Dr. Craig Brue, DC
Would you like to know the world’s best exercise for back pain? During my 40-year career as a doctor of chiropractic, I have seen thousands of patients, and I have probably given over one-million spinal adjustments. In this article, you will find the fatherly advice that I have been telling my patients for many years.
Before I tell you about the world’s best exercise for back pain, I am going to review the least effective treatments for back and neck pain.
1. Medication: You are not experiencing back or neck pain because of a drug deficiency. Medications may be helpful in relieving pain, swelling and spasm, but these drugs are only treating the symptoms, and not the cause of the problem. Remember this: there are always more potential side effects than benefits when you start taking pain medications. The continued use of pain management drugs may eventually cause stomach, kidney, and liver problems.
2. Epidural Steroid Injections: Medical research documents the fact that cortisone shots seldom work on a long-term basis. You will walk out of the pain management clinic with the same bad back that brought you into the office in the first place. The only difference will be that you now have cortisone and pain numbing drugs injected into your spine. Epidural shots do not treat the underlying cause of back pain.
3. Exercise and physical therapy: It is highly unlikely that chronic back pain is simply muscular in origin. When back pain is chronic and recurring, you need to have an accurate diagnosis that includes imaging studies. Guess-work will not do. If your doctor or therapist is telling you that your back pain is related to muscle spasms or muscle imbalance you need to get another opinion.
What’s the world’s best exercise to resolve back pain? The answer: walk … into your chiropractor’s office for a spinal evaluation. A chiropractor, a specialist in spinal health, can accurately diagnose the cause of your problem by examination and x-ray studies. With an accurate spinal diagnosis, your doctor of chiropractic will recommend a treatment plan to resolve the condition. If necessary, an excellent chiropractor will also order MRI studies or refer you to a neurosurgeon for additional evaluation.
Back and neck pain is usually related to structural and biomechanical problems of the spine. Misalignment of the spine affects the nerves of the back and neck. When a nerve is pinched or irritated you will experience significant pain and discomfort. With the correction of spinal misalignments, back and neck pain can be resolved without drugs, shots, and surgery.
My advice: do the most conservative treatment first. Put a great chiropractor on your health team. Chiropractic care is the most conservative and effective treatment for chronic back and neck pain.
Dr. Craig Brue is an author, lecturer and chiropractic provider in SaddleBrooke, Ariz. For more information, go to our website at www.bruechiropractic.com.