New Help for Aching Backs

Old advice: Pain pills, high-tech tests, shots, and surgery. The latest science: Harness your brain, lace up your sneakers, and go low-tech.

- Sari Harrar

After Marty Huggins fractured her lower back four years ago, she says she spent “two years lying on a fuzzy brown sofa in our family room. I was afraid I would hurt my back if I moved even a little.” The pain forced the 65-year-old from Stafford, Virginia, to retire from her job as a physical education teacher and competitive jump rope coach, and she stopped going to the gym completely. But despite countless visits to specialists, who performed tons of tests, gave her dozens of steroid shots, and regularly offered her opioid pain relievers, nothing helped.

What did it take for Huggins to finally tame her pain? She changed her brain.

She started by researching pain management programs and ultimately found the Chronic Pain Rehabilitation Program at the Cleveland Clinic, which was near the home of one of her daughters. Huggins enrolled in several classes on how the brain and body interact. She learned how to relax with mindfulness meditation and to tame her fear and anxiety about her back pain with cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). She also discovered the importance of good sleep and overcame her hesitation to start exercising again. Huggins even began taking an antidepressant, not because she was clinically depressed but because the medication helped turn down the volume on the pain messages sizzling through her nervous system.

“Now I hike Shenandoah Mountain. I go boating and fishing on the Potomac River with my husband and our grandchildren,” she says. “You really can calm your body down and change your brain to lessen the pain. I’ve never spent another whole day on that sofa!”