Medication and standard symptomatic treatment plays an effective role in assisting short term acute back pain (<3 months).

Millions of people worldwide are realising with a great deal of angst and frustration that chronic back pain is not cured by medication, it's not cured by standard physio/ chiro treatments, and in a great percentage of cases, it is not cured by surgery.

Mind altering drugs, designed to mask the pain have a diminishing effect. The more and longer one takes them, the stronger the dosage required to provide any notable relief.

Standard physiotherapy, chiropractic and massage whilst effective with acute, short term back pain, fail the vast majority of chronic back pain sufferers providing only short term relief to their symptoms.  

If we look across westernised countries, USA, Canada, UK, Australia 80% of people suffer from back pain at same stage throughout their life. Many of these people respond to the standard approach and recover during the early acute stages of back pain (3 months). The concerning fact is that the vast majority of back pain sufferers are not cured, being left with constant or recurring debilitating pain.

The toll this has on individuals and the knock on effective to their families and loved ones is severe. The financial cost alone is enormous, often costing thousands of dollars per year in medication, and time taken off work due to severe flare ups. Chronic back pain sufferers appear to age so much faster than non sufferers due to the constant battle of getting through the day and trying to function as normal as possible.

We have become such an instant gratification society. A quick pill for your ill, or a quick treatment to alleviate painful symptoms. The trillion dollar pharmaceutical industry thrives on our desires, constantly rebranding, remarketing the same pain killers over and over again. Many surgeons will push for back surgery, knowing very well conservative approaches have not been exhausted, also knowing over 40% of back surgeries are not successful. Practitioners do the best they can using standard treatment techniques that are purely designed for acute back pain patients.     

The drug companies and health industry thrive on the fact there is no known cure for chronic back pain. It could be fair to say that the health industry has become very complacent in these large profits, and has had very little motivation to address the concern over millions of chronic back pain sufferers wasting thousands of dollars each year in failed treatment.