Back pain is the #1 reason for disability in the U.S. The cost is high enough to have Macro impact.
**[https://www.healthline.com/health-news/low-back-and-neck-pai...](https://www.healthline.com/health-news/low-back-and-neck-pain-top-us-spending-on-healthcare)**
**Why Americans Spend More on Back and Neck Pain Than Any Other Health Issue**
**by Christopher Curley, Healthline, March 3, 2020**
**...**
**From 1996 to 2016, back and neck pain were the costliest in aggregate, accounting for $134 billion in care paid out-of-pocket expenses as well as by public and private and insurance companies.**
**All told, treatments for lower back and neck pain cost nearly $77 billion by private insurance, $45 billion by public insurance, and $12 billion out of pocket by patients themselves, the new research from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) shows. ...** [end quote]
Musculoskeletal pain actually costs more than the next two costliest health problems, diabetes and ischemic heart disease. That’s kind of amazing, since the latter two are potentially fatal, while musculoskeletal pain just…hurts.
I’m sure that many (if not most) METARs have experienced back pain at one time or another. I have.
A new study shows that “graded sensorimotor retraining” (teaching people how to move and then telling them to exercise for 30 minutes, 5 times a week at home) significantly helped.
https://www.medpagetoday.com/painmanagement/backpain/100017?..
**Graded Sensorimotor Retraining Improved Chronic Low Back Pain**
**— Randomized trial shows that guided movement sessions can lessen pain**
**by Elizabeth Short, Editorial Intern, MedPage Today August 2, 2022**
**...**
**"What we observed in our trial was a clinically meaningful effect on pain intensity and a clinically meaningful effect on disability," said McAuley in a statement. "People were happier, they reported their backs felt better and their quality of life was better. It also looks like these effects were sustained over the long term; twice as many people were completely recovered. Very few treatments for low back pain show long-term benefits, but participants in the trial reported improved quality of life one year later."...**
**The intention of graded sensorimotor retraining is "to help people in pain understand that it was safe and helpful to move (step 1), feel safe to move (step 2), and experience that it was safe to move (step 3) as they progressed toward re-engagement with meaningful functional goals."...**
**The intervention consisted of graded premovement treatment sessions spanning 12 to 18 weeks with an exercise physiologist or a physiotherapist, which included sensory precision training and mental rehearsal of movement, as well as a home-based component that participants were encouraged to complete for 30 minutes 5 times per week.....** [end quote]
The participants were taught back exercises and told to do them at home. Not surprisingly, they improved!
The controls had several sham “treatments” – sham noninvasive brain stimulation, sham laser, and shortwave diathermy for the lower back in hour-long sessions over the course of 12 to 18 weeks, as well as a sham cranial electrical stimulation device, which they were encouraged to use five times a week in 30-minute sessions. This is cool because these sham treatments are actually used by practitioners who charge for them. Any benefit is pure placebo effect – not to be sneezed at because about 1/3 of people can benefit strongly from a placebo effect.
Personally, I exercise my back by stretching and strengthing every day. I was taught yoga by a chiropractor 30+ years ago and continue to practice daily. Otherwise, my back would hurt. I exercise my back even after surgery since my back is finicky and insists on daily exercise. Even my younger sister, who has severe scoliosis and osteoporosis, exercises her back muscles (carefully and with special exercises).
Americans have a great burden of back pain due to a high rate of obesity and lack of movement.
Ironically, with few exceptions, anyone can adapt standard back exercises (including yoga and Pilates) to any level of ability. And they are absolutely free and non-invasive, with none of the side effects of drugs or surgery.
The new study proves this well-known fact with a small but significant data set.
Wendy
