According to Dr. Simeon Margolis of Johns Hopkins, “back pain sends more people to the doctor than any complaint except upper respiratory symptoms.” Unfortunately this common ailment that disables so many is often treated very poorly. Medicine treats the pain symptoms while totally ignoring the cause. It would be tragic if ignoring the cause would only result in a rise in the incidence of the leading diagnosis of back pain: muscle sprain, muscle spasm, osteoarthritis, herniated disc, osteoporosis, and fibromyalgia. But ignoring the cause also results in an increase in heart disease, asthma, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, allergies, and depression. This is because the cause of chronic back pain and the many chronic diseases are the same.
Back pain is a life-style ailment. Our life-style is the major cause and perpetrator. If we choose to follow the medical model of treating back pain as a disease in which we had no responsibility in causing, we may temporarily feel better, but our back and health will premature age. This is because the same poor life-style that caused back pain is also the primary cause of heart disease, asthma, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, allergies, and depression. Taking care of your back by improving your life-style will dramatically improve your health and how you feel.
Listed below are some life-style choices that lead to back pain and other life-style diseases.
1) Sedentary life-style. Not moving enough increases inflammation, causes plaque or fatty deposits to accumulate in blood vessels choking off blood supply to muscles and vertebral discs, starves the discs of nourishment causing vertebral disc disease and osteoarthritis, causes osteoporosis, allows adhesions and scarring to infiltrate spinal joints causing stiffness, inflexibility, and muscle spasms, and increases stress hormones which cause pain sensitivity to rise and immune system levels to sink.
2) High intake of refined carbohydrates. Eating high carbohydrate junk food raises insulin and blood sugar levels which delay healing, increases sensitivity to pain, increases inflammation, interferes with collagen repair, narrows arteries, robs spine and other vital organs of essential nutrients, causes muscle spasms, causes osteoporosis, and increases body stress.
3) Not enough sleep. Not sleeping enough hours per night delays back healing, decreases muscle coordination (weakens muscle-skeletal system), increases body stress, and increases sensitivity to pain.
4) Not enough loving relationships. Not emoting to loved ones causes increase levels of blood stress hormones and pain.
The medical model of treating back pain with rest, medication, advanced imaging, and a short bout of physical therapy is expensive, ineffective, and dangerous.
At Bryant Park Wellness, we work with you to improve the strength of your back and recommend life-style modifications that will not only decrease your back pain, but dramatically improve your energy, vitality, mood, and health.
