For A Healthy Back

Management of back pain involves taking care of the pain and reducing chances of recurrence.

- Dr Harvinder Singh Chhabra

Low back pain still remains a mystery for most people. It often starts without any warning and without any obvious reason, interferes with daily activities and a comfortable night’s sleep, and then just as unexpectedly the pain subsides. When in acute pain we desperately seek relief from the pain. But as soon as we recover from an acute episode, we tend to forget about the problem. Once we develop recurrent low back pain, we have to seek assistance time and again, to become pain free.

Back pain could be a manifestation of various ailments of the back. Pain is the essential mechanism for monitoring your back. Just as the temperature gauge in your car is an essential mechanism monitoring the function of the radiator cooling your engine, your pain is the natural danger signal that lets you know something is not functioning properly in your back. More pain usually means more strain, and it’s your cue that it’s time to intervene and take the stress off your spine. 

Back pain has achieved epidemic proportions world wide in the last two decades. Some statistics which indicate its wide spread incidence and prevalence are as under:

• 80 – 85% persons will suffer from a significant low back pain at some point of their life time.

• 70% of sufferers have a recurrence within one year of the initial episode.

• In US it is the second most common ailment after common cold.

• Back pain is one of the most common reasons people go to the doctor or miss work.

• It is the most common cause of job-related disability.

• It is responsible for the highest number of man hours lost in the industry.