Back pain advice

According to consumer research by the British Chiropractic Association, 25% of those questioned felt that driving was one of the factors affecting their posture.

Follow these top tips from the British Chiropractic Association:

• If you share a car, adjust the seat position to suit you each time you get in.  
• The back of the seat should be set slightly backwards, so that it feels natural and your elbows should be at a comfortable and relaxed angle for driving.
• Your hands should fall naturally on the steering wheel, with just a slight bend in the arms.

Holidaying is one of our favourite pastimes but for back pain sufferers, discomfort while on holiday can put a dampener on the fun.

We all need a holiday to recharge our batteries, but with back pain affecting almost 80 percent of us at some time in our lives, a combination of hectic preparations, uncomfortable journeys and emotional stress can mean that travel takes its toll on the back.

Courtesy of the Mail Online

Back pain drives 2.6 million adults to visit their GP in the hope of something to relieve their suffering.  But what works? Last month, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) issued new guidelines on treating chronic lower back pain, setting out therapies available on the NHS. For anyone with back pain, there is only one question: what are the most effective ways to treat the problem, whether you get the treatment on the NHS or privately?

Core-stability exercise is endorsed by everyone from celebrities to physiotherapists, so there has never been cause to question its wisdom. But the beginnings of a backlash have started to appear....

Article courtesy of Times Online

Specifically for health professionals

If you are considering venturing into private practice, have you thought about all the practicalities? Piers Spencer, an osteopath with a thriving private practice in south-west London, offers his top tips on how to succeed.

Your body is a complex and interlinked system where every part is connected to another. Our health and mobility is therefore ultimately integrated and not indvidualised.

Research has shown that acupuncture treatment can help back pain: inserting needles just below the skin makes the body produce endorphins (natural pain relievers). It’s also said to stimulate the immune system and other functions in the body to promote healing. The choice of acupuncture points will be specific to a patient’s needs, and the needles are left in for varying lengths of time, usually around 10-20 minutes.

Straighten UP UK is an exciting programme from the British Chiropractic Association (BCA) in the UK, designed to improve posture and help prevent back pain by promoting balance, strength and flexibility in the spine.

To celebrate its 40th anniversary, BackCare, the Charity for Healthier Backs, has published 40 tips towards a healthy back. BackCare's mission is to reduce the burden of back pain by providing information and supporting people in controlling back pain.

Chiropractic is a holistic, non-invasive approach to health, it does not involve drugs, injections or surgery. The word 'chiropractic' comes from the Greek meaning 'treatment by hand'.

Is your life or the lives of your patients ruled by back pain?  Are you looking for a natural way to ease the pain?  Fed up with superficial treatments which barely touch the surface of the problem?  - Heat Therapy is well established as a proven means to ease pain and to help the body heal.

IDD Therapy is the name given to a non-invasive physiotherapy regime, delivered by the Accu-SPINA system. IDD Therapy created a new category of treatment for back pain referred to as non-invasive spinal decompression.

Around one in ten people will have pain in their thoracic spine at sometime in their lifei, a lot fewer than the number of people who get neck pain (around five out of ten). And a great deal fewer than the number of people who have pain in their lower back (nine out of ten).

Back pain is very common: it effects 7 out of 10 of us at some time in our life and is one of the main reason for sickness and absence in the UK.

Mr Colin Natali, the Medical Director of back2normal, a specialist clinic for patients who have neck and back pain, and a leading spinal surgeon, lends his experience to offer his top tips for looking after our backs while in the garden.

Cervical, thoracic and lumbar facet joint injections/blocks
By: Dr Chris Seifert FRCA and Dr Dominic Aldington FRCA, Consultants in Pain Management

By Dr Mark Atkinson, Integrated Medical Doctor www.drmarkatkinson.com

So if, as Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale says, a princess is unable to get a good nights sleep because a pea has been placed under 20 mattresses, piled high how are us mere mortals with back pain meant to get a good night sleep!

Complementary and Alternative therapies like hypnotherapy are becoming ever more popular. There are many reasons for this but perhaps the main reason, as much as the actual treatment itself, is the extremely therapeutic benefit of having one-to-one sessions with a person who gives you their undivided attention, with whom you can relax and be at ease, and to whom you can say as you please in complete confidence without burdening your friends, family or carers...

Sitting in front of a computer for prolonged periods of time can cause or augment lower back or neck pain, so take a moment to read our experts’ top tips.