Last week, we started this series on common myths and misconceptions around back pain.  The first of these was that back pain is something to be dreaded, a dire unusual event which is likely to proceed to prolonged suffering and disability.  We know that this is just not true.  Back pain is normal; most people will experience it, often many times in their life, and just about everyone recovers from it fairly quickly.

Today, we’re going to look at the use of scans in the diagnosis of back pain. 

I thought it’s about time I wrote about back pain.  After all, this is the most common reason people have for coming to see me in my clinic.  And it’s not just me; back pain takes up a huge amount of the time and resources of the medical care system as a whole.  More people take time off work because of back pain than for any other reason and it is also the single most frequent cause of visits to GPs.  It’s no exaggeration to say that there is a back pain epidemic in the UK.

You’d think for something so common, we’d have a pretty good understanding of back pain but the fact is we don’t, not the general public and not always clinicians.  So I’m going to list a series of back pain myths and misconceptions over the next several weeks.  Most of this material is drawn from an excellent article by Mary O’Keeffe, Kieran O’Sullivan and Derek Griffin.

Myofascial release is a therapeutic technique which has been around for many years under different names but the term only came into widespread use in the latter half of the 20th century.  Essentially, the idea behind it is that muscular pain and/or joint restriction are often associated with disturbances in the proper functioning of our body’s connective tissue, specifically fascia.  If you can correct or “release” these disturbances then reduced pain and improved movement should follow.

Like most bodywork therapists I’m in the business of pain relief.  I mean I do get people coming to see me for other reasons – to ease stress, say, or maybe to gain flexibility around a particularly stiff spot.  But by far the majority of clients I work with are looking for reduction in pain.  And a lot of the time, this pain has been present for months or even years before someone will book in with me.

Dealing with chronic pain conditions poses special problems for therapists in my field because tissue damage plays a relatively minor role in sustaining the pain experience.  The research on this is clear: with chronic pain the main issue is sensitivity.  And sensitivity is only distantly related to the state of a person’s tissues.

Check out this great little video for simple tips to keep your body from stiffening up while using your computer.

Over the past couple of years I’ve had several middle aged women coming to me for help with frozen shoulder.  In all of them, the condition had developed suddenly and for no apparent reason.  In some, the pain and stiffness had started in one shoulder, then receded only to come back worse than ever in their opposite shoulder.

First of all, my apologies for the long gap between posts on this blog:  I’ve been a bit distracted by teaching and other commitments but I’m back now and will aim to make these blogs more regular.

Today, I’m going to pick up from where I left off regarding trigger points.  If you read my blog on treating these troublesome sites of pain and irritation you’ll notice that I said that lasting removal of trigger points usually requires changes in the way you use your body.  Why this should be so is related to why trigger points usually get set up in the first place, namely as a response to trauma.

In my last blog I talked about trigger points, about how common they are and how they are associated with most of the soft tissue pain in our bodies.  I also mentioned that, manual therapists aside, trigger points are not well known in the mainstream healthcare profession, and certainly not by doctors.

This isn’t a happy situation.  On the one hand you have an almost universal source of physical pain and on the other you have the people we most frequently turn to when we hurt who are largely ignorant of the very thing which is troubling us.

It’s really not possible to write a blog about bodywork without mentioning trigger points.  They are a very big deal for us therapists because they are associated with just about every problem we see in our practices.   

I thought I would switch tack somewhat in this month’s post to look at a subject which is a particular hobby-horse of mine which is bodywork for the elderly.  In my view too few older people turn to massage and other manual therapies to deal with the pain, stiffness and loss of function associated with advancing years.  Too few, because these simple, non-invasive therapies can do so much to maintain and improve good health in old age.