Doctors not prescribing best meds for back pain
By Nancy Shute, NPR
The misery of low back pain often drives people to the doctor to seek relief. But doctors are doing a pretty miserable job of treating back pain, a study finds.
Physicians are increasingly prescribing expensive scans, narcotic painkillers and other treatments that don’t help in most cases, and can make things a lot worse. Since 1 in 10 of all primary care visits are for low back pain, this is no small matter.
What does help? Some ibuprofen or other over-the-counter painkiller, and maybe some physical therapy. That’s the evidence-based protocol. With that regimen, most people’s back pain goes away within three months.
But when researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston looked at records of 23,918 doctor visits for simple back pain between 1999 and 2010, they found that doctors have actually been getting worse at prescribing scientifically based treatments.
I wonder if its because most cases are to to a big belly?
How do you say/ Your fat! Do some sit ups.
having had a bad injury to my lower back when just a teenager and then 45 more years of life added (firefighting, horse back riding, child birth, and everything in between)I started to exercise to build my core back and ended up with a broken piece of herniated disk in my spine that pinched off my sciatic nerve completely. Within a month i was in so much pain and could hardly walk, or do much of anything unless I had lots of pain meds. Thank goodness for a great ortho dr. who was very straight forward and honest about all the things they could try to do to help but there was really only one solution for me and that was surgery. When i got out of surgery I could tell immediately that I was better and that it was the right solution for me. If i had to wait for three months trying this and that i would have turned into a drug addict. IM glad I listened to my Dr. and a year later im doing great!