Why is lower back pain considered one of the hardest conditions to address?
Many practitioners dread the complexity of a chronic lower back sufferer attending their clinic. If time hasn't healed the patient's condition, if many other practitioners have attempted, yet failed to provide lasting relief then how are they going to be able to help?
Some practitioners work to a formula, if they cannot help after 4 sessions or after a certain amount of weeks then they will tell the back pain sufferer that their treatment approach is most likely not going to help them. The majority of practitioners who have difficulty treating lower back pain, try different approaches trying to find a solution to their patients pain, with the process often taking many months if not years until the patient seeks treatment elsewhere.
The lower back is a complex part of the human anatomy. There are many different structures that make up and support the lower back and any number of these structures can be the source of pain for the back pain patient. Identifying the source of the pain, and how best to treat it is one of the most difficult tasks for practitioner treating chronic back pain sufferers.
We need our lower back in order to carry out most daily activities, in fact the only time our lower back gets to rest is often times when we are lying down in bed. This makes resting an injured back, or a recently treated lower back very challenging, which is another factor in the complexity of addressing a lower back complaint.
The most common complaint amongst chronic back pain sufferers about treatment received from practitioners is that it only provides temporary relief from their pain. They feel much better in the hours/ days post treatment, with a greater range of movement and reduced pain only for the pain and restriction to return soon after their appointment.
The frustration for both the patient and practitioner is why the pain continues to return, why the pain areas shift around and why the MRI scans do not show a significant cause for the ongoing condition.
From experience in both seeing many practitioners as a back pain sufferer, then as a practitioner who has mentored other practitioners who want to specialise in chronic back pain, my observation has been that the vast majority of practitioners focus on the symptoms of back pain and completely overlook the underlying cause.
Practitioners treat the symptoms that cause pain, which makes the back pain patient feel better temporarily, only for the pain to return. This pattern continues with both the back pain sufferer and the practitioner aware of why it occurs.
If the body is not strong enough to support its own weight - then there will be significant biomechanical changes to compensate for this weakness. The most common underlying cause of back pain is muscular imbalances that compromise the structures of the lower back. The symptoms are the pain or damage that occurs to the structures of the lower back, and if you keep treating the symptoms and overlook the muscular imbalances then you will continue the same pattern of short term symptomatic relief.
Granted, lower back injuries are complicated in comparison to other regions of the human body. However correct postural analysis will clearly outline that the structures of the lower back are compromised resulting in pain and dysfunction.
Addressing the postural imbalances in conjunction with treating the symptoms will provide chronic lower back pain sufferers both temporary relief and a lasting solution to their pain.
