occupation suffer from crippling backaches. Why? Because their robust frames burden their spines due to weakened muscles. Regarding exercises, orthopedic surgeon Dr. H. P. Bauer states: “A lot of back problems can easily be cleared up with a good exercise program. Exercise can often cure the severe backaches that sometimes force people to wear braces and send them to chiropractors and surgeons.”
If you engage in exercises that will strengthen the muscles of your abdomen, you may find that, not only your back, but your general health will improve. Among the exercises that Dr. Feller recommends are:
“Lie on back, knees bent, feet flat on floor, arms crossed on chest. Raise head and shoulders from floor. Curl up to sitting position. Keep back round and pull with stomach muscles. Lower self slowly.
“Sit on floor, legs straight in front. Pull stomach in. Reach forward with hands and try to touch toes with fingers. Use rocking motion while stretching for toes.
“Sit in chair, hands at sides. Bend head to knees, pulling stomach in as you curl forward. Keep weight well back on hips. Release stomach muscles slowly as you come up.”
Of course, the important thing is to exercise regularly. Spend a few minutes at it each day if you really want to benefit.
There is also the matter of diet. It stands to reason that if you subsist largely on an inadequate or unbalanced diet you will not build and keep in repair a sound body structure. Reducing is needed if you are overweight. But reduce for the sake of health, not merely for the sake of an appealing figure. You can give yourself a backache if you fail to get enough nourishment.
The time-worn adage, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” can with good reason be applied to back pain. If applied early enough, the suggestions given above for help when your back is aching will prevent you from having back pain in the first place. As orthopedic surgeon Dr. D. K. McElroy expressed it: “A few people are born with lousy backs, and some things naturally go wrong with age, but the majority of cases can be averted by sensible living.”