Overusing Painkillers for Your Back Pain can Cause Headaches.

Well, I am making some progress on my computer problems, so, for the time being, I'm back in business.

I can personally relate to the information in this article on the Australian Herald Sun website.

According to consumer group “Choice” regular use of over the counter painkillers to combat back pain and other conditions (I would suspect it refers to prescription painkillers also but they would only be available through a doctor) can cause withdrawal headaches when the user stops taking them.

This in turn leads you to take more pain killers, so the cycle continues. I recall when I first started having knee pain years ago, before seeking medical advice I was purchasing over the counter painkillers in an attempt to relieve the pain myself. Realising I was probably taking too many, and suffering terrible headaches.

Fortunately I worked out that it was probably that my body had got used to the painkillers and wanted more, so I managed not to take them for a few days and the headaches stopped. Still had the knee pain of course, and then I did go to the doctor, which is what I should have done in the first place.

I think many of us that have suffered chronic pain have been in this situation. It’s quite scary to think that you can effectively become addicted to over the counter medications.

You can read the full article here.

11 Tips on How to Prevent Back Pain.

A short post today. I am experiencing major problems with my computer at the moment, and it looks like it may take me some time to get it sorted.

Anyway, this article from the helium.com website is fairly self explanatory and gives a useful list of eleven tips on how to prevent back pain, by Amanda Stagnetto, ranging from the best way to read in bed to the proper height for your ironing board and more.

Find it here.

Gin Soaked Raisins Relieve Back Pain!

This is a quirky article that I couldn’t resist including, by Sarah Perry on the seattle times.com site.

It would appear that many people swear that by eating just nine raisins that have previously been soaked in gin each day dramatically helps their arthritis pain.

One theory is that the juniper used to flavour the gin had some benefit. However research has failed to prove a link.

There’s no worries about the alcohol content either, as nine raisins soaked in gin and the gin then evaporated only contain one drop of alcohol.

If you want to test it yourself the article has the recipe. If you do, let me know how you get on. Find the article here.

Writing Can Help Your Back Pain.

Interesting story here by Julie Deardorff on the Chicago Tribune.com website about the benefits of writing to treat physical ailments, including chronic back pain and neck pain.

According to a new program at Northwestern Memorial Hospital's Center for Integrative Medicine and Wellness, writing and keeping a journal can help sufferers understand what triggers their pain. And over a period of time it actually changes the nerve pathways that carry the pain signals from your back (or neck or shoulders) to your brain and diminishes the pain signals over time.

So says Northwestern's Dr. John Stracks, a mind-body specialist and one of a few dozen physicians in the country that treats the condition Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS), or mind-body syndrome. Common symptoms include back pain, neck pain, gastrointestinal issues and migraine headaches.

Read the full story here and maybe find out if keeping a journal would help you.

Lower Back Pain Myths.

A brief post today, but very interesting in my opinion.

Here is a story I found by Luke Sniewski on webcpa.com exposing three common myths about lower back pain, and giving a few “smart choices” for protecting your lower back.

If you believe in exercises to strengthen your back, stretching, and doing sit-ups you should probably read what he has to say here.

Yoga Poses to Relieve Back Pain.

We have mentioned Yoga before, but here I have found two sites which show specific poses (not exercises as such) which help to relieve back pain. I found these on fitsugar.com this morning and used them myself as my back was playing up, and can vouch for their effectiveness, in my case anyway.

Each pose has easy to follow instructions and you can find them here. 

The other site is opposing views.com and they have on this page a short video of Maya Feinnes demonstrating a couple of easy yoga poses to help the back. Also on this page you can download two yoga practises.

Use this link and try it for yourself.

"Slouch Factor" Could be Responsible for Your Bad Back.

I suppose we all know by now that bad posture is a major factor in back pain, and this article on responsesource.com highlights the fact that with winter pretty much under way TV watching will increase, with the inevitable result of doctors seeing more patients with back pain.

Research shows that 28% of the UK population already spend over 15 hours seated per day Monday to Friday. However the winter TV schedules will mean that for the next three months avid watchers will spend up to an extra two days slumped in the sofa.

Tim Hutchful from the British Chiropractic Association warns: “As a nation we clearly like to sit down and whilst resting is good for our bodies there is almost twice as much pressure on your back when you are sitting incorrectly than there is if you stand up. Sitting for prolonged periods of time as inactivity coupled with incorrect posture lays us open to back pain.”

The article goes on to give a few helpful tips to avoid what they are calling “The Slouch Factor”. You can also download a simple three minute exercise routine. Read all about it here.

Listening to Your Knees Can Help Osteoarthritis Diagnosis.

As regular readers of this back pain information blog will know, although I do concentrate on back pain, due to my personal history (see about me over on the right there) I do have an interest in knee problems also.

So for those of you that also have knee pain you may be interested in this very interesting story I found by Roger Dobson on the Daily Mail website.

Joints, and knees in particular, make noises when they move. Usually we do not hear them, and the noises a healthy joint makes are different to the noises made by a knee suffering from osteoarthritis.

Professor John ­Goodacre, of Lancaster University’s new School of Health and Medicine, is one of the developers of a new machine designed to listen to knee joints and detect the early signs of osteoarthritis in just a few minutes.

The technique, known as acoustic emission, has been used in the past by engineers to detect faults in bridges and aeroplanes, but has been refined by Professor Goodacre and his colleagues to the point where it is now becoming a valuable diagnostic tool. Until now there has been no reliable test for early diagnosis of osteoarthritis of the knees.

Perhaps if this had been available a few years ago I might have hung on to my own knees a little longer. Read the full story here.

Titanium Spring Helps Back Pain.

Although apparently there are over 25,000 people in Europe with one of these Titanium springs in their back I have to say that I had never heard of this technique until I found this article on the newschannel5.com website.

A U shaped Titanium spring called a coflex is inserted into the spine  between two vertebrae to prop up the narrowed spinal canal.

This technique is used to treat spinal stenosis, which is traditionally treated by fusing vertebrae together. This works but limits mobility, it also has a long recovery time of up to one year.

The coflex is flexible, providing a spring effect, and the recovery time is as short as one month.

This seems a real breakthrough in back surgery, offering hope to many with chronic back pain. Check out the full story, with a very interesting case study here.

Low Back Pain? 6 Ways to Tell if You Have a Pinched Nerve,

There are many causes of back pain, and one of the most common is a pinched nerve.

The clinical presentation of a pinched nerve can vary from patient to patient, but if you are suffering back pain and you think it might be due to a pinched nerve, here are 6 ways that you can tell, as detailed on the gloucester times.com website.

This is not an exhaustive list but could assist you in diagnosing your problem. Use this link to find them.

Science Fiction Treatment for Chronic Back Pain.

It is often said that technology moves forward at such a pace that we actually live in the future. I’m a great fan of technology and gadgets, one of my favourite TV shows being the gadget show.

This story I found on the future of things.com website really fascinated me. Apparently an electronic jacket called the Sinovo has been developed which provides heating, cooling and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) therapies as well as preventing back pain  through biofeedback.

It also has an inbuilt alarm which sounds when bad posture is detected.

Read the full details about this amazing invention here.

Brain Training for Back Pain.

I’m sure that, like me, you get fed up with people saying “It’s all in the mind”, however new research carried out at Warwick Medical School, at the University of Warwick, has shown that there are ways to reduce the amount of lower back pain that we feel, without resorting to drugs or operations, as reported on the saga.co.uk website.

This, in very simple terms, involves training your mind to understand and cope with your pain.

Professor Sarah E Lamb and her team at the Warwick Clinical Trials Unit carried out a randomised controlled trial of 701 patients from GP practices in England, who had sub-acute or chronic low back pain. 

The patients were randomly allocated to two groups: 468 people received a single session of advice on back pain, followed by one and a half hours of group cognitive behavioural intervention for six weeks. The 233 people in the control group received just the single session of advice. 

The study, published in The Lancet, found that one year after the trial, the group that had received the cognitive behavioural treatment had improved significantly.

This study looks really promising, and I’m all for anything that helps without taking too many drugs, with possible addictive consequences.

To read the full article use this link.

10 Tips to Prevent Morning Back Pain.

 Well, here we are in November already, with the spectre of Christmas looming ever closer. I thought we'd start this month with some practical tips to help us in our seemingly never-ending battle with backpain.

Here are 10 great tips posted on the living well.ca website which I thought you may find useful. Especially if you tend to wake up with a stiff or painful back. Simple stuff, but if adhered to regularly could be really beneficial. You can find them here.

One of the tips mentions stretches, to save you the trouble of finding the link on the site yourself here it is.