Why Is Your Back Still In Pain?
Back pain is one of the most common reasons why you might visit a physio clinic. Your back, although being a very strong and resilient structure, needs to support heavy weight (e.g yourself - not calling you fat) throughout your lifetime. However, back pain affects almost everyone at some stage of their life. The reason might be as simple as you “moved the wrong way”. A patient of mine was literally making the bed, pulled the bedsheet when bending over, and her back gave away. There are also more serious cases where the back was exposed to excessive load and fatigue at a given time causing a strain in the lower back muscles - ie. a heavy deadlift pull gone wrong.
Is your back damaged for life?
Most likely not. Your brain is a powerful tool that receives and processes information presented to you. When you listen to your treating doctor, read the results from a recent back scan, scroll through tiktok/instagram videos, hear about the different types of back injuries that your relative or friend has had, a giant load of information will flood your brain.
Brain and Pain
Why am I talking about the brain in a back pain blog? Here's the thing, your brain shapes your beliefs, and your beliefs shape your perception and how you view the world. In this case, “the world” being your lower back that is NOT broken and is VERY LIKELY going to heal within time. If you’ve read this far, I’ve got an exercise for you, and it's completely free of cost. I want you to start repeating this in your mind, in a loop, everyday, 3 sets of 10 repetitions of “My back is going to heal”. Having a healthy mindset is the first step to successful rehab, followed by proactivity.
The effects of misinformation to perceived pain
Here’s the good thing, just because you have back pain it doesn't mean that your back is structurally damaged. 9 out of 10 times, the scan results that you receive after having back pain isn’t necessarily the true cause of your symptoms.
Yes, although the scan tells you that you have a bulging disc, it might not be the reason why you are in pain at the moment, you might have developed that bulging disc 10 years ago when you and your mate James went to the pub, got piss drunk and fell off a tree. Yes, there is a disc bulge, but again, it might not provide clarification as for the past 9 years and 350 days, you have not had a flare up this bad. Your body does not decide to flare up for no reason.
Finding The Cause
The cause of your current symptoms could be from a multitude of reasons such as sitting down for 10 hours everyday without a break; recent changes in jobs leading to mental stress; an increase in workout intensity, leading to increased physical stress.
Your Physiotherapy in Merrylands is here to help.
In Physiotherapy, most practitioners now focus on the biopsychosocial model to analyze pain. This means that Physios recognise pain to be multidimensional amongst physiological, psychological and social factors that reciprocally influence one another. It helps us build a clearer clinical picture, and helps us find the most adequate route to help with your recovery.
Your Physio in Merrylands is well versed in finding the true cause of your back pain, and guiding you through the rehabilitation process. We adopt a hands on approach with pain education to help you build lower back strength and resiliance. If you would like your back pain to be assessed, treated, and also have the goal of preventing future flare ups, give us a call or book online.
Best regards,
Physio Solutions Merrylands
Read about our other blogs related to the lower back:
Back pain, surgery vs no surgery outcomes: https://www.physiotherapysolutions.com.au/blog/all-you-need-to-know-about-lumbar-spinal-stenosis
Acute locked back: https://www.physiotherapysolutions.com.au/blog/acute-locked-back
References:
Dijk, H., Koke, A., Elbers, S., Mollema, J., Smeets, R., Wittink, H. (2023). Physiotherapists using the Biopsychosocial Model for Chronic Pain: Barriers and Facilitators - A Scoping Review
Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9861865/
Hall, A., Bassler, K., Thorne, B., Maher, C. (2021). Do not routinely offer imaging for uncomplicated low back pain
Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5498797/
Louw, A., Puentedura, E. (2017). A clinical perspective on a pain neuroscience education approach on manual therapy.
Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5498797/
Therapeutic Neuroscience Education.
Retrieved from: https://www.instituteforchronicpain.org/treating-common-pain/what-is-pain-management/therapeutic-neuroscience-education
