Dr. Allan Horowitz, published newspaper article, The Liberal, Copyright March 27, 1987
QUESTION: I have had a bad back for close to 20 years. It really gets bad every three or four months and I walk in a stooped position for one or two days. Then I have about a week of low grade pain before I feel well enough to get active again. Even when my back is behaving itself I still feel that something just isn’t right about my back.
It feels ‘rusty.’ I know that back pain is common and I also know that you can’t really tell me what my problem is through the newspaper, but I was wondering if you might be able to offer me some suggestions as to what my first step should be to find out what is wrong.
Should I go to a chiropractor first? Do I have to be sent by my doctor? Should I see a specialist? My wife has arthritis and she tells me that I should take her arthritis tablets, as they really seem to help her. Any help would be appreciated.
ANSWER: I wish I had a dollar for every time a patient told me this same story. Back pain is an extremely common complaint in the 1980s. Modern man and woman spend more time than ever sitting at desks and in cars, and less time exercising than ever before. People are in worse physical condition than ever before. These factors are the primary causes of most common lower back complaints.
Your history is typical. I have never met you but I bet I wouldn’t be far off if I constructed a mental picture of your life. You are probably 40 to 50 years old. You probably need to lose about 20-30 pounds, mostly around the “mid-section”. You work in an office or in sales or some related job where you must travel a great deal in a car or sit at meetings or behind a desk.
You work hard and like to relax when you come home. Relaxing for you means eating dinner, reading the newspaper, and falling to sleep while watching television. On the weekends you might clean your garage or basement, cut the grass, wash your car, or play a bit of golf or tennis. You sleep in a bit on the weekends. You get six to seven hours of sleep during the week. You wake up stiff every morning and it takes you about 20 minutes of movement before you feel loosened up. Sitting for long periods of time bothers your back – so does long drives, standing in one position or bending for a long time.
The day after the physical activity your back hurts more than normal. When your back ‘goes out’ you can usually trace it back to some seemingly insignificant incident such as bending to pick up a pencil, putting on your shoes, or helping your wife lift the laundry.
Does this sound like you? I bet I am correct on most of them. You are a 20th-century man with a primitive back. You are asking your back to do too much for you. “Sit here and don’t move for four hours while I watch this opera. Twist to get into that new Japanese car I just bought. Bend so I can pull out all those stupid dandelions. Straighten out and help me carry that garbage bag out to the road. Bend like the books show you so I can shoot a perfect 18 holes of golf.”
Your back is not made of iron. It is made of muscle, ligament, tendon, connective tissue, bone and cartilage. These structures are strong but not invincible.
Your first step should be to tell yourself that are going to change your entire way of thinking about your health. Taking your wife’s pills will not cure your problem. You have to make an active decision to adjust the way you eat, rest, exercise, work, play, and live. A chiropractor can help you get started into your new lifestyle.
You don’t have to be referred to a chiropractor by your doctor. Ask a friend for a recommendation. (More people go to chiropractors than you might think!)
Your doctor also can give you some suggestions as to how you can clean up your act. If he can’t help you he will send you to the most appropriate expert who hopefully will be able to help. Notice the word is help, not cure. Don’t expect anyone to ‘fix’ your ‘rusty’ back. You must do it yourself, with just a little help from your friends.
Allan Horowitz, D.C., is a chiropractor and writes this public service column. He will attempt to answer readers’ questions on a variety of topics, including back pain, headaches, nutrition, sport injuries and preventive medicine.
Address your questions to Allan Horowitz, care of The Liberal, Box 390, Richmond Hill, L4C4Y6.