Back pain has achieved epidemic proportions world wide in the last two decades. In fact, in the US, back pain is responsible for the highest number of man hours lots in the industry. It is the second most common ailment after common cold and eight out of 10 people suffer from a significant episode of back pain at some point of their lives. Nearly 70% have a recurrence within a year of the initial episode.
Sedentary lifestyle and improper posture have been mainly responsible for the increased incidence of back pain. Other high risk factors for back pain include professions requiring sedentary work/prolonged improper posture, obesity, stressful lifestyle and previous history of back pain. However the good news is that most episodes will last only a short time, up to 75% will recover in 3 month, only 1-3% of patients ever require surgery.
There are many prevailing myths about back pain like: stay in bed, you need prescription drugs to get relief, stay away from surgery because of poor results etc. These myths often put these people off track and hinder proper management. There are two parts of management of back pain - taking care of the pain and reducing the chances of recurrence. Pain is managed by local application of heat/ice packs, massage, anti-inflammatory drugs, corsets, physiotherapy, acupuncture/acupressure or local injections. However, these provide only temporary relief and are unproven to have a long term impact on the natural history of the disease. Aerobic physical conditioning (through walks, swimming, treadmill, cycling and other general conditioning exercises).
Patient education and surgery are proven treatments which changes the natural course of the disease. Specific back exercises, physical conditioning exercises, proper posture in everyday activities and controlling any, professional or personal emotional factors are important for prevention of recurrence of back pain.
