Back Pain Relief: What About Bed Rest As A Back Pain Relief Strategy?
December 18, 2007 · Print This Article
Health care practitioners that prescribe bed rest as a back pain relief strategy are idiots.
Yes, you read right… they’re idiots.
Look… physical activity is an important part of the functional restoration approach in rehabilitation medicine. A patient’s natural tendency, however, is to avoid any activity that reproduces symptoms. Although it is important to protect an injured tissue from further injury, complete bed rest to relieve back pain IS NOT the solution.
Yet, even today, some health care providers prescribe bed rest and inactivity as a first line defense against back pain. And the effects? Disastrous to say the least.
It has been proven, well beyond reasonable doubt, that bed rest or inactivity is not only a bad option in the treatment of back pain, but that it also aggravates many other medical conditions.
Complete bed rest is…
“a highly non physiologic and definitely a hazardous form of therapy, to be ordered only for specific indications and discontinued as early as possible.”
That was the conclusion of an article published in 1944 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Nevertheless, bed rest is, in many cases, the treatment method of choice for lower back pain.
But, compelling new evidence has created a complete shift in philosophy from an inactivity approach to an active approach in the treatment of back pain. Now, based on undisputable scientific evidence, it is widely recognized that rest and traditional physical therapy, in which patients receive passive treatment (such as ultrasound, heat, massage, etc.), are not very effective in the treatment of acute or chronic back pain.
Physical inactivity has several harmful effects:
- • Muscles, ligaments and bones weaken
• The spine stiffens and loses control and coordination
• Overall physical fitness deteriorates
• Patients become prone to depression and sensitive to pain
• Resumption of normal activities and daily routines become more and more difficult as time passes.
The current consensus is that inactivity is exactly the WRONG response to acute as well as chronic back pain. In patients experiencing acute back pain, my advice is for them to continue daily activities as much as possible. In chronic back pain cases, physical exercise can bring about some pain relief gradually, and the best results are obtained when a carefully designed functional restoration approach is followed.
The Erase Your Back Pain program utilizes the functional restoration approach in the treatment of the many conditions affecting the back. Find out all about this program here ⇒ No More Back Pain!
I welcome your questions and comments. Let me know what you think below.
Dedicated to Erasing Your Back Pain,
Malton A. Schexneider, PT, MMSc
Clinical Specialist
Orthopaedic Physical Therapist
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Mr Schexneider,
In an earlier post you said that asking questions is very important and I agree,this is a little difficult for me being an English speaker living in Spain.
I will keep my history brief. In 2001 I was diagnosed with “Two level disc degeneration with an L4/5 posterior focal disc prolapse” I am 44 years old and since 2001 I spend somewhere in the region of three months per year unable to funtion normaly i.e. I go to hospital on a stretcher they feed me intraveinous drugs to kill the pain then i will spend another month on the floor crawling to the bathroom. Taking Adolonta liquid and Diazepan when neccasary. Then a further 2 months slowly improving.
However I manage one way or another to get to the Chiropracter even in a wheelchair one year, i find the chiro helps but slowly.
The docs say i need an opp but will not do it until i say I can take no more pain.I dont want an op!
I think it is easy to say bed rest is no good but often its my only choice. I have friends with the same problem who find walking is their relief,but when i am in my accute stage i can not.
I am not overweight , i eat healthely and the months i am well i go to the gym 4 times per week.( I always do my back stretches every day)
This year it has now been 7 months with no relief, I take my painkillers, go to work ( if i can ) and when i come back i am straight on the bed in agony.
I am concerned i cant even walk around the shops with my wife.
So it does anoy me when people say almost as you have ” get up and get on with it ” !
So what do you suggest ? I dont mind buying your book but i am a bit fed up with the same old ” do these exercises, eat well, swim take a massage lose weight ”
I already do these things but I have a medically diagnosed (MRI) problem that will never go away ( in my non doctor opinion )
Question : Should i consider an operation ?
Is your system anything that I havn;t already mentioned ?
What is my way forward ?
Thank you for listening ( no one wants to hear about my back and i hate talking about it.
Tony
Tony,
Man, I really empathize with you. Sounds like life really sucks right now (that’s a clinical term, by the way).
Anyway, here’s the deal: There are 4 reasons why you would consider surgery.
1. You have intractable pain that interferes with your function.
2. You have failed all conservative measures.
3. You have frank neurological changes.
4. Medical emergency.- tumor, cord signs, etc.
From your description, you make a good arguement for satisfying at least 2 of the 4.
The MRI findings don’t necessarily concern me as 85% of people waling around with no pain have similar findings.
Should you have surgery? I would first consider epidural injections (you didn’t mention those). See my article on epidurals here: http://tinyurl.com/5dbgfe
Will my program work for you? Possibly. And if it doesn’t, at the very least, you’ll be a better surgical candidate. And if it does…
Well I anticipate you’ll be running with the bulls really soon.
Let me know if I can help.