Back injury Talk - main page
Treatment for back pain varies
DORENE WEINSTEIN
dweinste@argusleader.com
Article Published: 03/6/06, 2:55 am
Treatment for chronic back pain is as unique as the person experiencing it.
That's because a body's response to long-term pain produces physiologic changes, says Brian Wienk, a physical therapist at Avera McKennan Hospital. Pain receptors go into over-drive, and receptors that didn't experience discomfort morph, increasing the patient's perceived pain.
Medication, nerve blocks and surgery are common back pain remedies with treatment coming in different combinations that sometimes don't work at all.
Jeanine Valentine has suffered from back pain for 14 years, taking medication and undergoing several surgeries. She shunned exercise during most of that time, until now.
"I'm hoping to keep (my back) from getting worse," Valentine says.
She recently finished a course of treatment at the Avera McKennan Behavioral Pain Management Program where physical therapists taught her the correct way to stretch.
"We educate patients and use exercise to help decrease their symptoms," Wienk says. "Gentle movement heals. We get them moving in a pain-free way so they can get back to work and recreation."
Valentine was frightened when introduced to the balance ball, a large inflated beach ball-like piece of equipment.
"I wanted nothing to do with it," she says. "I had a fear of falling."
But she stuck with it. "The first time all I did was sit on the ball holding on to a table," Valentine says. "When we were through, I could do some exercises on it and stand."
Now she works on the balance ball twice a day to strengthen her core muscles. Valentine walks regularly and plans to use the swimming pool in her apartment complex when the weather warms up. She paces herself, uses breathing techniques and has built-in rest periods during the day.
She's more active now than she has been in 10 years.
To preserve a healthy back, maintain flexibility and increase endurance, experts say. Strengthening and preventative care can protect a back against injury.
"The best way to strengthen back muscles is in a static position, You maintain the position of the core while moving other parts of the body," says Verle Valentine, a sports medicine physician with Sioux Valley Clinic who is no relation to Jeanine.
Use a balance ball for stability exercises, do opposite arm and leg exercises and bridge movements to improve the strength and endurance of the muscles surrounding the spine, says Mark Shane, a fitness specialist at Avera McKennan Fitness Center.
By piggy-backing exercises and starting with the upper body working down to the legs, the muscles around the spine are exercised gently to help increase spine stability, Shane says.
Before starting a new exercise program, people should consult their doctor, particularly if they experience back pain.
Shane outlines an order for working parts of the body: Do chest presses, shoulder work, lateral pull downs first and then biceps and triceps, transition to leg presses or squats, then do leg curls and extensions. Do core or abdominal work after that.
Do the exercises slowly, using good form. "These exercises don't fatigue the back but work it and then isolate the (back muscles) at the end," Shane says. "Use pain as the guide. You're never at the point of pain."