“My back hurts” is a regular complaint that I hear from patients, and it sounds simple. Even before I attempt to diagnose the cause of the pain as structural, digestive, or emotional, it’s crucial that I understand how long you’ve been suffering and what you have done to try to help yourself. And if you haven’t done anything, I need to know why. Everyone can suffer from back pain - even great athletes struggle with back pain.
I have learned that I have to listen to patients’ structural, emotional, and digestive issues to get to the truth of back pain. While there are thousands of studies on how nutrition impacts muscular function, very few health professionals have connected the dots from digestive function and nutrition back to back pain. In one study published by the Asian Spine Journal in 2014, 31% of women and 24.6% of men who were suffering from back pain also suffered from gastrointestinal complaints such as abdominal pain or food intolerance.
Who do you think has more back pain and worse posture: The farmer, who spends his day plowing a field and shoveling manure, or the office worker, who works at a desk for eight hours a day? The answer - most likely, the office worker.
After working with back patients for about 20 years, I have discovered why many patients don’t achieve back pain relief or perfect posture. To fix back pain and correct your posture, I have to focus on a patient’s structural, emotional, and digestive issues to get to the truth. Unfortunately, most doctors don’t pay attention to what the rest of the body is telling them about a patient's pain. A single-approach structural treatment plan may apply if a patient is a certain type of back pain sufferer, but may not work if an individual is a different type of back pain sufferer. In today’s post, we will focus on potential structural issues that are causing your back pain and poor posture.
