What is Back Pain?

Acute or short-term low back pain generally lasts from a few days to a few weeks. Most acute back pain is the result of trauma to the lower back or a disorder such as arthritis. Pain from trauma may be caused by a sports injury, work around the house or in the garden, or a sudden jolt such as a car accident or other stress on spinal bones and tissues. Symptoms may range from muscle ache to shooting or stabbing pain, limited flexibility and range of motion, or an inability to stand straight. Chronic back pain is pain that persists for more than 3 months. It is often progressive and the cause can be difficult to determine.

Currently, researchers are examining the use of different drugs to effectively treat back pain, in particular, chronic pain that has lasted at least 6 months. Other studies are comparing different health care approaches to the management of acute low back pain (standard care versus chiropractic, acupuncture, or massage therapy). These studies are measuring symptom relief, restoration of function, and patient satisfaction.

Osteopathy helps Back Pain

The practice of osteopathy is known by some as alternative medicine and yet it is not that far removed from the practice of chiropractic medicine. Although each field likes to keep the differences between themselves they both use hands on manipulation to treat what ails their patients. Osteopathy, which began in the Untied States in 1874 has changed their philosophy somewhat as they moved into the later nineteen hundreds. They, unlike chiropractors, can use medicine in their practices. Practitioners of osteopathy are different based on where they practice. The Europeans, particularly European Union members, are still trying to put together standards. Training and practicing seem almost unwatched. In Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom, the practices have developed over very similar lines and traditions with the first accredited college, which still stands, opening in the United Kingdom in 1917.

Osteopathy has a very clear and concise philosophy that it follows. Those who practice it believe that the body, its configuration and its ability to operate, are closely related. They believe that the body does have the ability to heal itself and that all this requires is the means to understand this and do it. Diseases happen because the body's normal functions become overwhelmed or too many changes ensue that disrupt the body. They further believe that the body requires the uninterrupted flow of the body's fluids to keep it healthy. As well, there are reasons for disease to happen and to remain in the body that have to do with how the body is taken care of. These are not the laws of those who practice osteopathic medicine, just more like a general philosophy.

The practitioner will first get a full history of the problem that you are suffering. If you walk into their office limping they want to know are you limping because of pain in that part of the body or are you limping because pain has made you carry yourself oddly and caused a limp. They understand that they must cure the injury and the effects that the injury has had on the rest of the body. A knee injury that makes you carry yourself oddly can be a prime reason that you have back pain. They treat the whole body because they believe that that is the only to keep the body healthy. It must be aligned both in the medical and philosophical sense before it can attain better health.

Like a chiropractor the osteopathic practitioner will use hands on treatment to manipulate certain parts of the body to improve back pain. This will include moving joints to make sure they can still perform a full range of motion, stretching, restoring balance and manipulating the spine. All of these are designed to ease pain and build strength to try to make it so the problem, and the pain, do not return. They will have suggestions on lifestyle changes if the practitioner believes that the things live with, including posture and stress, are causing your back pain.

Written by: Scott Parat