Low Back Pain & Neck Pain
Problems with your back do not simply produce back pain or neck pain. Often they may cause symptoms in more remote areas such as the buttocks groin hips and legs commonly called referred to as sciatica. Problems in the spine and neck pain can also cause symptoms such as dizziness headaches clicking jaw pins and needles. Indeed research has shown that back pain and neck pain may affect over 80 per cent of the UKs population at some stage in their lives.
Osteopaths are professionally trained and skilled in diagnostics enabling them to differentiate between simple back pain and neck pain conditions and far more serious conditions that may mimic back pain. Around 30000 people currently
consult osteopaths every working day with more than seven million consultations carried out every year General Osteopathic Council the vast majority are for back pain and neck pain conditions.
NICE the National Institute of Clinical Excellence guidelines recommend manipulative therapies including osteopathy for the treatment of low back pain.
Your treatment
Osteopaths use a wide range of gentle manipulations depending on your age fitness
and diagnosis. Treatment is different for every patient but may include techniques such as different types of soft tissue massage and joint articulation to release tension stretch muscles help relieve pain and mobilise your joints. Sometimes when we move joints you may hear a click. This is just like the click people get when they crack their knuckles.
Keeping a healthy spine and joints
When young the body can adapt easily to the stress and strain it is put under. As it grows older over 25 years! it begins to lose some of the elasticity which gives the body the flexibility to cope and adapt. In particular this applies to the discs between the vertebrae and the joint cartilage. These require regular movement to ensure their maximum
range and thereby increase local circulation and nutrition to the surrounding fluids and tissues.
10 top tips for back care
1. Keep moving and stretching
2. Take regular exercise
3. Take frequent breaks between repetitive tasks and vary the rhythm
4. Change position avoid computer hump
5. Pace yourself when the work is heavy e.g. gardening
6. Adjust car seats and on long journeys have breaks and stretch
7. Watch childrens posture dont let them carry bags on one shoulder
8. Avoid strain when lifting especially when shopping and with small children
9. Is your bed the right bed or is it getting old?
10. Seek osteopathic advice earlier rather than later
Professionalism and safety
To qualify an osteopath must study for four to five years for an undergraduate degree. This is similar to a medical degree with more emphasis on anatomy and musculoskeletal medicine and includes more than 1000
hours of training in osteopathic techniques. By law osteopaths must register with the General Osteopathic Council GOsC. It is an offence for anyone to call themselves an osteopath if they are not registered.
