Nearly everyone gets back pain at some point and for some people it can be so debilitating that it greatly diminishes their quality of life and their physical abilities.
As an Osteopath and Biomechanic for over twenty years, I’ve come to realise that most doctors, consultants and physical therapists tend to only treat the symptoms of back pain and have a limited understanding or interest in the actual root causes. I've also realised that a widespread lack of effective corrective techniques is leaving millions of people to suffer unnecessarily.
But, why should I know any better you might ask?
Well, as well as helping thousands of patients to overcome back pain in my clinics, I have also studied and written a book on evolutionary biomechanics, I’ve learned from and acquired unique techniques from masters around the world, I’ve worked in elite sport and I’ve lectured and mentored many therapists from a wide range of disciplines.
So, I’ve got quite a broad base of knowledge and a lot of experience in the subject.
“a widespread lack of understanding and effective corrective techniques is causing millions of people to suffer unnecessarily”
What not to do
The first thing to realise about back pain is that you’re not going to get help from your doctor. As great as they are with many things, they have little knowledge in this area and have very little to offer you. They’re not even supposed to prescribe painkillers anymore, as, since 2016, they’ve been considered by NICE to be more harmful than helpful.
The second thing to realise, is that most physical therapists tend to just treat the symptoms of your pain and that most don’t have the insight or techniques to identify and address the underlying causes.
For instance, most people referred by their doctor to an NHS physio will typically wait weeks for an appointment, just to have the painful area rubbed a little and be given a few palliative exercises. By that time, their body has usually already ‘locked down’ the area of pain itself. The person may consequently feel somewhat better, but they’ve done nothing to address the cause, so the pain is very likely to return another day in the same or a different place.
So, what are the root causes of back pain?
To properly understand back pain, you firstly have to realise that humans are mammals and that all other mammals are four-legged.
In a four-legged mammal the spine is horizontal and the discs between the vertebrae are therefore NOT weight bearing and weren’t designed to be.
By standing on two legs, humans have made the spine vertical and so, our discs bear increasingly greater loads as you go down the column, with the lowest discs being the most loaded and therefore the most vulnerable.
Of course, humans have been standing on two legs for some time, but evolutionary adaptations have yet to catch up with this vulnerability, so, over time, the load will gradually squeeze fluid out of the discs and soft tissues, making them progressively more brittle and prone to injury.
Historically, our previously active, outdoor lifestyles would have brought a full range of movement to our spines every day, helping to ameliorate the worst effects of the compression, but in more modern times our ever-increasing use of chairs, desks, screens and vehicles and our lack of activities that promote full-body movement, mean that our discs and particularly the lowest ones are now more vulnerable than ever.
So, without appropriate antidotal exercises, most people will inevitably get back pain.
But why do some people get it earlier than others?
Some people, in fact, lots of people, now get ‘early-onset’ back pain, which I would define as back pain that comes on before old age. For these people, they are usually dealing not only with the daily compression of standing upright, but also additional vectors of ‘postural’ stress.
Firstly, there are the additional postural stresses caused by sitting at desks and using screens. These are typified by a fixed rounded upper back, forward neck angle and rounded shoulders that itself puts great strain on their neck and mid back, but also adds an extension compression to their lower backs as their pelvis tips forward to maintain upright balance.
Such a ‘desk’ posture is now ubiquitous and whilst primarily caused by desks and screens, it is also exasperated by long periods of sitting, during activities such as driving, watching TV and even bike riding (which is great for your cardio-vascular system, but another completely unnatural fixed posture for your back).
A second additional vector of postural stress comes from your spine tipping to one side. Such left-right asymmetries are now extremely common, resulting in the lower spinal discs being not only compressed but also wedged, greatly increasing the compression and therefore dehydration and brittleness on one side and conversely, causing a bulge on the other side, making that side prone to herniation and sciatic pain (if the herniated disc pushes on the adjacent nerves).
Over the years, I have come to realise that these left-right asymmetries are usually secondary compensations for chronic inflammation in a person’s organs, particularly in their digestive system, liver, gall bladder and genito-urinary organs, which are now all under constant biochemical stress, mainly from toxins and our modern predilection for consuming processed food and drinks.
People usually don’t realise that their organs are inflamed because their body tends to wrap the area in protective muscle contractions to stop the organs being further irritated by movement. The secondary consequence is then compression of the whole area and the pulling of other structures towards it. This typically compresses the ribs, pulls one shoulder down and pulls one pelvic bone up, resulting in a shortness of one side of the body and so a left-right asymmetry.
In the lower limbs, this asymmetry can look as though the person has a leg length difference and indeed ‘functionally’ they do. It results in their lower back tipping to the shortened side, (creating the dangerous ‘wedged disc effect’) and their gait becoming unbalanced and inefficient, eventually putting increased strain on their hips, knees and ankles and making their walking and running increasingly more inefficient.
Back pain is the consequence of allowing compression to build
So, any person who does not do enough to regularly decompress their spine, who spends a lot of time sitting or using screens, rides a bike for exercise and/or regularly eats and drinks processed foods, is ‘highly likely’ to already be well on the way to getting, or is already experiencing, progressive back pain.
So, what can you do?
Firstly, act now. Don’t wait for the first or next acute episode. It is ten times easier to stop back pain happening than it is to fix it afterwards. All the signs of impending back problems are there if you know what you’re looking for. Compressive areas, asymmetries and inflexibilities all tell the story of how vulnerable you are and how soon you’re likely to have problems.
Secondly, as I said before, avoid doctors and physical therapists who only treat the symptoms. And, if you do find a therapist who properly identifies your biomechanical vulnerabilities, you still also need one with the techniques to correct them.
In my practice, I regularly see clients who still have left-right asymmetries (e.g. leg length differences) despite having already seen countless therapists and consultants. In some cases, their asymmetry was identified, but rather than correct it, the therapist gave them orthotics to put in their shoes, which only serves to throw the stresses somewhere else.
In ninety percent of cases, I can use techniques I learned from a master of Sai Tai in Japan, to correct left-right asymmetry in a few sessions and then show a client how to maintain it. Once pelvic symmetry is maintained, these people then rarely have the same susceptibility to future back pains.
But that’s not the end. Having given clients a clear understanding of their own body and its vulnerabilities, most are then motivated to go even further and reclaim other physical abilities, usually regaining levels of wellbeing that they haven’t experienced for many years. In doing so, they become part of what I call the ‘0.1% club’ of people who are getting physically better every day, rather than the other 99.9% who are getting steadily worse.
If you would like to check how your body is doing, address a recurrent back issue or simply explore your physical potential, then you can book an appointment with me by emailing me at mark@lightpractice.co.uk
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