Hi guys, thanks for providing this service.
I’m trying to help my mother out with some very long term low back pain. She’s now 73, but back a good 30 years ago she hurt her back at work and was told that she had slipped a disc. She’s had fairly consistent pain since then, which she’s tried to manage with pain killers and rest. Unsurprisingly this hasn’t worked.
Unfortunately, the narrative she’s been fed over the years conforms exactly to what you’ve told us to avoid. She’s fragile, needs to rest, lifting could make it worse etc. She had an mri some years ago showing degenerative disc disease, which compounded matters. She also sees a chiropractor who does manipulation on her. It does relieve the pain, but only for a week or two…
I think I have a decent understanding of the information you put out and want to help her out. She enjoys being active, walking and swimming, but can only manage these for a short time before pain sets in.
I’ve tried bringing up the information from BBM, but was met with some skepticism. I think reversing all these years of negative reinforcement will be quite challenging, but I want to try.
We are in the UK and here the NHS is held in high regard. Something I’m having a hard time explaining to her is why what I’m saying is right, while the NHS is wrong. For example, the NHS website lists bulging discs pressing on nerves as a common cause of back pain and that spinal manipulation is a normal treatment. I know that the evidence for these is bad, but why then are they on the NHS’s website?
Do you have any suggestions for what I can say to explain these kinds of discrepancies between modern research and medical practice? Is it just that they are slow to adapt?
Are there any prominent medical bodies that have adapted to the latest research? I’m just trying to think of things I can use to help me convince her. Wish me luck!
Many thanks for your help.