Cathy’s Blog

Back pain is one of the biggest complaints by us in the UK - well, just above the fact that there’s never anything on the TV. This is why the best career to be in at the moment is as an osteopath or chiropractor, in fact anyone that manipulates spines for some relief.

Lower back pain is the most common reason people visit their GP’s, with almost 50% of the population suffering lower back pain for at least 24 hours at some point in the year and a painful 80% of adults with back pain at some stage in their life that is serious enough to interfere with general well being.

It makes little difference in your age - school children are affected as are teenagers, adults and the elderly. However, it is usually very difficult to single out a particular cause. Often it can be due to posture and this is a habit that is formed - a hard habit to break but not impossible. Sometimes back pain is due to muscle weakness and also repetitive strain and the way we sit at our desks is to blame.

Health and safety gurus are very hot on the issue of back injuries these days as 5 million working days are lost through people having time off work with back ache. One of the most important aspects that they help with is making sure the working environment is not a contributory factor. A desk and monitor at the correct angle is a must to prevent slouching and having your chair at the right height as well as a foot rest to bring your knees in line with your hips are also good preventative measures against back pain. And we all know now that bending and lifting should be done with the knees not the back!

The good news is that 90% of people will recover from back pain within six weeks. The rest of us - me included - will continue with chronic back pain for much of our lives. The NHS spends more than £1 billion a year trying to deal with patients back pain and another £565 million is spent on private healthcare to try and aleviate this pain.

Treatment for back pain has taken on various forms over the years. I remember my mother being confined to bed for 6 weeks to try and aleviate her pain whereas I have been told to keep on the move. Neither of us have ever had a firm diagnosis of the problem but end up trying all sorts of treatment from pills to acupuncture to osteopathy. Depending on the cause, one of these treatments normally works and when you have back pain you just know that anything is worth a try.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 26th, 2009 at 7:13 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.