If you’re one of the millions of people who live with low back pain, this may be welcome news for you. The American Pain Society (APS) has issued new clinical practice guidelines to treat lower back pain. Clinical practice guidelines are guidelines for doctors to take into consideration when diagnosing and treating a health problem. The guidelines were published in the most recent issue of the journal Spine .

According to a press release :

To develop the guideline, a multidisciplinary APS panel, augmented by experts on interventional therapies, reviewed 3,348 abstracts and analyzed 161 relevant clinical trials. The panel found that the evidence for the use of these interventions was mixed, sparse or not available. Based on the data the panel gathered, the APS now recommends:

1. Against the use of provocative discography (injection of fluid into the disc in order to determine if it is the source of back pain) for patients with chronic nonradicular low-back pain.

2. The consideration of intensive interdisciplinary rehabilitation with a cognitive/behavioral emphasis for patients with nonradicular low-back pain who do not respond to usual, non-interdisciplinary therapies.

3. Against facet joint corticosteroid injection, prolotherapy, and intradiscal corticosteroid injections for patients with persistent nonradicular low-back pain, and insufficient evidence to guide use of other interventional therapies.

4. A discussion of risks and benefits of surgery and the use of shared decision making with reference to rehabilitation as a similarly effective option for patients with nonradicular low-back pain, common degenerative spinal changes, and persistent and disabling symptoms.

5. Insufficient evidence to guide recommendations for vertebral disc replacement.

6. A discussion of the risks and benefits of epidural steroid injections and shared decision making, including specific review of evidence of lack of long-term benefit for patients with persistent radiculopathy due to herniated lumbar disc.

7. A discussion of the risks and benefits of surgery and use of shared decision making that references moderate benefits that decrease over time for patients with persistent and disabling radiculopathy due to herniated lumbar disc or persistent and disabling leg pain.

8. Discussion of risks and benefits of spinal cord stimulation and shared decision making, including reference to the high rate of complications following stimulator placement for patients with persistent and disabling radicular pain following surgery for herniated disc and no evidence of a persistently compressed nerve root.

Let’s see if this makes any difference to those of us who know how painful life is with a painful lower back.

~~~~

Image: iStock.com

Post from: Blisstree

New Guidelines to Treat Low Back Pain

Scene 1: You’re sitting at your desk, working hard. You’re absorbed in your work so you lose track of time. As usual, your back has started to hurt.

Scene 2: You decided to sit down at your computer to check some email and maybe do some surfing. Before you know it, you’ve been at the computer for a couple of hours and your back is aching.

Of course, we know the best thing is for us not to get into that situation to begin with – but what should we do if it happens?

The LA Times has an article about an exercise you can do at your desk to help relieve the ache.

~~~

Post from: Blisstree

Ease lower back pain with at-your-desk stretch

According to the Mail Online article, Youngsters 10 times more likely to suffer backache than parents, “Young people are suffering ten times more back pain than their parents did at the same age.”

The causes of the back pain vary from inactivity and slumping in front of video games and computers to wearing high heels that put undue force on the spine.

~~~~~~~

Post from: Blisstree

Lower back pain worse for newer generations

They’re everywhere – you see movers with them, people who work with heavy objects have them, even people in homes if they have a history of lower back pain have them handy: lumbar support belts.

Now – surprise, surprise – there’s news that the lumbar supports may not be helping you with your lower back pain. You know – it’s really frustrating if you’re someone living with chronic pain to be told (often!) that what you have been doing to help yourself is not so good for you after all.

According to a review written about in the article Lumbar Supports Not Particularly Effective for Low Back Pain, lumbar support belts “are no more effective than lifting education — or no treatment whatsoever — in preventing related pain or reducing disability in those who suffer from the condition.”

Great. What are they going to debunk next?

~~~~~~~~~

Image: iStock.com

Post from: Blisstree

Lumbar supports for low back pain? Wait.

Here is a video on how the trauma happens to the discs. Just click on the TV screen to watch the video:

~~~~~~~~~~

Post from: Blisstree

Do you have a slipped disc?

Alternative treatments, those outside of mainstream Western medicine, are often viewed with suspicion, if not downright ridicule. However, as alternative medicine is becoming more popular, researchers are beginning to take them more seriously and are conducting research to determine if they really are effective.

Prolotherapy (proliferative injection therapy) is one treatment that is gaining popularity. This article from January 2007, Prolotherapy for low back pain, written by Simon Dagenais, PhD, reviews study findings of prolotherapy, the type of agent used, how often and how many injections were given, and if there were any other treatments done at the same time.

The article doesn’t give much of a conclusion, other than we still don’t know much about the treatment, but it does give us something else to think about and consider.

Have you tried prolotherapy? If so, can you share your experiences with us? Did it work? Did you go back? Would you do it again?

If not, would you like to try it?

Let’s share our ideas and thoughts.

Post from: Blisstree

Prolotherapy – effective treatment for lower back pain?