Do you suffer from back pain? If you do you are in good company, in-fact experts estimate that as many as 80% of us will experience a back problem at some time in our lives. Starting with school aged children and peaking in adults 35 -55 years old, we are spending a whopping 50 billion dollars a year on back care alone!
So, why are so many of us experiencing the pain and discomfort of back problems? There are several reasons including: poor sleeping habits, old injuries, accidents, genetic issues such as scoliosis, arthritis, your work -sitting too much or lifting heavy items, being overweight, and lack of regular exercise.
Conventional back care therapies include pain medication, injections, surgery and physical therapy. While these therapies have some value, they all have their pros and cons. Pain medication and injections offer pain relief but just mask symptoms and can cause serious side effects. Physical therapy, while providing a good means of addressing back issues can be limited by what the insurance company deems necessary, not necessarily what the patient needs to complete their care. Surgery is usually the last resort for many people as it is very expensive ($10,000 for a disc procedure and up to $65,000 for a spinal fusion) with one out of every two surgeries failing.
A form of therapy called Decompression Therapy has been gaining some popularity with Chiropractors. In this technique a machine is employed to unload or "decompress" the spine. Decompression therapy has been shown to be effective in up to 80% cases, but can require many visits each week to your doctor, with an average total cost of approximately $3500 to $6000 for a 4-6 week course of therapy. Continued care after the initial treatment period is required in many cases.
An emerging field that shows great promise for back problems is yoga therapy. For the last few years Chiropractor Rick Harvey, D.C. and Yoga Teacher Howard VanEs, ERYT-500 and founder of www.letsdoyoga.com have been studying and refining the specific application of yoga to back care issues.
According Dr. Harvey, "The benefits of using yoga for my patients are tremendous. My patients are seeing immediate relief for acute back problems as well as long term relief for chronic issues. We show them how to do the postures in our office - designing specific postures to address individual needs. Once learned, patients can do the postures at home, which empowers them to positively impact their own health without the need for drugs or costly treatment programs. Returning to an active lifestyle/work is achieved much more rapidly with the patient having more control and assuming more responsibility for their own health."
Dr. Harvey and Howard VanEs both caution that doing the wrong yoga postures, or postures improperly can worsen a problem. It is essential that specific postures are applied to specific back care issues.
Dr. Harvey and Howard VanEs, M. A. are offering a Yoga Therapy Training through www.Letsdoyoga.com in January which includes a major component on yoga for back care.
