LIVING WELL By Winfred B. Abrams, Jr., MD
Back Pain Advice From an Expert These exercises should be continued 2–4 weeks past the point of return to normal activity and considered for lifelong incorporation into your health fitness routine. Reducing the work frequency and routine, including weightage, by 50% or a nonpainful level is recommended. The intensity can be gradually increased during each activity session over two weeks back to 80%–100% if tolerable. Avoiding activity that is extremely painful or whereby pain can make exercising unsafe should be avoided during this transition period.
WHAT TO DO IF BACK PAIN IS INTERFERING WITH YOUR WORKOUT? Back pain, also called dorsalgia or lumbago, afflicts 80%–85% of the US population at some point in their life. Back pain can be acute (less than 30 days), subacute (30–90 days), or chronic (greater than 90 days). How long the pain has been present may determine what one should do. If the pain is less than 30 days and is not severe or progressively worsening, then home remedies are reasonable. This may include a multi-faceted approach to include non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs), acetaminophen (Tylenol™), icing 15 mins on and off for pain and spasms,
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topical analgesics for local pain control (e.g., Biofreeze ™, IcyHot ™, or Aspercreme ™ gel, creams, or patches). You should be cautious of Tylenol ™ if you have known liver disease and NSAIDs if you have renal disease or a history of increased risk of bleeding. Consult your primary care physician before using these if you are unsure, and of course, avoid these medications if you have allergies to any of them. In addition, home exercises to stretch the back muscles and strengthen the core are also helpful, and websites such as the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) or the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) back rehabilitation programs are excellent.
If you fail to improve after 30 days of home conservative therapy, then consultation with your primary care physician is reasonable as you may need a referral to an Orthopedic Surgeon, Sports Medicine physician, Physiatrist, or Spine Interventionalist. It will help your physician if you document all the home remedies you have tried, what has helped and what did not help, how much each remedy helped, and how often and for how long you used or performed each remedy. WHAT TO DO IF YOU WAKE UP WITH A STIFF BACK? Back stiffness can have many meanings to regular people as opposed to what a physician considers back stiffness. In general, back stiffness refers to limited mobility and/or range of motion of the waist, and may or may not improve as the day goes on. This can be due to many causes such as arthritic conditions that
Dr. Abrams is a fellowship trained interventional spine specialist with OrthoSouth who sees patients at the group’s Briarcrest Ave. and Southaven clinics. He completed his fellowship in Pain Medicine at Hershey S. Milton Medical Center at Penn State Health and his surgical residency at Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University-Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. He is a graduate of UT Health Science Center in Memphis. In his free time, Dr. Abrams enjoys riding his motorcycle, playing basketball, and competitive shooting.
