Back pain? Alternative therapies may help
(Health.com) — Trent Northcutt, 42, a corporate executive in New York City, had been suffering from lower back pain and leg pain for about three years, to the point that he was “cautious about picking up the simplest thing,” he remembers.
When he finally sought help, his doctor recommended acupuncture right off the bat. Northcutt ended up having six treatments over about eight months. Now, he says, “I don’t have any back pain at all. I’m 100 percent good.”
More than 26 million Americans ages 20 to 64 suffer from ongoing back pain, according to the American Pain Foundation, and it’s one of the top reasons people visit a doctor. But many of those millions also discover the painful secret about back pain: This common condition can be surprisingly difficult to treat.
The lower back is a complex spot, with many potential sources of pain. Although surgery would seem to be a quick fix, in reality about 85 percent of people don’t need — and won’t benefit from — back surgery, says Dr. Anders Cohen, M.D., chief of neurosurgery at the Brooklyn Hospital Center, in New York City.
That leaves plenty of room for alternative and complementary therapies, such as vitamins, acupuncture, and chiropractic therapy, that may help soothe the pain. “If I don’t see something unstable, something wrong with a disk or a bone, I use alternative therapies on a regular basis. It’s a central crux of my practice,” adds Cohen.
“There are some types of back pain that seem to be in the covering of the muscles or in the tissue connecting the muscle that are really difficult to treat,” adds Dr. James Bray, M.D., a sports medicine physician with Scott & White Healthcare, in Georgetown, Texas. “That’s where a lot of alternative therapies [such as acupuncture and chiropractic therapy] really excel.”
Acupuncture
One of the first and most effective recourses for people with chronic back pain is acupuncture. “We’ve had great success with acupuncture. It’s great for someone who gets pain that’s situated in the back or neck and is not radiating down the arms and legs so much,” says Cohen, who is a retired tennis pro. “I’ve had it myself, gotten up, and felt 75 percent better.”
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Glucosamine no relief for low back pain sufferers
New research leaves more questions than answers for those with chronic low back pain.
A study released Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests glucosamine pills do not provide relief for lower back pain. The study, conducted at Oslo University Hospital in Norway, looked at 250 people over the age of 25, with chronic low back pain who also had degenerative discs in their lower backs. Researchers gave half of the patients daily doses of 1,500 miligrams of glucosamine. The other half received a placebo.
Here’s what they found: there was little difference with patients who took glucosamine compared with those patients who took the placebo. Lead study author, Philip Wilkens, who’s also a research fellow at Oslo University Hospital, says “glucosamine is not going to help the patient better than the placebo…in terms of chronic low back pain.”
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