Back Pain Predictors and Hypnotherapy

BACK PAIN

Ron Eslinger
RN, CRNA, MA, APN, BCH
www.eslinger.net


During my many years of nursing and hypnotherapist experience I have provided care for a number of patients suffering from back pain. I am here to share some experiences and insight into back pain.

Back injuries are considered the nation's #1 workplace safety problem. Back injuries are often very painful and can be a long term or lifetime disability. It is expensive to diagnose and treat with over $6.5 billion spent annually. Research and studies consider many of the treatments to be inappropriate.

Two small well-designed studies about vertebroplasty done in 2009 and published in the New England Journal of Medicine found the placebo that was given to half of the study participants worked just as well as the vertebroplasty. My mother who had this procedure done resulted in a second fracture during the procedure which greatly extended her time of recovery.

The cause of most chronic back pain is misunderstood and because of this misunderstanding most current back pain treatment methods don’t work. Chronic pain can be described as pain that has existed for six months, but no one can find a reason for the pain. It is now believed by many health care providers that chronic back pain is not a result of an injury to the spine, but a response to beliefs and emotional attitudes.

Predictors
Chronic, disabling back pain occurs mostly in developed countries with high psychological stress and low physical stress. Even though stress-related chronic hack pain often begins with a physical injury, study after study has shown that STRESS is the most important predictor of who gets back pain. Evidence shows that people who have never suffered from back pain have the same sorts of spinal damage, deterioration and malformation in the spine as those who have pain. There are also those who suffer from back pain, however, have no clear abnormalities in their backs. There are also those people with back pain who suffer abnormalities that continue to experience back pain even after “successful” surgery or treatment. It is reported that 9 out of 10 back surgeries are unnecessary. There are also patients who have recovered from back surgery even when the surgeon found nothing wrong and just sewed them up.

I had a client who as a teenager fractured his back, was paralyzed and told he would never walk again. Fortunately the diagnosis was wrong and his paralysis went away and he recovered. Many years later he re-injured his back which resulted in disabling chronic back pain for over 10 years. When I saw him for Hypnotherapy he was on constant pain medicine, unable to sleep and could not work. In two hypnotherapy sessions he discovered how his pain was a way of protecting himself from becoming paralyzed as had happened when he was a teenager. His back pain went away when the stress and fear were controlled.

Possible Causes:
• Poor Posture/ Slouched sitting
• Tight Hamstrings.
• Weak Abdominal and low back (paraspinal) muscles.
• Standing, sitting, or lying down incorrectly for long periods of time and often leads to muscle fatigue and back pain.
• Deconditioning
• If your back muscles are weak, or if you have put on a few pounds, your back must work harder. This overwork can lead to back pain
• Tight and knotted muscles which are caused by tension and stress can cause muscle spasms and back pain.
• Impact Trauma
• Being in an accident, where your spine is injured, will produce serious back pain.
• Examples of impact trauma include, but are not limited to, falls, slips, being struck by materials or equipment, or being involved in an auto accident

Treatment
When muscles are not used they contract and tighten. Muscles need to be stretched; therefore, inactivity is the worst thing for a bad back. So get off the sofa!! Get out and exercise unless you are told differently by your physician. Even then, light movement should be considered. If impact activities are bothersome, try a bike, swim, stretch or elliptical trainers. Five aerobic workouts of at least 30 min/wk. are the American College of Sports Medicine (CSM.org) recommendation. This causes oxygen to flow into the muscles.

Conclusion
When chronic pain has not responded to traditional medical treatment consider the possibility of the triggering effects of beliefs and attitudes. Meditation, self-hypnosis, exercise and proper diet all contribute to chronic pain relief, especially back pain.

More information and other articles can be found at www.Eslinger.net