This week several patients came into the office complaining about lower back pain. (Imagine that... we are a chiropractic office after all!) One had been getting treatment for a couple of weeks and one had just returned for their second visit. Prior to coming into our office, both of these patients had been misled about how they should be treating their lower back, by friends, family, and one by their medical doctor. You may be wondering how they were misled... Let me explain.
The first patient this week mentioned that she was advised by a friend who "had the same pain" in her lower back that she should "just rest and it would all clear up." First of all, no two cases of lower back pain are the same. We are all different. We all lead different lives. We have different histories. So your lower back pain is not like anyone else's. Going back to the "advice" that she received from her friend... Resting is not the answer. Believe it or not prolonged rest may actually exacerbate the pain. The best way to help is actually to move more, including appropriate exercise. Does that sound familiar?
Another patient told me that her PCP told her that she needed to treat her lower back pain with medication. The PCP then prescribed several different medications. To be clear, I am not saying that medication is bad, however, it is not going to clear up the cause of the pain. The medications that she was prescribed will help with the inflammation, but the cause will remain untreated. So the medications may help treat her pain levels in the short term, but if she doesn't do something about the cause, then the pain is likely to return in the future. That is what we are trying to avoid!
Unfortunately, quite a few different "myths" about lower back pain are floating around out there. These are just two that I heard this week!
