I just recently became aware of a new magnetic stimulation therapy that may (eventually) help chronic pain sufferers.

I always seem to be pressed for time (and energy), but I wanted to post a brief note about it in case someone wants to check it out.

(If you decide to research it and can come up with something worthwhile, you can guest post if you like and include whatever links — within reason — you like.)

Anyway, this seems to be the real deal. The technique has already been used successfully for depression.

Static magnets, of course, have been used for centuries for various ailments, but this involves using electromagnetic pulses to alter your brain activity. It's called TMS therapy (transcranial magnetic stimulation).

The Food and Drug Administration has approved it already for depression, for those who don't respond well to medications. And researchers are studying its use for controlling acute and chronic pain, among other things.

It's still very iffy in my view, very new, and the whole idea of messing around with a person's normal brain activity ought to give the saner among us pause, but if it turns out to be safe, it just may hold out some hope for those for whom other strategies have failed.

As soon as I can find time to learn more about it, I'll try to update you, but right now, I have to go pay bills and do my physical therapy exercises.

I hope you are doing well, but if not, I hope you are getting well.

Best.

Sometimes back pain is due to weak abdominal and back muscles. As a consequence, many physicians recommend, rather than prolonged bed rest for back pain, light physical activity, sometimes in conjunction with pain relief medication and other proactive treatments.

While what is appropriate depends on the cause and severity of your condition, physical activity may not only provide pain relief, but may also help prevent future injury. Along with pain relief medication, many physicians and therapists tailor individualized exercise routines to treat patients who suffer from various types of back pain.

A typical program may involve a variety of strengthening  and stretching exercises, as well as endurance training and targeting flexibility in problem areas.

The potential benefits of an exercise program for back pain may include immediate, short-term pain relief; stretching of tight, contracted muscles; strengthening of weak muscles; the reduction of mechanical stress on the back; stabilizing the back; increasing the ease and efficiency of body movements; and improving posture — all of which may help prevent future injury and future back pain.

A Basic Exercise Program for Back Pain Relief

A very basic exercise routine for coping with back pain involves strengthening not only the back, but the supporting muscles as well. If you have any other health problems, such as osteoporosis, a recent injury, arthritis or any other troublesome condition, start the exercises only after consulting with your primary physician. Even then, we suggest you begin as slowly and as gently as possible. (Note that when you exercise, it is very important to learn how to distinguish between pain and exertion. Pain is a signal from your nervous system that a certain activity is wrong or harmful for you in your current condtion. If you experience such pain when you're exercising, including back pain, you should stop and only try again with milder exercises that you find comfortable.)

These are mostly for lower back pain as that's the most common, but can sometimes help with many other, related problems.

Exercise #1 For Back Pain Relief:

Abdominal contractions: Find someplace comfortable, flat and firm. A carpeted floor would do fine. Lie on your back and bend your knees.  Place your hands below the ribs and tighten your stomach muscles. This is meant to squeeze the ribs toward the back. Be careful not to hold your breath, and try to keep your muscles contracted for about five seconds. Release and relax for about ten seconds. Repeat this exercise about ten times if you're up for it.  Otherwise, work up to that as you can.

The purpose of this exercise is to gently stretch your back muscles.

Exercise #2 Prevention of Back Pain:

Most health experts recommend you continue an exercise routine to keep your back strong and flexible even if you no longer have back pain. You will wish to choose exercises that align your body properly and thereby help to improve your posture. This is to prevent your back pain from recurring, or at least to reduce the risk or frequency of it recurring. One commonly recommended exercise that can help improve your standing posture is to "curl" against the wall: In a standing position, place your back against the wall with your heels about six inches away from the wall and bend your knees as you drop your head and shoulders.  As you pull your stomach muscles inward,. slowly roll up — envisioning in your mind that you are doing it one vertebra at a time — until your back is again flat against the wall. Repeat this exercise a few times, but do not work beyond your comfort level.

Exercise #3 Prevention of Back Pain:

Exercises that work the abdominal muscles are frequently a vital part of a physical therapy program designed to prevent back pain. One example, diagonal crunches, not only strengthen such muscles, they will also keep your tummy from sagging (if that sort of concern is important). Again, find someplace comfortable, flat and firm and lie on your back. Place your hands behind your head and bring your knees slowly to your chest. You want to cross your feet at the ankles and keep your knees at right angles relative to your waist. Exhale slowly while raising your trunk, first moving your right elbow as much as you can (without straining too much) toward the left knee. Then slowly lower your trunk. Repeat with the left elbow and the right knee. Repeat this exercise about ten times if you're up for it, or else try to work up to it after a few days.

Additionally, to improve your overall fitness, you may want to include some exercises for building stamina, such as aerobics. Make sure you have some conditioning and some flexibility before you start, and start slowly, and only after consulting with your primary care provider. This type of exercise can be rigorous and there is a significant risk of further injury if you are not careful. Be sure you always warm up your muscles cool down afterward. This is true any time you are preparing to exercise, and especially so for this more demanding type of exercise. Walking, for example, and bicycling, and swimming are all relatively safe and can provide excellent aerobic conditioning. But we do not recommend jogging. Unless you are of a very light build, it can damage your joints.

A variety of other exercises, therapies and programs, of course, are available to help alleviate, reduce and prevent back pain. Some of these programs are:

• Tai Chi Chuan

This is a gentle martial art form. It focuses on concentration for the mind while exercising the body. The movements tend to be slow and steady and relax muscles and ease tension. Some people with back pain find this technique very helpful.

• Yoga

Although already discussed in other posts, it bears repeating here. This is an ancient Indian tradition and it involves a very wide range of exercises that include postural and breathing exercises as well as mental discipline and meditation. Many yoga postures focus on increasing spinal strength and flexibility, which can provide back pain relief. According to some researchers, regular yoga practice can also stave off certain types of chronic back pain. Further, many yoga practitioners, including our founder, experience a feeling of deep relaxation and mental well-being after a good workout.

• Chi Kung

Also known as Qigong, this is is an ancient Chinese system. It focuses on breathing and posture as well, and also emphasizes the the mind, i.e., concentration.

• Feldenkrais Method

The goal of this technique is to improve the ease and efficiency of body movements by increasing your awareness of your body and your movements, as well as teaching you how to recognize and correct muscle tension.

• Buteyko Breathing Technique

This is a Russian therapy that involves slow breathing and holding the breath. Its practitioners claim that this technique can reduce muscle tension and thereby provide back pain relief.

We'll try to cover these techniques in more depth in a future post, but that's about it for now.

In summation then, exercise can be a vital component of an effective treatment program for back pain. Finding what's right for you and your condition should be your paramount concern. Consistently and safely strengthen your back, improve your stamina and fitness, and you may just discover one day that the pain is gone.

The back pain, as bad as it was, became a lot worse about ten or twelve years ago when I injured my shoulder. After considerable expense, my doctors finally concluded it was the combination of the shoulder injury and the back injuries they wanted to focus on. As neck surgery didn't look like too good of an idea, at least at that time, and as the upper back would've resulted in significant scar tissue without holding out the hope of helping just a whole lot, the decision was made to go after the shoulder and see where that took me. So I took my doctors' advice and had surgery on the shoulder, but now, about four years later, I can say, unequivocally, it didn't help. So, I have been doing medication, stretching, yoga, self-hypnosis, inversion therapy, etc., i.e., pretty much everything represented on this site and then some, ever since. And now, for the second time, I'm going through a physical therapy program. Sigh.

So that's a brief summary. Don't know for sure if or when I'll get that book written I promised here on the home page. Most days I just seem too busy, or in too much pain, to think very seriously about it. So if I don't, apologies to all who signed up for it. (I'm not saying I won't do it just yet; I'm just having my doubts; so feel free to go ahead and sign up if you want to.)

Anyway, a lot of what the book was going to be about wasn't just this or that therapy, or this or that solution, but about the mental and social and financial and career toll that chronic back pain can take, and how it can affect one's attitudes about life, about God, about the society one lives in and the people one lives with.

Although they say one sort of pain or another affects more than 76 million Americans, what they do not talk about so much is how isolating the experience can be, especially chronic pain. I can only speak from my own experience, but I've not felt much like going to parties and other social gatherings for years, and when I do, I often don't enjoy them very much because, sometimes, within an hour or so, I'm thinking more about lying down to cope with the pain or utilizing some other strategy. Breaking into a yoga or stretching routine isn't often very appropriate, and neither is inversion, so that generally means more medication than I should take, or even alcohol, neither one of those being a particularly good idea and a far worse idea if combined.

So I generally just pine for home, long for the moment when I will be able to lie the heck down! Needless to say, this doesn't exactly make one the life of the party. And of course this limits one's career as well, since it is hard to be up and positive and productive much of the time when you are hurting like hell, and still have 4 or 5 more hours of the work day to go. And of course there are those company-sponsored social events where the tuned-in and clued-in about how the work world really works, can schmooze and politic with the higher ups, which is about the last thing I ever felt like doing.

And of course the career impact combined with the medical costs takes a pretty big bite out of your finances, or at least it did for me. Of course, some of this is true of any illness, isn't it?

But finally, and perhaps the worst part of chronic pain, and I don't know for sure, but maybe chronic back pain in particular, is that nearly everyone has had one experience or another with it, and most of that experience has been temporary or minor or easily dealt with via exercises, medication, surgery, or whatever — and, to put it bluntly, a lot of the too judgmental type of folks seem to think you're just a whiner or a complainer, or are lazy, or are faking it. This is especially true if you have the kind of pain I have had.

What I mean by that, is that I can do just about anything anyone my age can do. I can trim the hedges, take out the garbage, lift weights, and so forth. What I cannot do most days is maintain that kind of activity, or even any activity that involves being vertical (rather than horizontal) for the length of a normal work day, i.e., even with the pain medications, on an average day, if I don't stop every two to three hours to do one sort of therapy or another, often the pain will get so bad that I will become nauseous and pretty much incapacitated.

Yet my neighbors and other acquaintances see me out and about. I go to the gym from time to time. I do a little work around the house from time to time, etc., and I've overheard, or been informed of, their comments, and I know some of them think I'm faking, or that I'm just a complainer, or just lazy, or whatever.

So it's not bad enough to have all this pain. I get to be judged as a slacker by a bunch of mostly healthy, mostly pain-free folks (and 'folks' is not what I sometimes would like to call them). It is very disheartening. It takes a mental toll, and it does make one feel rather isolated.

So in short, that's kinda part of what the book was going to be, or will be, about. Not all of it, but some of it. So if you are going through anything similar, don't make the mistake I did. I have tried, much of the time, to live with it, to endure it. And that was the wrong choice. Pursue whatever self-help you can that sounds reasonable and get your pain treated by a professional if you need it.

Because what I have learned over the years is that, when left untreated and unresolved, chronic pain can weaken the immune system, decrease the quality of life, and create feelings of anger and depression. It will lead to a deterioration of your relationships with others, and can result in a loss of much of your independence.

Trying to live with the pain, just endure it, was a huge mistake on my part. The fact is that most pain can be relieved with proper pain management, and early treatment is important.

So from now on, if the medications are not enough, and if even adding the inversion therapy, the yoga, the stretching and the physical therapy are still not enough, then I'm going to keep pursuing solutions to whatever extent I can afford it.

And that brings me to a final point. The truth is, I can't afford everything, and a lot of folks are worse off. I don't know about you, but my insurance premiums are through the roof, and keep rising every year like clockwork. Very soon, I may not be able to afford it — and the insurance doesn't really cover enough to suit me.

If I (and perhaps you) had lived in a society for all these years that offered universal health care for its citizens — as does every other modern, industrialized society in the world — just think how much human potential would not have had to be wasted! Just think how much American potential would not have had to be wasted! Just think how much more productive and creative the lives we might have led could have been! And that is the real cost of doing nothing, or of doing the wrong thing, when it comes to health care reform, all the wasted potential, our own as well as our country's collectively.

You would think everyone would understand that, but clearly, everyone doesn't. Anyway, what I'm getting at is that, though I know you probably are in pain and probably don't feel like it, please support health care reform, real reform, and try to find a moment to write or call or fax or email (or all of the above) your representatives in congress.

The Chinese have a saying (maybe it was Lao-tzu, or Confucius?), that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Well, it's been a thousand miles already, don't you think? It's time for everyone to pay very close attention to what our government is doing. It's time to demand real health care reform.

I'm not usually inclined to subject myself to the claim that back pain is "all in your head" as my experience has proven otherwise; however, I do know that my state of mind can make a difference. Much of my pain is muscular (due to inflammation from various injuries), and if I am tense or worried or upset for some reason (and it's an easy state to get in these days given the state of the world, this country and the economy, no?), I know my pain, or the perception thereof, can worsen.

So… having been reminded of this, and having already recommended BrainSync, I've decided it's probably appropriate to recommend another resource.

I've had some positive experience with this, so this isn't just out of the blue. Wendi.com now uses some of the same brain entrainment techniques, or at least similar, as those that BrainSync uses, and I have found her recordings very relaxing, and sometimes helpful with the pain.

There's a lot more available than just healing and back pain relief, some of which can also help with pain, such as sleeping better, losing weight, dealing with depression, etc., so I've decided to just link to the site rather than the specific back pain relief product. The site's fairly easy to navigate, so if you're primarily interested in back pain relief, you shouldn't have any trouble finding that or other related programs:

As for my situation, I may be headed for more surgery. It hasn't helped so far, but some technician thinks they've found something in my latest MRI. I'd hate to think that much of my suffering has been due to all those other technicians missing something obvious in the past, but whatever.

Anyway… I'll be headed to another doc soon for another evaluation, and if surgery is in the offing, I guess I'll consider it. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to dedicate more time and energy to this site one of these days…

Wish me luck, and of course I wish you much luck with your pain as well.

Richard D. Farley / Back-Pain-Therapy.com

Although given the camera angles, this video is probably more meant to be sexy entertainment than to help those with back pain, the movements shown do appear to be valid. Please be sure to consult with your primary physician first though about your condition before trying.

For many back pain sufferers, much of the pain is in the muscles. Muscles contract as a reaction to inflammation, causing pain and potentially leading to more inflammation. It can be a vicious circle, and — surprisingly to some — regular exercise can help.

Whether and how much this resource will be helpful to you, and what kinds of equipment and exercises may be most suitable, will depend on the type of back pain you have, the cause(s) of that pain, and the severity.

Foremost, you'll need to okay it with your primary physician, and as a back pain sufferer, you should take great care before beginning any exercise program or adding a new piece of equipment or set of exercises to your existing routine. There is no question that it is of utmost importance to be careful, but in spite of what Rush Limbaugh says on his radio show, study after study prove that people who may have an occasional minor injury while making a sustained and appropriate effort to stay physically fit are most definitely not the ones driving up the costs of medical care.

Every credentialed expert there is seems to agree that there is virtually no end to the potential benefits of being physically fit.

Even so, some people seem surprised that someone who has back pain should, or would want to, work out at all.

But they shouldn't be.

For back pain sufferers — actually, for nearly everyone — there are many benefits to a regular exercise routine that includes both aerobic and progressive resistance strength training.

Further, the right kinds of exercise can do more to help control pain than most people realize, and there is nothing any better than being fit. The right kinds of exercise are good for almost everything, improving the functioning of all your tissues and organs, increasing your energy level and improving your endurance, helping to fight off disease as well as many of the worst effects of our modern, stressful lives. Exercise gets blood and oxygen into your muscles where it's needed, and that helps clean out and metabolize toxins in those muscles that can be related to increased inflammation, which can increase your pain.

Additionally, sufficient exercise, of the right intensity and type, releases endorphins (your body's natural pain-killing opiate) into your system, helping to control the pain and helping sometimes to break the vicious circle of inflammation causing muscle pain, and that in turn causing more inflammation.

Finally, though just about everyone knows by now that exercise helps to reduce your body's overall fat content, not everyone yet realizes the extent to which high body fat has been shown in various studies to increase inflammation, i.e., again leading to pain.

So if you always thought you'd get fit just as soon as you got rid of the pain, you may need to re-think that strategy.

Here at Back-Pain-Therapy.com, we are particularly impressed with the quality of Nautilus and Bowflex equipment. Standard free weights are far more dangerous, take up more space, are a lot slower and more difficult to set up between exercises, and are much, much harder to manage in virtually every context. Further, most other home gyms and trainers we've tested don't even begin to compare to Nautilus and Bowflex.

But the qualify and durability of this equipment is not the reason we recommend aerobic and progressive resistance exercise as a resource.

So long as you okay it with your primary physician, and no matter what equipment you prefer to use, quite simply, and because it works . . .

. . . Back-Pain-Therapy.com recommends exercise as a back pain therapy resource.

Not so many years ago, yoga was not very well understood in the West.

Fortunately, today many in our culture have come to understand its many benefits.

Many practitioners say that a good yoga workout leaves them feeling more in harmony with life.

If you've never practiced or looked into yoga before, as a back pain sufferer you should keep in mind that there are several different kinds of yoga. Some practices may be inappropriate, or even dangerous, for those with certain conditions. We hope to be posting more extensively on these differences sometime soon, but meanwhile, we highly recommend viniyoga and strongly encourage you to learn as much as you can about the differences between the different practices before beginning any routine. You should also get the okay from your primary physician first, and even then, take it very easy on yourself, especially in the beginning.

Back-Pain-Therapy.com recommends yoga as a back pain therapy resource.

Some of our pain and how well we cope with it, and how well we heal, may have much to do with our state of consciousness.

Kelly Howell, the founder of BrainSync, has worked with eminent scientists, brain researchers and medical professionals for well over two decades now developing brain wave therapy programs. Based on biofeedback research, these programs assist in reprogramming the mind through the use of brain wave entrainment therapy. These programs are available on CD as well as by downloaded mp3 audio files through their web site.

Through soothing music, guided visualization, and harmonically layered frequencies, some of BrainSync's programs are specifically aimed at creating a healing state of mind.

Back-Pain-Therapy.com recommends BrainSync as a back pain therapy resource.