Stop Sciatica & Back Pain

I came across an article recently in a regular newspaper column written by a practising doctor.

It really caught my eye because it confirmed how little is still known about the mechanics of backs and how they operate, what goes wrong with them and how to fix them.

[start article]

The back is susceptible to pain because its mechanics include many pieces imprecisely put together, and it’s loaded with nerves.

[yep , know that]

The players in back pain can be the vertebral bones, the connective tissues, such as ligaments and tendons, the muscles, and, of course the nerves, which must navigate through these muscles and connective tissue.

[true]

The vertebral bones are essentially round with a hole in the middle for the spinal cord to go through, but also flare out in many places to form joints with other vertebrae and to connect to ligaments and muscles.

[yep]

Because of this complexity in the back, only about one-fifth of all cases of back pain have a pinpoint diagnosis.

[interesting !] Only a 20% chance your doctor will know what is wrong with your back?

The generalist physician often suffices with making sure there are no alarming signs suggesting inflammatory arthritis, infection, fracture, cancer or significant interference with the spinal cord.

Usually, this strategy works: Most people’s back pain goes away with simple treatments such as pain medicines and exercises.

exercise is what we recommend - especially exercises to strengthen your back so it has less chance of getting injured in the first place>

Back surgeries are not always successful - possibly because, though no fault of the surgeon, the diagnosis was not pinpointed correctly in advance of the surgery.

[Ouch! Only a 20% chance they'll know what they're trying to fix . . . think very carefully about surgery]