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Start 2020 Pain-Free The Ideal Treatment for Low Back Pain
Patient of the Month! Anne Whittemore
Low back pain is by far one of the most common ailments ever experienced. Just about everyone deals with low back pain at one point in their life. For some, the lucky ones, perhaps, the pain is just for a day or two as a result of a particularly grueling day of yard work or a slip-and-fall accident that landed you flat on your bum with a bruise to prove it. For others, the low back pain is something that lingers for years and years, getting worse as a result of improper footwear or particularly unsupportive furniture, and never really healing or going away. It is estimated that one-half of all Americans experience lower back pain annually, and it is considered to be the leading cause of workplace disability worldwide—not just in the United States. It is also one of the most common reasons that people miss work, and is the second most common reason that people visit the doctor’s office. When you put those two facts together, the cost of dealing with lower back pain really starts to add up. The average annual cost of dealing with back pain in the United States is $50 billion dollars. Unfortunately, a lot of those financial resources go into dealing with back pain through pain management and medication, but that is not an effective long-term solution for dealing with back pain. A far healthier and cost-effective solution is through physical therapy.
Low Back Pain in the United States According to the National Institute for Health, the rates of low back pain have been steadily rising over the past 20 years. The study was conducted by medical researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Researchers consulted with members of the North Carolina community who experienced back pain to understand what caused their pain, how frequently they experience pain, and the severity of their pain. They found that the incidence of lower back pain has increased significantly since the last time this survey was conducted in 1992. The percentage of people coping with lower back pain increased from just over 3 percent to well over 10 percent. This is a significant finding, especially when it was found that the increase in lower back pain remained constant across demographics. A further interesting finding is that of those who experience lower back pain, 84 percent opted to seek medical treatment to address the pain, which was an increase of more than 10 percent. This means that while more people are experiencing back pain, more people are also seeking treatment for that pain, though there is still an approximate 15 percent of the population who are coping with severe lower back pain without treatment. For those, seeking support from a physical therapist could significantly improve quality of life.
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