Thousands of chronic back pain victims would narrate how bored they are with their back pain medicines. Many have long put off their drugs and have chosen to live the life of pain and disability because of the ineffective results from pain medicines!
My years of practice as physiotherapist and Ph.D research student on the intricacies involving chronic back pain challenge, did expose the displeasure
and discomfort and discouragement victims of chronic back pain undergo
with intake of prescribed medicines. There is a difference between chronic back pain and acute back pain. The difference is in their duration and the underlying causes.
Common back pain is considered to be chronic if it has been present for longer than three months, while acute back pain is less than 3 months. Nevertheless, some authors suggest that any pain that persist more than the reasonably expected healing time for the involved tissue should be considered chronic. In chronic back pain, the sensitized pathways in the spinal cord may increase the perceived pain out of proportion to the source of pain and may not respond to medical model approach unlike acute pain that may respond to it.
Unfortunately, many practicing medical practitioners still try to extend this medical model approach to chronic pain. If they continue to apply the medical model approach to patient’s chronic pain problem the patient is at risk at receiving not only unnecessary and ineffective diagnostic procedures, drugs and surgical treatment as the search for the patients source of chronic pain presses on. Unfortunately, the
validity of the patients chronic back pain complaints may be challenged if reasons cannot be found and the treatment do not work. Indeed chronic back pain is often quite different from acute, though less severe and more subtle scientific understanding of pain is required to treat it (chronic pain).
Many have been on medicines for years and are suffering seriously the effect. let’s be clear about this: no back pain medication is without side effects. Whether you take an aspirin or NSAIDs (non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), you can expect the drug to take its toll on your health.
You may experience nausea, (i.e a feeling of vomiting) dizziness, constipation, vomiting, dryness in the mouth, urinary retention, pupil contraction, or even respiratory depression, among others.
You see, unknown to most consumers, pain medications may attack more than pain. It actually inhibits, rather than promotes your body’s natural defenses against sickness. I have through my brain-child (the back pain care foundation) embark on aggressive awareness campaign for victims of chronic back pain to wholly exploit the treatment potentials of skilled physiotherapists before going for other options.
If your solution to pain is to take pain killers the moment you start feeling twinges, don’t be surprised to find yourself becoming more and more reliant on your drug. While it’s true your pain killer can numb the pain, it doesn’t make it go away. You just may find yourself taking more pain killers more often. Do you know how your back pain medications work? They either block the pain signals to your brain or interrupt your brain’s interpretation of these signals. In other words, they make you feel pain-free by making you incapable of feeling pain – for a few hours or days, anyway. But remember: feeling pain-free and being actually pain-free are two very different things. It important to know that common back pain is not a disease by itself but can cause some secondary problem.
For example ; your chronic pain in certain area of the back, can affect the effective performance of the erectile organ of a woman or man. It can cause urinary or fecal incontinence; i.e being unable to control urine or feaces To get rid of the pain, you will need to find out the cause of the pain and remedy it accordingly, that is what skillful physiotherapy thoughtfully performed is set to achieve. The physiotherapist must be grounded in anatomy and biomechanics of the back structure.
Medications may help you get through your day, but if you rely on drugs as your only pain treatment, you’re stuck with them for the rest of your life.
Madam Iyabo narrated to me how she often groan each time she lunges for her drug box. She has suffered lower back pain for ten years. She has been abroad several times for check ups, at the invitations of her daughter who has four children. Each time she is abroad, dozens of different drugs are given her to take home for her back pain. Before she chose obtaining treatment abroad she has tried several hospitals for her condition but to no avail. She has developed so much dislike for her routine drugs because of stomach upset she got each time she takes them. As a matter of fact, taking these pills has become a nightmare. She resorted to a customized corset/brace to support her unstable back. She felt a bit comfortable with it than the drugs which are not only ineffective but unnecessary since its effect is transient, if at all and upsetting the stomach.
You may take your back pain medications in one gulp, and would smile at how quickly it works. Well, wipe that smile off your face. That drug you’re probably thinking is your friend is anything but something else why: Not all pain relievers work alike. What worked for someone you know may not work for you. What your doctor prescribed may not work for you, even.
Your doctor gives you a prescription, you buy it, you take it, and hope for the best. How long can you endure this cycle of trial and error?
On the upside, your constant use of back pain medications means you’re bound to find one that works for you. On the downside, trying one drug after the other will not always be pleasant and may even take a toll on your health.
Do you know how your back pain medications work? They either block the pain signals to your brain or interrupt your brain’s interpretation of these signals. In other words, they make you feel pain-free by making you incapable of feeling pain — for a few hours or days, anyway.
But remember: feeling pain-free and being actually pain-free are two very different things.
To get rid of the pain, you will need to find out the cause of the pain and remedy it accordingly, that is what skillful physiotherapy thoughtfully performed is set to achieve.
Medications may help you get through your day, but if you rely on drugs as your only pain treatment, you’re stuck with them for the rest of your life.
Yes, you can reclaim your right to a strong, healthy back; but the answer is not inside your drug box, and it’s definitely not your back pain medications.
Start your journey to being pain-free by making rational choice of health facility to attend for your disturbing back pain or obtain a referral from your doctor to a reputable physiotherapy clinic. Your back will thank you for it.
Don’t continue to suffer with crippling neck or waist pain, it is not worth it.
There is remedy. To demonstrate our expertise, we shall carry out a 2 day free intervention physiotherapy exercise for back pain sufferers at no 9, Ohafia Road, Phase 3, Kubwa. Abuja, in the mid month of February 2020.