5 Myths About Low Back Pain
Let’s be real…low back pain sucks!
If you’ve ever had it, it can sometimes feel like you’ve really messed up your back. We see and hear and even experience all kinds of things ranging from
“it feels like my back is stuck”
to “it feels like my back is out of place”.
As a result of the sheer intensity of the experience and the fact that it is something so shrouded in mystery that the brightest minds haven’t been able to crack the cure, back pain has developed its fair share of myths. Further, with the advancement of technology we’ve been able to peer inside of the body and have a look for what we thought we’d be able to find…that elusive cause and cure for low back pain. However…this still hasn’t occurred, people still get low back pain and advancing technology has yet to really impact it in any meaningful way (this is not to say technology such as imaging doesn’t have its uses even in some cases of low back pain….it does, it just hasn’t changed low back pain, identified the cause, solved it, reduced the burden of it, or made it so we don’t get it). This does not mean we don’t know anything about low back pain, we do! However, to start learning we find it helpful to ‘unlearn’ some of the myths floating around that may in-fact be hindering your ability to understand and tackle your low back pain. The goal of this blog post is to help dispel some of the common myths surrounding this contentious topic and lead you to a path of being less wrong and more informed about your own pain. Being more informed can help you be less worried when you have low back pain, know what your options are, and ultimately conquer it to continue doing what you love.
Myth 1) Low back pain means something serious is wrong with my low back
98% of low back pain is not medically serious
The former statement is not to dismiss your low back pain in terms of how serious is feels and the level of impact on your function. It’s only to say that 98% of low back back will get better within 6-8 weeks and require no further medical intervention. Although it can feel horrible and lead to significant short term decreases in your function, mobility, and quality of life, it will likely get better on its own. Sometimes it can be helpful to troubleshoot this in a supervised setting with a professional such as a physiotherapist to give you movement options early on and also help rule out that other 2%, but you can rest easy that you’re unlikely to seriously injure yourself by staying active. In fact, it might be just the opposite….you might find that by staying active even if it hurts initially that you start to feel better and gain confidence.
Myth 2) Low back pain means there’s one thing causing my pain
There is no one single cause of low back pain
Rather, a myriad of factors seem to contribute to the experience of low back pain such as sleep, stress, worry, beliefs, nutrition, prior experiences, physical load, training volume, and much much more. This is different for everybody, but because it’s so multifactorial we can’t attribute it to one single cause. Sometimes people feel this is frustrating because there’s so much appeal to having one cause and one quick and easy solution. We try to view this more optimistically, in that multiple factors means multiple solutions.
Myth 3) Low back pain means that I need imaging for it to get better
Most of the time you don’t need imaging for low back pain
Unless certain red-flag signs or symptoms exist, imaging does not change the course of treatment. Many times we don’t know whether the changes seen on imaging were there before or after the pain arose. Therefore, It’s recommended to consult with a physiotherapist to rule out red flags and the need for imaging.
Myth 4) A disc bulge means I’m doomed to have more back pain in the future
A disc bulge is not a death sentence!
Disc bulges seem very scary, especially when compared to analogies such as the jelly coming out of your donut. However, this analogy is not terribly accurate or helpful. In fact, studies have demonstrated that disc bulges are prevalent in about 37% of 20 year olds and as high as 96% in 80 year olds who report no back pain whatsoever. The fact that these changes occur gradually across the lifespan means that disc bulges are somewhat like wrinkles inside our bodies. This does not mean a disc bulge is never relevant, it just needs to be put into the whole clinical picture alongside your story, movement tolerance, and goals. Further, even if your disc bulge is related to your back pain, it can recover more often than not and does not guarantee pain for the rest of your life.
Myth 5) I have a bad back or the exercise I’m doing is bad for my back
Back pain does not mean you have a bad back! No one exercise is inherently bad for your back either
To tell you the truth, having low back pain is more normal than not. Low back pain is very common and it would be unusual to never get it in your life, the world health organization estimated that ~60-70% of people will experience it in their lifetime! Although we have no truth of this…it’s commonly believed that this statistic might even be underestimated. Further, most activities are not strong predictors of low back pain on their own. There’s always more to it, such as the dosage of the exercise, other lifestyle factors, your training history, and other stressors in your life. In fact, we usually aim to get you BACK to the very thing that started alongside your back pain in the first place.
The take home message:
Low back pain can be very painful, and this has lead to many societally developed myths.
Debunking these myths can help us start to build a more correct foundation / model for low back pain.
Low back pain is rarely medically serious, is highly multifactorial, usually does not require imaging, does not mean you are doing something dangerous, and is very common.
Finally, changes such as disc bulges can be thought of as wrinkles in the body and a normal part of aging.
To learn a more correct model of what low back pain is, download our free PDF below