Make a New Year's resolution for back health

A recent review of studies found that 85 percent of adults experience low back pain, and about 20 percent call their pain severe or disabling. Chances are if you don't have back pain right now, you are likely to experience it at some time during your life.

The biggest risk factor for back pain is a previous case of back pain. At Pinnacle Physical Therapy, we hear many patients say that what finally brings them to physical therapy is that they haven't seen the improvement they expected, and they need help getting back to where they want to be. It doesn't have to be that way. And taking action early is your best bet for relief and for reducing your risk of re-injury.

If your back pain is severe enough - particularly if you feel you need to take time off from work because of it - you will most likely call your physician, go to the emergency room, or let time go by until you feel better. Maybe you will take some pain medication and then get on with your life.

Patients who participated in physical therapy soon after an injury had lower likelihood of lumbar surgery, lumbosacral injections, and frequent pain-related physician visits. The earlier one starts physical therapy, the more likely one can avoid those further treatments. While surgery can be appropriate for some patients, many patients are experiencing the negative, very real consequences of surgery.

Patients who participated in active care had fewer physical therapy visits and greater improvement in pain and disability. In the following year, those same patients were less likely to require prescription medication, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), or epidural injections. If that's not enough to convince you, those patients had even lower total healthcare costs!

Many patients experience back pain not only because of relative weakness, but from trouble controlling the strength that they do have. Back pain can effectively inactivate low back and abdominal muscles that can prolong the pain, and even after you feel better, these muscles may still be poorly controlled. This is one likely reason why people who have back pain experience it over and over, and this is something that your body can re-learn with some specific training.

Physical therapists are trained to assess how movement of the low back affects your pain, and match these findings with exercises while standing or laying down that match your symptoms to reduce your pain. Pinnacle's physical therapists can also direct you on postural training: positioning your low back and pelvis correctly, demonstrating strengthening exercises for your lower and upper back, and teaching you to move your body in a manner that minimizes your pain throughout the day.

Make it your resolution this year to resolve your back pain for once and for all! Give Pinnacle Physical Therapy a call today. Post Falls (208) 777-4242 or Coeur d'Alene (208) 665-2000.