Want Less Back Pain? Stop Being Afraid of It

These people were quite typical of lower back pain sufferers; 60% were female and all were middle-aged. As a group, they all had reported moderate to severe reductions in normal activity because of back pain.

The results compiled at the end of one year and two years were significant. Please remember that these people had no real treatment--just increased levels of appropriate activity. The activity group experienced a 33% improvement in disability scores, but only a modest advantage in their pain levels.

The basic lesson here is that fear of activity often causes prolonged recovery and increases the chance of simple back pain becoming chronic and long term. This notion of less rest and more activity has been around awhile, but sadly most treating medical practitioners are not getting the message. Research has shown that bed rest beyond three days usually makes the problem worse. Not so long ago, it was common to find a person with acute back pain taking to their bed for six weeks, and sometimes on a striker board to boot. These unfortunate souls, while receiving what was considered to be the convention treatment of the day, were never the same again. It is false notions such as these that so frustrates not only active therapists like chiropractors, but also insurance companies and workers' compensation boards. The cost of chronic care and its resultant disability skyrockets when compared to active and appropriate acute care.

So if you have back pain, don't be afraid of it. Get up and get moving!

References for this article are as follows:

Von Korff M et al., A trial of an activating intervention for chronic back pain in primary care and physical therapy settings. Pain, 2005; 113:323-330. Richard A. Deyo discussing how medical providers inadvertently instill fear in low back patients with off-the-cuff comments and ill-advised advice in his keynote address at the Alberta International Forum VII as reported in the March 2005 issue of The Back Letter.

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