Back pain can be felt anywhere along the spine, from the neck down to the lower back. For some people, intensity and location varies and arises spontaneously. Any pain which lasts for longer than 6 months is known as chronic pain, and sufferers end up going from treatment to treatment never finding a cure. 

Conventional Approach

If a doctor struggles to find suitable causes for your back pain, they’ll sometimes refer to is as ‘non-specific’ back pain. In reference to it’s seemingly mysterious origins. They conclude that the most likely causes of back pain are to do with structural abnormalities, mainly: 

• Slipped disk 

• Scoliosis

• Sprain (pulled ligament) or strain (pulled muscle)

• Bad posture 

• Old injuries

However, Countless Research Proves That Structural Abnormalities Do NOT Explain Pain 

Pain science has understood for decades that structural abnormalities, such as sciatica or a slipped disk, do not explain pain. In fact, degeneration of the spine is a normal part of the ageing process and many present the same deformities without any back pain. Likewise, the body only needs a maximum of 6 months to heal an injury, anything longer than that means there are other components being missed.

No Cure For Spinal Deformities Or Old Injuries

When examining an MRI scan of a patient's back, it seems a natural assumption to attribute back pain to any abnormalities found. So rather than examining the patient further, sufferers are left with an almost untreatable diagnosis. With no available cure for spinal deformities, treatments often only focus on pain management rather than recovery.

Conventional Treatments Overly Focus On The Symptoms Not The Causes

For chronic sufferers, it’s common for the following conventional treatments to be suggested. However, they overly focus on the symptoms rather than the underlying causes.  

• Surgery 

• Pain Killers (medications and injections)

• Change Bed Mattress

• Change Chair At Work

Alternative Therapies Are Great, But Are Also Limited 

Great treatments for any type of back pain are exercise, yoga, massage and physio. These modalities will increase mobility in the back and also relax the nervous system. However, it’s very common to jump from one treatment to the next, as pain always finds a way to come back.

Mindbody Pain/TMS

Just like our palms may sweat or stomach may turn when we’re nervous, the body is regularly creating physical symptoms due to emotional stimuli. As it turned out, pain is being created in our bodies due to:

• Personality traits burying emotions

• Stress From the Past

• Stress In The Present Day

This type of pain was called Tensions Myositis Syndrome (TMS), by the well known pain doctor Dr John Sarno. If you’d like to know more about the proven science behind TMS, read this article.

Continue Working On Your Lifestyle, But Examine Other Areas Of Health

You don’t need to stop improving your lifestyle through holistic modalities, these things are great. However the reason they seem to ‘stop working’, is because they only represent one part of the 4 Components To Healing.