According to a recent article, Americans are facing rapidly rising costs for healthcare and spending more money than ever due to back-related pain. Last year, $82 Billion was spent on treating low back pain and around 84% of people will suffer from some form of low back injury during their lifetime. These kinds of injuries can potentially lead to disability and time off from work, costing the employer significant money and increasing worker’s compensation rates.
Event though our focus at Tulsa Spine and Rehab is to help people who visit our office due to injuries, we also strive to educate our patients about prevention. People are increasingly trying to learn about what they can do on their own to stay out of the doctor’s office, since MRI and CT tests are so expensive. (Almost everyone is probably familiar with rising deductibles on health insurance plans).
Prevention primarily consists of activity modification, making better lifestyle decisions, and self-management strategies. Obviously, exercise and diet are also key factors in staying out of the doctor’s office. At Tulsa Spine and Rehab, we can assist with prevention and wellness with our naturopath, fitness instructor, yoga instructor, and acupuncturist. Our goal is to allow patients to maintain an optimal sense of health.
Patients experiencing low back pain can take the invasive surgical route, the pharmacological route by taking pain medications or muscle relaxants, or the non-pharmacological route of chiropractic care, physical therapy, yoga, massage, naturopathic medicine, and acupuncture. Multiple studies are released each year stating the effectiveness of these conservative low back pain treatments. Of course, there are major cases when the patient has a severe disc injury and surgery is unavoidable. When a conservative non-pharmacological route is possible, however, it is often the best solution.
Even if you are not injured, it’s key that you keep active on a regular basis. Our society is conducive to staying seated for long periods of time, which can set us up for failure and lead to injuries. We’ve discussed training movement and not muscle in a previous blog post. A qualified professional can figure out where the patient has any functional limitations and give an appropriate recommendation. There may be tightness in the hips or thoracic spine, or some weakness in the core. We can provide individualized strategies to manage these limitations and prevent injuries from occurring.
At the end of the day, a large focus at Tulsa Spine and Rehab is prevention. Even though someone may feel healthy today, lack of physical activity, increasing age, and lifestyle are all factors that can increase their likelihood of injury. The margin for error when it comes to improper movement diminishes with each additional risk factor. Prevention is easier than most people would think—it just takes a visit with a qualified professional who can equip you with a solid plan. It’s always better to prevent an injury from occurring than to treat an injury once you’re already in pain.
If you would like to investigate ways to prevent low back injury, contact us online today or give us a call at (918) 743-3737.
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