Back to the future

The article looks at the need not only to relieve pain but also to physically exercise to rebuild strength in an injured back. Let's get the pun out of the way and clear the decks for action. Backs help us stand up and move around. If they get injured, you need to know how best to cope if your back is to carry that body of yours into the future without you falling over. So what are the key words here? You have to understand what is happening to you physically. The old cliché is, "prevention is better than cure" - that means avoiding the injury in the first place or preventing it from getting worse. Then you have to find the best balance between self-help and treatment. As Charles Dickens says in the first sentence of David Copperfield, the question is, "Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life." You have the choices to make if your back is injured. You can either rise to the challenge or become an invalid. That sounds a bit harsh, doesn't it? But we need to keep this real. If you are injured, getting better is only the first step. Once back on your feet, you should be planning how to avoid future problems. Pain comes back. Those of you reading this may have back pain for the first time, or you may have been receiving treatment for years. Either way, you want the best chance of physical rehabilitation without the pain coming back. The most usual cause of back pain is in the disc between the bones making up the spine. Just think. If the spine was like a metal rod, there would be no more bending and twisting. The only flexibility would come from the hips. So we get the freedom of movement because the discs link up the column of separate bones and absorb the shocks when they move. If we fall or twist awkwardly when lifting, this can damage the disc. And here comes the problem. There's something wrong with the design. If you cut the skin, it heals. If you damage a disc, it does not self-repair in the same way. Because it does not fully repair, it's more easily damaged again in the future. Worse, because of the pain, we often do not do the exercises necessary to build up the strength to prevent future problems. Pausing here, that means there are two quite separate issues. The first is to manage the pain. The second is to have the will to work through the pain and build up strength. It's reasonably simple to address the first. Buy ultram. This is the standard drug used to control moderate to severe pain. Whether used on its own or in combination with another drug to reduce inflammation, the result is a significant reduction in pain. There are few side effects and, in most cases, ultram allows people to resume a reasonably normal life. Unfortunately, this is not enough. A "normal" life must include physical exercises to stretch, strengthen and condition the muscles of the back and body. In the early stages of rehabilitation, this causes some pain. You must persist and work through the pain to get the necessary protection against relapse.