Understanding More

When we take a step back and look at all the facts we would have to conclude that nothing really works for back pain.  The statsitics would back this up - the rates of disabling back pain are on the rise whilst the public and private spending on it skyrockets.  With the availability of every sort of therapist and treatment under the sun you'd think we'd be getting on top of things, but this just isn't the case.

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What we do see is some treatments work some of the time for some people, but not for very long.  This situation creates therapists and patients who will swear blind that they are indeed conquering the problem of back pain, but this way of thinking doesn't hold water.  If we'd have found the treatment that helped the most then it would now be seen as the accepted way of solving back pain, instead of the millions of people who are not helped by a type of treatment that seems to work so well for the next person.

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Being a chiropractor I found myself in the impossible situation of knowing that the manipulative treatments I was providing had very little solid science behind them.  We can show that cracking the spine does have some sort of short term relaxing effect, but this is not exactly much to write home about when compared to the grand claims that some therapists make.  We now see that most treatments such as manipulation, massage, acupuncture and any diluted forms thereof are actually activating the 'non-specific' effect.  This fascinating phenomenon is where a person feels better after any form of treatment, but the treatment itself had no measurable effect on them (also known as the placebo effect).

 

Once I'd started to see how complex pain really was I attempted to incorporate some of the more person-centred approaches to pain in an attempt to help more people.  This proved difficult as many of these approaches require a certain mindset from the person in pain which is often difficult to access when it seems as though all that is really required is the right person to perform the right bit of spinal cracking.

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It therefore seemed logical to me to leave the cracking out of the equation (and any other placebo treatment for that matter) and focus on helping the person in pain.  At the moment the approach I used is loosely termed 'Cognitive Functional Therapy'.  This involves helping you to understand your pain, to identify some of the habits you have picked up which are an obstacle you your recovery and then working on your physical health to gradually feel more in control of your body, your back and your pain.  It is not a miracle cure and it cannot help everyone - but it is part of the modern way of approaching pain and it can provide extremely exciting opportunities for you to overcome pain.