Chiropractic Care Can Help Relive Low Back Pain

It's estimated that eight out of 10 people suffer from back pain at some point in their lives. A recent study on the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in the U.S. estimated that 40 million Americans aged 20-64 will experience "frequent" low back pain (LBP), with 15% suffering from LBP lasting up to two weeks at a time!

There's no clear-cut way to resolve back pain, but chiropractic offers the most promise. Witness the results of a recent study comparing one-month outcomes for 93 chiropractic patients and 45 medical patients with chronic, recurrent LBP. Chiropractic care included spinal manipulation and various forms of physiotherapy, averaging four patient visits. Medical care averaged one visit and frequently included the prescription of anti-inflammatory drugs.

Patients treated by chiropractors showed better overall improvement and satisfaction after one month than patients treated by family physicians. Chiropractic patients showed substantial decreases in pain severity, functional disability, and pain quality, while medical patients showed only minimal improvements with regard to the first two measures, and deterioration in the third.

If you're suffering from low back pain, the road to recovery may not be an easy one, but it begins with chiropractic! Schedule a consultation with a chiropractor today, and for more information on back pain, visit http://www.chiroweb.com/tyh/backpain.html

How The Muscles Effect Neck and Back Pain

Overused muscles and joints negatively affect your life. Soreness and pain restrict your ability to perform simple tasks of daily such as sitting, standing, walking and sleeping. Symptoms may even disappear for awhile with rest; however they inevitably return with more intensity. Overuse injuries occur to muscle, joints, ligaments and connective tissue (fascia) when they are stressed without adequate time for repair. Providing the body optimal time for recovery and regeneration is essential to treatment and prevention. Overuse of muscles and joints is primarily the result of micro-traumatic injuries that wear down the body. Micro injuries are small movements repeated on a regular basis for extended periods of time that fatigue and breakdown the body. Examples include typing on a keyboard, raking leaves, exercise, prolonged sitting, etc.

Injuries can occur anywhere and at anytime, yet are most common in the workplace. People spend 8-18 hours a day, 5-7 days a week performing repetitive movement patterns, causing an imbalance in the musculoskeletal system resulting in the overuse of certain muscle groups. Overuse injuries can become chronic, resulting in pain and dysfunction that can last for years. When one muscle group is overused, an opposing (functional opposite) muscle group becomes underused due to compensation. If you don't use it, you lose it! For example, if you have chronic overuse in the bicep of your arm, the opposing tricep may be weak. When this imbalance programs itself in the musculoskeletal system, the body does not move efficiently. Instead of muscles working together to perform a specified function, they work against each other, causing the body to exert more energy to perform the same task that previously was perceived by the body as 'easy.' Now it takes more effort and energy to complete a given task making the body more vulnerable to injury.

When muscles are short and tight, they lose strength, power, and efficient function. Chronically tight, tissues impinge structures around and beneath them such as nerves and blood vessels; causing disorders associated repetitive strain injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome. Muscles attach to bone and short muscles shift bones out of alignment causing joint imbalance. The body does like imbalance. In an effort to obtain balance your brain will begin to compensate in surrounding areas to improve efficiency. Before long you have a domino effect of dysfunction throughout the body.
Muscle imbalance is the cause of most musculoskeletal disorders in the body. Muscle imbalance and dysfunctional movement are the fundamental cause overuse injuries. Most therapy interventions focus on the quick fix site of pain 'band-aid solution', without addressing the underlying muscle imbalance. Focus on the site of pain and the source of dysfunction to achieve maximum long term results of treatment and prevention.

So what action steps can you and your chiropractor take to help you move and feel good again? Remember the 72-hour rule for professional intervention. If self applied treatment at home via rest, ice/heat, and over the counter medication does not help alleviate symptoms seek professional medical care. A Doctor of Chiropractic will evaluate your musculoskeletal system for imbalances and implement a strategy to restore structural balance. Spinal balance is the aim for chiropractic treatments. Restoring proper motion to joints and locking in that new motion with therapeutic exercise to gain stability and control of movement is the goal. Your chiropractor will do manual adjustments and muscular massage to restricted spinal joints. They may also apply other modalities to alleviate inflammation and pain such as heat, ice, ultrasound, electric muscle stimulation, pain creams, etc.

At home you can use a moist heating-pad for 5 minutes to warm the affected joint and surrounding muscles, preparing them for stretches and light exercises. Ice is recommended for acute injuries to reduce swelling and inflammation. DO NOT stretch into painful patterns. Go to your safety and comfort level. If you stretch into pain your brain will resist this motion and tighten up muscles for safety in anticipation of re-injury. Your brain's primary goal is to protect you from more pain. Find your threshold and back off to a comfortable yet effective range of motion. The most productive stretches are based on you as an individual. There really is no cookie cutter stretch program for pain and overuse syndromes. The best advice is to follow your instincts. If it feels good, do it. If it hurts, don't! Your body will tell you what it likes and does not like in regards to movement and stretching. Get into comfortable positions either lying down, sitting, or standing. Even if a stretch is recommended for alleviating a pain you may have don't perform it if it makes you feel worse. Not everyone responds to the same exercises.

Soft tissue treatments such as massage and trigger point (muscle knot) therapy can reduce muscle spasm and relax the tight, restrictive overused muscles. Deep tissue connective tissue massage on weak, injured muscles and/or tendons to break down adhesions (scar tissue) is a more intensive option. Performing basic massage to the tight muscles is the easiest way to address the issue without getting too complex. Getting regular massages is a wonderful feel good way to help prevent overuse injuries.

Once the muscles are warmed up, stretching restricted muscle groups helps increase their length, decreasing impingement of surrounding tissues and misalignment of the joint. Stretching weak, underdeveloped muscles is not recommended as they are already too long and do not need to be lengthened further. Regular non-impact exercise is a critical player in muscle balance. Once the tight muscles have been lengthened from the stretches, it is time to exercise the opposing muscle group, the one that is weak and underdeveloped. Exercising and strengthening the weak underdeveloped muscles forces the opposing muscle group to relax and lengthen further. It also helps to maintain the new length created in those muscles from the previous stretches. Always perform stretches first when addressing chronic muscle imbalances and then immediately follow with exercises to lock in control.
Epsom salt baths can be very helpful in reducing muscle spasm, removing toxins from the body and increasing blood circulation. Overall nutrient flow to affected area helps to increase the speed of recovery. Not to mention the mental peace and well-being that comes from relaxing in a warm bath without interruptions from the chaos of daily life. Take time to remain in silence and see the positive benefits less 'noise' has on your recovery.

Listen to your body. Remember that more is not better, better is better. You are empowered to take back control of how your body looks, feels, and functions in life. Too much of anything is not good. Pain is not something your body uses to build character and toughness. Pain is the communication system of your body telling you something is wrong and needs attention. Don't ignore it! For if you do, pain will come knocking on your door again and it will be with a BIG BANG!

What is Pain and Where Does It Come From?

PAIN is a significant problem in our society, and the way too many of us deal with it, either by taking medication to temporarily relieve the pain or ignoring the pain altogether, foolishly hoping it will go away, is an even bigger problem, contributing to long-term disability and reduced quality of life. Here are a few important pieces to the puzzle that can help you deal with pain now and prevent future episodes - chronic pain- from ruining your life.

 

How do you feel at this very moment? You can do a easy self-check just by moving your neck, shoulders, arms and legs around. Do you have any aches and pains anywhere? If your response is, "Don't most people have pain somewhere in their body?" or "Doesn't pain come with old age?" keep in mind that while that's true, it doesn't mean you have to accept it. And remember, pain isn't just physical. The emotional stress it creates can be as hard on you as the pain itself. Let's talk about ways you can find relief from your physical pain, which will undoubtedly lighten your emotional load at the same time.

Pain Defined
Pain is defined as an unpleasant sensation that can range from mild, localized discomfort to sheer agony. Pain has physical and emotional components. The physical part of pain results from nerves being stimulated. Pain may be confined to a specific area, as in an injury, or it can be spread throughout the body. Around the world, millions of people live with pain in some form or another, involving many different body parts, on a daily basis.
One of the most interesting things about pain is how each human being deals with it. Some learn to live with pain. Others can't stand to feel even an ounce of it. The most common types of pain include arthritis, lower back, bone/joint pain, muscle pain and fibromyalgia (widespread pain, tenderness and fatigue in muscles,tendons and ligaments). Back pain is the most frequent cause of limited activities for people younger than 45 years old.

Acute vs. Chronic Pain
Acute pain is a normal sensation triggered in the nervous system to alert you to possible injury and the need to take care of yourself. This type of pain comes on quickly and can be severe, but it lasts a relatively short period of time. In general, acute pain is in response to an event that happens to the body. It may be a result of surgery or an accident.
Chronic pain is different. Chronic pain tends to stay around or progress over longer periods of time. Pain signals keep firing in the nervous system for weeks, months or even years. Oftentimes, chronic pain is resistant to traditional medical treatments. The emotional component of pain often comes into play in a chronic situation.

The Consequences of Pain
The loss of productivity and daily activity due to pain is substantial. Americans spend at least $50 billion per year on back pain, and that's just for the more easily identified costs. Pain has a negative impact on an individual's quality of life. It diminishes one's ability to concentrate, do their job, exercise, socialize, perform daily tasks and sleep. Over time, this can lead to depression, isolation and loss of self-esteem. Researchers have found that depression is the most frequent psychological reaction to chronic pain.

If you hurt an area of your body and do not restore proper, healthy movement patterns, you will end up with problems later down the road. I can't tell you how many patients I have seen who got in car accidents and hurt their neck and back, but waited to get treatment and used pain as the indicator for how they feel. Eventually, the pain went down or even away, but they were often left with problems in their bones and joints.

Common Causes and Sources of Chronic Pain
An initial injury like a trauma, fracture, sprain/strain, or serious infection may be the cause of the chronic pain. There could also be an ongoing cause like arthritis, cancer, an ear infection or injuries that never healed properly. Some people even suffer chronic pain in the absence of any past injury or evidence of body damage. Many chronic pain conditions affect older adults. Common chronic pain complaints include headache, low back pain, cancer pain, arthritis pain, neurogenic pain (pain resulting from damage to the peripheral nerves or to the central nervous system itself), and psychogenic pain (pain not due to past disease or injury or any visible sign of damage inside or outside the nervous system).

Quite simply, pain can come from anywhere in the body. The source can be the neck, shoulders, low back, hips and everywhere else. Many times, the location of the pain depends on how the injury happened. Perhaps someone injured their shoulder while throwing a ball. Maybe someone sprained their ankle while running. How about the person who falls down the stairs and hurts multiple parts of their body simultaneously?

Solving the Chronic Pain Puzzle
Pain is a complex puzzle. For certain cases, it takes complex solutions to help solve that puzzle. In some cases, the individual's pain is so debilitating that it requires the use of X-rays or other special imaging to visualize the problem that is occurring in the spine or extremities. It may be appropriate to use any of the following: Chiropractic, Chinese medicine, acupuncture, nutritional supplementation, massage/bodywork, yoga and psychological therapy. In some cases, it may even require over-the-counter or prescription medication (although the goal is to avoid relying on these because of the potential side effects). But there are definitely things you can do that can help you prevent and treat chronic pain. Let's explore these strategies that, as you might have guessed, are all related to one another.

1. Posture: You have probably been told at different times of your life about the importance of good posture. "Sit up straight" or "don't slouch" are probably familiar phrases to you. Proper posture is difficult to attain, so don't stress yourself out about it. When you are sitting, put a rolled-up towel or sweatshirt in the small of your back. Sit all the way back to the rear of the chair so you feel the support in your back. When you stand, stand against the wall or a post so you can maintain erect posture. It is important to strengthen your core muscles, the muscles along the spine. Yoga, Pilates or a specific workout program with weights will help you achieve this. You may want to find a personal trainer to help you focus on specific exercises to help you achieve your goals.

2. Balance: As you develop strength, you begin to develop balance. Many of the positions utilized in yoga, Pilates and weight training work specifically on balance. Would you believe that your feet also have a lot to do with balance? The three arches you have in your feet must all be supported in order for the rest of your body to have good support as well. If one or more of the arches is flat, it can significantly affect the stress to your joints and your ability to exercise efficiently. Ask your chiropractor about analyzing your feet to see if you need arch supports.

3. Spinal Load and Stability: Understanding how to exercise or perform any type of sporting activity is crucial to your health. How many people do you know who lift weights incorrectly? On a daily basis, I see patients who have hurt themselves with physical activity. By being careful and doing your exercises properly, you can reduce the amount of spinal load (stress) and instability you create for your body. I cannot tell you how important it is to make sure your feet and all of the joints above them are healthy and moving properly. When your joints move well, you can perform activities optimally and with minimal stress on your body.

4. Alignment: Exercising makes your muscles stronger, which also helps maintain structural and bony alignment. Chiropractic care is hopefully a regular part of your life. Visits to your chiropractor at a frequency you both find appropriate will help you maintain your alignment.

 Keep in mind that pain may be indicative of a serious underlying condition. Always talk to your doctor about any pain you are experiencing, particularly if it does not go away or worsens with time.

How To Prevent Back Pain During Traveling and Vacation

Traveling for business or pleasure is a normal part of life. Some of us do it more than others, but the ill effects of travel on your health can be the same. Travel is a commonly overlooked cause of lower back pain. Air travel in particular can be hazardous to your spinal health due to prolonged slouching in a confined space for several hours followed by dragging your suitcase through airport terminals.

Sitting in airplane seats compresses the discs between your vertebrae and can increase any underlying or pre-existing spinal pain. However, don't be so quick to let cars off the hook if you are driving to your destination. Driving involves long hours of inactivity in a seated position exacerbated by poor roadway conditions jarring your body. The last thing you want on your trip is to not be able to enjoy yourself because of back pain. Fortunately you can prepare yourself for the arduous journey ahead and take proactive steps to prevent back pain and other related conditions. Whether it is a short trip or a long haul here are some tried and tested stay healthy travel tips.

Frequent movement is critical for prevention of pain. First move well; then move often. When flying try to get up and move every hour. Take a walk up and down the aisle to increase blood circulation in your legs. This helps prevent aching and soreness in your calves and reduces the risk of Deep Vein Thrombosis, or (DVT), an extremely painful condition where a blood clot forms in a vein deep in the calf when blood thickens and clumps together.

 Due to prolonged sitting you weaken the stability of your core abdominals which support the spine. Core weakness inhibits the optimal function of your hips and buttock muscles because you have a loss of central stability. Frequent contraction of your abdominal and buttock muscles will build a central foundation of strength reducing the risk of injury.

There are very simple ways to engage your abdominals and buttocks while traveling.

Hands Over Head
Raise your hands over your head and press your palms together with light pressure for 5-seconds. You can do this movement standing or sitting. The reason this works? Whenever you out your hands over your head it forces your spine into extension (backwards bending). The abdominals function as anti-extension muscles. Your brain 'fires' the abdominal muscles to prevent too much extension. This simple maneuver always works the core because it is a neurological response that is natural for the movement. Meaning, you don't have to think about working the muscle it just happens automatically. Pressing the hands together at the end of the movement contracts the muscles further, while also waking up your upper back muscles that are tired from slouching. If you are driving alone, wait until you stop to perform this movement.

Mini-Reverse Lunge
Your buttock muscles go to sleep when sitting all the time. They develop what's known as 'glute amnesia.' Buttock muscles forget what to do and when to do it. Waking up and turning back on the buttock is a must in preventing lower back pain. If you don't use your buttock muscles for support your brain finds the support in your lower back. Simply stated, you overuse your back because it's trying to do its job plus your buttocks responsibilities. It gets tired! And when it gets tired it hurts!
Stand with both legs together. Take a slight step backwards while squeezing the buttock on the backwards leg. Hold position for a count of 6 and repeat 5 times per side. The action of stepping backwards fires the buttock muscles and the isometric contraction help sustain the movement. Remember to breathe.

Breathing
Breathing sets the benchmark for core stability and neck strength. Most people have dysfunctional breathing where they inhale and exhale using too much of their chest and lungs as opposed to the diaphragm. Your diaphragm is an inner core muscle that contributes to intra abdominal pressure IAP. Chest breathers use their anterior neck muscles and upper shoulders too much and this pattern contributes to reduced overuse fatigue threshold. Belly breathing is a powerful way to relax the body. Put one hands on your chest and one on your abdomen. Take a deep breath in through your nose and make the bottom hands move before the top hand. In essence you are inflating your abdomen like a balloon. If your chest hand moves first that means you are breathing with your chest too much. Breathe this way for 3 minutes.

Stop and Move
Take time to move your body in unusual ways to stimulate energy. The next time you make a road stop try these moves and see how you feel.
Hop up and down for 30 seconds on the balls of your feet. You only need to come off the ground a ½ or less. This gets blood rushing from the lower half of your body to the top half. Breathing and heart rate increases delivering much needed oxygen to tight and restricted muscle tissue starving for nutrients.
Cross Body X's mimic crawling patterns in a standing position. This movement pattern ignites neural pathways in the body. One of the most powerful exercises you can do for waking up every muscle is cross midline of the body touching hand to opposite knee. Put your hands over your head and bring opposite knee to opposite hand in front of the body. Put hand back over head and repeat on the other side for twenty five repetitions.

Five Quick Tips:

1. Pack heat and gel packs/over the counter to alleviate soreness.
2. Bring neck or lower back support pillows
3. Drink plenty of water to hydrate your body. Proper hydration reduces inflammation
4. Wear support belts for your lower back and calves to prevent stagnant blood flow
5. Bring a golf ball to roll on the bottom of your foot (when not driving of course). This acupressure technique stimulates blood flow, nerve energy, and decreases soft tissue tightness.

Travel does not have to be as stressful or painful. If you plan well, execute well and take care of our body while in transit… the trip can be painless. And what better way to relax on vacation or arrive on business after travel, than stress free and pain free!

Is Sitting or Standing Better For Back Pain?

I'm more than a bit confused. At my age, that seems to be a rather common occurrence. However, today more than ever, I'm getting a mixed message. Let me explain.

During the prior century, average life expectancy in the United States increased by nearly three decades, from around 46 years of age to nearly 76 years of age. That's for white males; it's slightly higher for females. That's quite a significant increase. Now, however, the life expectancy of the newest generation is actually shorter than that of their parents.

Much of the increase that occurred can be credited to a better infrastructure (e.g., safe drinking water, refrigerated food) and better medical care (e.g., antibiotics, vaccinations). Much of the recent decline can probably be attributed to our lifestyle (e.g., diet and physical activity).

No longer are we as likely to die at a young age from the effects of an injury or infection. Instead, we are living longer and are more likely to suffer from chronic, degenerative diseases. It has been said that we're now living long enough to get sick.

It is relatively clear that there is a relationship between lifestyle and the development of chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. The more we eat and the less we exercise, the more we are likely to weigh and the greater the chances of developing one of these diseases. In the words of American composer and jazz artist Eubie Blake, "If I'd known I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself."

The Sitting Factor: Disease and Our Sedentary Lifestyles
A few years ago (October 2013), Paul Hooper wrote about the health effects of prolonged sitting.¹ In that column, he cited an article by van der Ploeg (2010), who found that sitting for 11 hours or more each day increased the risk of death by 40 percent compared to sitting less.² And that was in spite of other activity levels. If we add up the time spent sitting at our desk at work, commute time and time spent in front of the television, 11 hours is a number that's pretty easy to come up with.

In the past, I also provided tips to encourage standing at work. And I'm not the only one who thinks standing is a good alternative to prolonged sitting. A number of others have stated the same thing: Sitting is hazardous to your health.

Writing in the Journal of Preventive Medicine, Richard Pulsford and colleagues claim there is an association between time spent sitting and obesity risk.³ Simply put, the longer one sits, the heavier he is likely to become.[As an aside, working from an upright position (standing) has been shown to use 40 percent more calories than sitting.]

Sitting has even been called "the new smoking."⁴ As such, it is known to have a detrimental effect on health. Every cigarette smoked reduces the life expectancy of the smoker. In a similar manner, for every hour one sits, life expectancy is reduced.

Too Much Sitting Is Bad ... Too Much Standing Is Bad?
With that in mind, two articles in the Los Angeles Times caught my attention. Both in the April 4 issue, one was titled "A Warning on Obesity, Life Spans"; the second: "California's Top Court Tells Employers to Give Workers a Chair."

The first article discusses the rising obesity epidemic and the impact it has on life expectancy. The article quotes Dr. David S. Ludwig, an obesity prevention specialist at Boston Children's Hospital. He states there is a clear link between the food we eat, the activity we get and obesity-related deaths.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) concurs. The CDC states that currently, one-third of American adults are obese; that by the year 2030, half of all Americans will be obese; and that one in every six children and adolescents is obese.

As stated earlier, much of this change can be blamed on our diet and our lack of physical activity. Let's face it: Our food isn't getting better. There's been an increase in our portion size and a decrease in quality: too much salt, sugar, and fried foods. Fast food seems to be the order of the day.
I even saw an advertisement recently that promoted "The fourth meal" – apparently the meal between dinner and breakfast. As if we need another meal!

Additionally, we're not becoming more active. The American Heart Association says even moderate activity (e.g., brisk walking) may be beneficial when done regularly. The AMA defines that as 30 minutes or longer at least five days each week. But how many of us do that? Fitting 30 minutes of exercise into our already busy schedules isn't easy.

The second Times article discusses a decision by the California Supreme Court mandating that employers must allow their employees an opportunity to sit on the job. We seem to have something of a mixed message here. Sitting adds to obesity and obesity leads to many chronic diseases. So, the court tells employers they have to allow their employees to sit at work. Hmm...
I recognize what the court was attempting to do. Workers who must stand all day (e.g., clerks at a check-out stand) are subject to a variety of ailments. The court is simply trying to give them a choice. If work can be done while the worker is seated, why not provide chairs?

UCLA provides the following suggestions for times when sitting is preferable to standing:⁵

• When the job task cannot be done with the arms comfortably at the sides
• When working on products that are greater than 6 inches high or more than 10 pounds in weight
• When the work requires more than one workspace
• When the work task lasts less than 5 minutes
• When the work surface does not allow the worker to comfortably position their legs under the work surface
• When tasks require the frequent application of downward pressures

Trending: The Upright Workspace
Ironically, while the California Supreme Court has decided employers need to allow sitting at work, one of the trends in many workplaces is to encourage workers to stand while they work. Hence, the rise in interest in such things as the standing desk. Some have even gone so far as to put laptop computers on treadmills.

Keep in mind that while sitting for long periods has been shown to be bad for you, standing in place is no panacea, either; especially when workers must stand at a checkstand or similar location for hours on end. Standing for long periods may lead to such things as varicose veins, muscle fatigue and back pain.

But in general, employers (and the courts) shouldn't encourage workers to sit. Instead, workers should be encouraged to move around and to vary their time from sitting to standing. Perhaps seated work should come with a warning sign, something like that placed on a pack of cigarettes.

Movement Is the Key
It would appear that prolonged sitting and prolonged standing can be detrimental to our health. The key, therefore, is to build movement into the workspace and the workday. Workers should be encouraged to move around as much as possible. Whenever possible, they should be provided sit-stand chairs that enable them to go from a seated position to standing with ease.

References

1. Hooper P. "Sit or Stand? Strategies to Improve Workplace Health and Reduce Disease." Dynamic Chiropractic, Oct. 1, 2013.
2. Van der Ploeg HP, Chey T, Korda RJ, Banks E, Bauman A. Sitting time and all-cause mortality risk in 222,497 Australian adults. Arch Intern Med, 2010 Mar 26;172(6):494-500.
3. Pulsford RM, Stamatakis E, Britton AR, Brunner EJ, Hillsdon MM. Sitting behavior and obesity: evidence from the Whitehall II Study, J Preventive Med, 2013 Feb;44(2):132-8.
4. Sturt D, Nordstrom T. "Is Sitting the New Smoking?" Forbes, Jan. 13, 2015.
5. UCLA Ergonomics: Standing vs. Sitting at Work. University of California, Los Angeles - Environment, Health and Safety.

Can Children Get Back Pain?

As adults, we get used to a variety of daily or near-daily aches and pains, particularly as we age. But what about our children? Don't they seem immune to many, if not all, of the pain complaints we have – despite the fact that for the most part, they're exponentially more active?

Maybe not. A study of schoolchildren ages 12-15 revealed a startling statistic: More than half (57 percent) reported experiencing back pain in the past year. As you might expect, "remaining seated at school" was a primary pain trigger, particularly for back pain lasting up to seven days.

These findings not only point to the universality of back pain – and the need for it to be addressed by qualified health care professionals such as doctors of chiropractic; but also the need to recognize and avoid situations that may increase the risk of experiencing an episode of back pain.

For example, evidence implicates ergonomic flaws both in the school and workplace (desk / chair height, etc.) in back pain, not to mention carpal tunnel syndrome, neck pain and other conditions.

 What's more, the act of sitting alone creates undue stress on the spinal column and encourages poor posture whether at school, work or home, a major initiator of back pain and related conditions.


If anyone in your family is suffering from back pain, do something about it. Talk to your doctor about the potential causes and solutions.

Tylenol- A Poor Choice for Relieving Your Low Back Pain

Acetaminophen (Tylenol) is the most popular pain reliever in the U.S., accounting for an estimated 27 billion annual doses as of 2009. With 100,000-plus hospital visits a year by users, it's also the most likely to be taken inappropriately. In fact, improper use, coupled with the drug's narrow safety margin, means "a large fraction of users [are] close to a toxic dose in the ordinary course of use," according to the Food and Drug Administration.

But for the sake of discussion, let's ignore the safety issues for a moment. Is acetaminophen an effective pain reliever in the first place? Not for low back pain (LBP) and pain attributable to knee / hip osteoarthritis (OA), conclude the authors of a recent meta-analysis. The just-published review of 13 randomized trials has yielded "high-quality evidence" that paracetamol (acetaminophen) does not reduce pain intensity or disability, and does not improve quality of life, in the short term for people experiencing LBP; and provides only "minimal, short-term benefit" for people suffering from hip or knee pain caused by OA, stating that "the small effects ... are not likely to be meaningful for clinicians or patients."

Back to the safety issues surrounding acetaminophen, which the meta-analysis did little to dilute. According to the review researchers, "high-quality" evidence suggests paracetamol use results in a fourfold risk of an abnormal liver function test. Not surprising, since acetaminophen misuse (overdose) is now the most common cause of acute liver failure (exceeding all other medications combined) and the second most common cause of liver failure requiring transplantation.

In fact, the FDA has mandated that all acetaminophen-containing prescription products feature a "black box" warning (the administration's strongest safety statement) noting an overdose can cause liver failure and even death; and have been urged to place similar language on OTC acetaminophen products.

How often do you use acetaminophen-containing over-the-counter and/or prescription medications for you LBP and OA pain, even as you pursue relief through chiropractic care? How often do you take these drugs for your spinal / OA pain instead of visiting a chiropractor? As this meta-analysis suggests, acetaminophen is ineffective for these types of pain. So give chiropractic a try – a proven natural pain reliever.