Stop "mistreating" your back pain

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What is the right treatment for your back pain? Unless the treatment matches the condition, you can do more harm than good. What you need to know — and do — to get healing relief. Dear Kelley, "Oh, my aching back!" Even if you've never said it, odds are you will. Back pain is one of the most common painful conditions men and women face. When it occurs, you want relief. You want the aches to stop and your life to start again. The good news is that thanks to pioneering advances, treatment for low back pain has undergone changes — changes that get people back on their feet sooner and that help prevent back pain from returning. As treatment options expand, though, it's important to choose the therapy that's appropriate for your specific problem. If the treatment doesn't fit the injury, recovery can falter or fail. In Low Back Pain, the doctors at Harvard Medical School explain why backs hurt, the factors — from gender to genes to stress — that can increase risk, the keys to accurate diagnosis, and most important, how you can quell pain and promote healing. With back pain, the advice to "keep calm and carry on" is almost always wise. Take time to assess your options. But that doesn't mean doing nothing. There's much you can do to ease the aches and speed healing from the start. The report will inform you about your choices in pain relievers, advise you on seeking professional advice, and explore which treatments offer the greatest help for sprains and strains, for disk disease, spinal stenosis, fractures, and other less common back problems. Low Back Pain will tell you which backaches are likely to get better without medical intervention. You'll learn the difference between acute and chronic back pain. The report will introduce you to a complementary therapy that can speed recovery from short-term pain, a combination treatment for chronic pain, four simple lifestyle changes that can help keep back problems from recurring, and more. Plus, the report will candidly brief you on today's surgical options for repairing a herniated disk or addressing the pain of stenosis with spinal fusion surgery. You'll learn about microsurgery techniques that lessen complications, about the future of artificial disks, and what questions to ask yourself — and your doctor — before deciding on back surgery. Don't let back pain sidetrack you! Order your copy of this Special Health Report now! To your good health, Anthony L. Komaroff, M.D. Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School Editor in Chief, Harvard Health Publications

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