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All Back Pain Special Reports

9 Exercises to Strengthen Your Back

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Back Pain – Is It All in Your Head?

Johns Hopkins Health Alerts, www.johnshopkinshealthalerts.com
Is stress contributing to your back pain? Johns Hopkins explains how the 'fight-or-flight' response can lead to severe back pain … and provides techniques to help you relax. Could the day be coming when a person who complains of back pain be given a psychological assessment in addition to a physical one? … More...

Advice To Help You Get a Good Night's Sleep With an Aching Back

If you've ever woken up with an aching back after a night of tossing and turning, you know the value of a good night's sleep. On the other hand, if you've gone to bed feeling pain in your neck or back, you know how hard it is to get that good night's sleep. There seems to be a reciprocal relationship between sleep and pain. It's unclear whether chronic pain is caused by or is an effect of disturbed sleep. What is clear is that pain worsens when you are deprived of sleep. So it's essential to do whatever you can to make sure you sleep as well as you can. Here's some advice from Johns Hopkins. More...

A Back-Strengthening Program

Here are nine back-strengthening exercises you can do at home -- stretching and flexion exercises to increase flexibility, and extension exercises to strengthen the muscles needed to counteract the force of gravity. Most back pain is due to muscle weakness. Therefore, increased strength is the answer to almost every back problem. If you develop a back problem, chances are good that you will wind up on a regimen of daily stretching and strengthening exercises… More...

An Imaging Arsenal for Diagnosing Back Pain

If you have persistent or serious back pain, and especially if you are a candidate for surgery, your doctor may order one or more imaging studies to pinpoint or confirm the cause of back pain. These studies, each of which has benefits and limitations, provide a view of the bones and the soft tissues (muscles, ligaments, cartilage, tendons, and blood vessels). More...

Corticosteroid Spinal Injections for Back Pain Relief

Spinal injections can be an effective nonsurgical treatment for people whose back pain does not improve with medication or physical therapy. In addition, spinal injections are sometimes used in the diagnosis of low back pain. When used for diagnosis, specific areas of the back are temporarily numbed with injections of lidocaine, a local anesthetic. If the patient feels relief, the numbed area is assumed to be the source of the back pain. More...

Back Pain and Osteoporosis Glossary

Back Pain and Osteoporosis Glossary derived from The Johns Hopkins White Papers: Back Pain and Osteoporosis. More...

The Mind-Body Connection

Could the day be coming when a person who complains of back pain be given a psychological assessment in addition to a physical one? The list of potential triggers of back pain is a long one, including such factors as genetic predisposition, congenital malformations, and traumatic injuries. A growing number of studies affirm that the mind-body connection also plays a role in back pain, both in setting off an initial “back pain attack” and in contributing to ongoing chronic pain. More...

Self-Treatment for Back Pain

It is often difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of back pain because so many different structures can be affected. Fortunately, most cases of back pain do not need to have the cause identified and do not require medical attention. Fewer than 5% of people with back pain have a major medical problem that requires either intensive care or surgery. Because about 90% of back pain episodes clear up within six weeks with little or no treatment, people suffering from back pain can safely try self-treatment as long as they More...

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