Nearly 90 percent of Americans will experience problematic back pain at some point in their lives, and there are numerous approaches to treating the pain. Bed rest or a trip to the chiropractor are oftentimes the first option for some people, but new research suggests that exercise and activity may be the best ways to keep back pain at bay.
That’s because inactivity and lack of exercise can set off what doctors call the “spiral of decline.” Here’s an abbreviated look at the cycle.
1. A person suffers an injury from either acute or repetitive trauma.
2. That person lays in bed or on the couch for a week or so, giving their back time to heal.
3. During this time, the muscles, ligaments and joints in the area become weakened due to lack of use.
4. Now in a weakened state, patients are discouraged from activity, and their body may not be able to handle what used to be “normal” activity levels.
5. This leads to more pain, and the cycle starts over again.
Combating Back Pain
Thankfully, new research published in JAMA Internal Medical is helping patients break out of the downward spiral. In a review of 23 studies encompassing more than 30,000 participants, researchers looked at a variety of prevention techniques, like lifestyle changes, shoe orthotics, back braces, exercise regimens and patient education programs. What they uncovered is that most treatments failed miserably.
Education alone showed no ability to prevent recurrence of back pain, while back braces and orthotics were also found to be wildly ineffective. Fortunately, exercise proved to show extremely favorable results. According to researchers, exercise programs alone or exercise programs paired with patient education proved successful in reducing future back pain flareups.
“Exercise combined with education reduced the risk of an episode of low back pain in the next year by 45 percent,” said Dr. Chris Maher, a professor at the George Institute, who oversaw the new review. “In other words, it almost halved the risk.”
Interestingly, there wasn’t an exact exercise regimen that proved much more beneficial than the others. According to Dr. Maher, any exercise the strengthened your core and back muscles, even aerobic exercises with strength and balance training, proved to be effective in keeping back pain at bay.
“Of all the options currently available to prevent back pain, exercise is really the only one with any evidence that it works,” concluded Dr. Maher.