Treatment for chronic back pain:

You have heard most all of the facts, and you have consulted with your doctor, you get regular Chiropractic adjustments, but still your back pain persists. Like most you assume the problem stems from an injury or even a history of multiple injuries. You take medication that decreases the inflammation and pain and very possibly nutritional supplement that are supposed to restore the damaged cartilage and joint tissue. Perhaps you have tried braces, exercises, stretching, supports and possibly even “Dr. Scholes Back Guards”, but still you are here on the internet looking for help.

With out question injury plays an important role, but why is it that your body doesn’t heal from the trauma rather than progressively worsening, resulting in more pain more often? You most likely have paid for numerous diagnostic tests that confirm a variety of diagnosis including arthritis, degenerative joint disease, prolapsed disk, hyper curvature of the spine, to name only a few. Your back hurts at night, in the morning, after sitting, after standing, after rest, after exercise, after just about everything you do. Literature supports the belief that our body tissues actually have a remarkable ability to heal, even from significant injury, so why is it that your back pain may present with day to day ups and downs, but overall just continues to get worse.

I would never suggest that a history of injury is not a major cause of your pain but when it persists for years, increasing even without additional trauma, there must be a reason. When you have lost weight and strengthened your back with exercise and the pain extends beyond a normal healing time for trauma there must be other causative forces involved.

Perhaps the most popular treatment for chronic back pain endorsed by patients today is chiropractic adjustment. but most patients admit that the need and frequency for adjustment therapy only increases over time. Eventually patients report that the benefit provided is barely enough to get you out of the office, down a flight of stairs and into your car.

Most treatments prescribed by medical doctors only cover up the symptoms temporarily, as they fail to address the causative forces responsible for the progressive inflammation and pain. Chiropractic adjustments address what is believed to be causing excessive pressure on the tissues involved and certainly do more than mask the symptoms with drugs, but they too become less and less effective over time.

So what is it that causes your back pain to persist or worsen, instead of healing like the body is intended to do? In recent years the study of human biomechanics has shed light on chronic pain syndromes by suggesting that the way we walk, stand, run, sit and move in general, produces forces on our skeletal structures capable of aggravating existing injury or even causing sufficient stress to produce inflammation and pain without a history injury. Many overuse syndromes have been studied in runners and active adults that relate many chronic medical conditions to nothing more than repetitive movements. These movements result in excessive forces on the tissue, and are believed to be the cause of pain and disability when there is no history of acute injury. If subtle movements associated with human skeletal function can cause chronic pain syndrome with out a history of acute trauma, then it only stands to reason that these same movements could aggravate injured structures and limit the bodies ability to recover and heal.

In recent years most every type of physician has suggested that the movements our bodies repeat throughout daily activity causes many chronic pain syndromes. Orthopedists and neurosurgeons have related carpal tunnel syndrome to the repetitive movements of your wrist and arms. Ergonometric key pads have been designed to reduce excessive force on the nerves responsible for these painful conditions. Recommendation to limit or discontinue typing activity is often necessary in order to resolve the pain of this condition even when surgery has already been attempted. Virtually all podiatrists recognize and recommend orthotics to resolve more than 75 percent of the chronic conditions they treat, believed to be caused by excessive pronation of the foot during ambulation. Sports medicine physicians now treat most chronic injuries of the knee and leg with foot control devices that reduce the excessive rotational movement believed to be responsible for these conditions. Physical therapists and chiropractic physicians frequently treat chronic conditions of the hips and spine with in-shoe devices that improve human biomechanics as we walk and stand. Students of Yoga and other related disciplines adamantly insist that posture and body movement plays a critical role in the cause of many painful conditions observed today.

In recent years both physicians and patients have reported success in treating chronic back pain with both over the counter and prescription foot control devices. The method by which this treatment helps to relive pain is explained by the study of human biomechanics and is referred to a closed kinetic chain function. In simple terms the way we walk and stand aggravates and is the underlying cause of chronic back pain.

So if physicians understand that the way we walk and stand is the cause of chronic back pain, why are billions of dollars spent annually on so many other treatments including invasive surgical procedures?

1. A small percentage of the cases have a history of severe injury resulting in irreparable damage, thus requiring invasive surgical repair.
2. Use of both over the counter and prescription devices to change the way we walk and stand only resolves a portion of the abnormal that cause the chronic back pain.

Why is it that foot control devices don’t stop all of the unwanted motion responsible for pain and disability as we walk and stand. This is the question I asked myself almost 20 years ago as I began the research that has resulted in with I now refer to as THETA.

Theta-Orthotics, PO Box 1574, Riverton Utah, 84065