MAINSTREAM MEDICINE HAS FAILED PEOPLE WITH CHRONIC BACK PAIN

By: Dr. Donna A. Pontoriero, Chiropractor

Lower back pain is one of the top reasons people go to the doctor in the US, and it affects 29 percent of the adult Americans, according to surveys. It's also the leading reason for missing work anywhere in the world. The US spends approximately $90 billion a year on pack pain -- more than the annual expenditures on high blood pressure, pregnancy and postpartum care, and depression -- and that doesn't include the estimated $10 to $20 billion in lost productivity related to back pain.

Doctors talk about back pain in a few different ways, but the kind most people (about 85 percent) suffer from what they call "nonspecific low back pain." This means the persistent pain has no detectable cause -- like a tumor, pinched nerve, infection, or cauda equina syndrome.

About 90 percent of the time, low back pain is short-lived (or in medical lingo, "acute") and goes away within a few days or weeks without much fuss. Some patients do have subacute back pain (lasting between four and 12 weeks) or chronic back pain (lasting 12 or more weeks).

Chronic non specific back pain is the kind the medical community is often terrible at treating. Many of the most popular treatments offered by doctors for chronic nonspecific low back pain -- bed rest, spinal surgery, opiod painkillers, steroid injections -- have been proven ineffective in the majority of cases, and sometimes downright harmful.

Chiropractic care is an option that really works for low back pain.

Please contact our office if you would like further evaluation on your condition.

Dr. Donna Pontoriero can be reached at 299 Franklin Ave, Nutley NJ 07110, 973-235-9393.