There are more options than you think.
Back Pain…aahh!!
Pain killers, osteopath, chiropractor, physiotherapy or surgery …that’s it? …right?
…Wrong! Great News…there are more alternatives to help your back pain.
Back pain is one of the most common conditions with NICE suggesting that that 60% of UK adults will suffer from it at some point in their lives, and other sources putting the figure as high as 80%. If you have not had this personally you have probably witnessed a loved one or a colleague suffer with it and you’ll know how awful it is to watch them.
Every movement, every walk, every activity is restricted.
However, not all back pain comes from a specific problem in fact studies have shown that the majority of back pain is classed as non-specific.
In majority of the cases, acute back pain is self limited and benign with no cause identified in 95% of the patients. In such patients the cause is either a muscular or ligamentous injury. When acute back pain is associated with neurologic symptoms, then an extensive work up is warranted to look for causes like herniated intervertebral disk, spinal stenosis, and cauda equine syndrome, which accounts for only 5% of acute back pain cases.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2697333/
(28/04/2023)
Does that mean that if you don’t have any structural reason for your back pain it’s all in your head…no.
Clients often come to me being made to feel like this is something they need to ‘live with’ and get given a prescription or referral to the physiotherapist. Some have tried numerous solutions recommended from friends and family with varying degrees of success from new mattresses to Chiropractors and Osteopaths.
Physiotherapist are amazing they’ve got some really wonderful to techniques but with the time available on the NHS it’s not always possible to get to the root cause and it doesn’t work for everyone. Osteopath and Chiropractors can do wonders but I find that for some clients the results just don’t stay.
You’ve also got a wide range of an exercise modalities that work excellently, all movement is good, Pilates, yoga, Tai chi, walking, swimming these can all help.
A famous Joseph Pilates quote is:
“Change happens through movement and movement heals”
I feel this is very apt for a lot of people who suffered from back pain, I know this was certainly the case for myself. Having suffered a back injury at work lifting a patient. It resulted in a lot of pain that I was told would never be resolved unless I had surgery to remove my disk. That was not going to happen I wasn’t even 30!
This is the reason I trained as a Pilates instructor and offer private 1:1 Pilates using a range of studio equipment such as the reformer.
But if you’ve tried the ‘traditional’ routes and they’re not helping are you stuck with ‘living with it’? No!
What other options are there that will help your back pain?
Well two relatively unknown but very effective methods are Rossiter Stretching and Neural Reset Therapy (NRT).
Rossiter Stretching and Neural Reset Therapy
So how can Rossiter Stretching and Neural Reset Therapy (NRT) help? And what makes them so different to other modalities. Rossiter Stretching is very direct approach while NRT works more indirectly but reset the muscle rather than Rossiter Stretching which helps stretch the fascia.
I’ve had success with clients with both of these modalities and would highly advocate both of them.
Rossiter Stretching
Rossiter Stretching works directly on the muscle that may be pulling the spine, for example it might be the inside thigh that is tight and that is causing an issue with the way you walk, the tiny joints in the spine only require a small imbalance in a muscle or tight piece of fascia to cause a big pain.
Rossiter Stretching works through an assisted stretching or a ‘pin and stretch’ technique, whereby the target tissue is held (in this case by me) and you stretch away from that hold using specific moves that I guide you through.
This has the effect of releasing the tension you feel, giving increased movement and less pain.
To read more on Rossiter Stretching please have a look at the blog What Is Rossiter Stretching? or get in touch to see if it could work for you
Neural Reset Therapy
Neural Reset Therapy though works very differently. Working through each muscle we find trigger points, then work through each of these muscle areas to reset each of them by providing a varied stimulus to that muscle.
Neural Reset Therapy works by resetting the communication between the brain and the mechanoreceptors within that muscle. The brain and the muscle together work to reset the tone and the quality of that muscle to help get you out of pain and brain’s perception of that muscle.
To read more on NRT please have a look at the service page or get in touch to see if it could work for you
Long Term Effects
How long does it last? That really depends on you:
- How long have you had the pain?
- What other lifestyle factors are there in place?
I know anybody who’s had back pain is probably fed up with being told about exercising, their weight, diet or smoking but they do all have an effect.
However for a lot of people a couple of treatments is all they need to really get back on their feet, to start moving and doing the activities they want whether that is walking, swimming, gardening or running.
Some clients though may require top ups later it depends on what caused you pain in the first place and what you do in your day to day activities and work.
So what can you do about your back pain?
Well, you can keep taking the painkillers, keep going to the doctors, get yourself on the waiting list for the injections, all perfectly valid suggestions however there are alternatives out there if you really want to avoid the injections, the steroids, the drugs and all of their associated side effects.