4mo ago

What Works for Low Back Pain? Not Much, a New Study Says

www.nytimes.com Most Treatments for Lower Back Pain Don’t Really Work, Study Finds

Researchers looked at 56 treatments for acute and chronic pain. Few of them were effective.

"The researchers found that only one treatment — the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs, like ibuprofen and aspirin — was effective at reducing short-term, or acute, low back pain. Five other treatments had good enough evidence to be considered effective at reducing chronic low back pain. These were exercise; spinal manipulation, like you might receive from a chiropractor; taping the lower back; antidepressants; and the application of a cream that creates a warming sensation. Even so, the benefit was small."

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Lower Lumbar Spinal Stenosis here. Worst pain I've ever experienced. Worse than 2 heart attacks and open heart surgery. So bad that when I found out Dick Cheney had it, my response was "Oh, that poor man."
I spent a year on vicodin. The pain was always there, but it was like someone pounding on a door 3 doors down. I knew it was there, but I could ignore it.
Only thing that really gave me relief was taking a gallon of really, really cold water and centering the jug on my lower back.
Some stretches helped, this one felt really good:
https://youtu.be/dDR82tz36kw#t=2m48s
- When it first happened the doctor asked my pain level and gave me a look when I said "10." So I explained that I was doing everything I could to not be actively groaning/sobbing/screaming out loud because society reacts poorly to huge dudes behaving like that. That I'd spent most of the drive over screaming in my car. That I'd puked a few times the night before from pain.
  I finally summed it up as, "if you tell me now that I'll still feel like this in two weeks, I will go home and kill myself. Because that's my estimate of how long I can endure this."
  Ended up getting into a physical therapist and eventually got cortisone shots. Fixed most of it, thank god
  
  Yup. My brain was trying to tell me that my spine was actively broken and that I could feel the broken ends grinding against each other. Just a ridiculous level of pain.
  
  I feel it. My back was spasming so hard that my right leg was an inch and a half shorter than my left because the muscles were cramped that hard and wouldn't release.

20 comments