Complete Guide to Low Back Pain
The detail is below, but you can extensively preview and purchase this book HERE.
Note that this book comes with an additional book for free “Trigger Points”, and boy does Paul Ingraham know about trigger points.
Please also note that I do not benefit in any way, shape or form from recommending these books.
An extremely detailed guide to the myths, controversies, and treatment options for low back pain, that you can print, save, and lend, with updates forever so you keep up with the science. You can read all the myths and controversies, all the diagnostic issues, and all the treatment options. This is a book that every physiotherapist should use as a treatment bible.
The hyperlinked sections below will enable you to view the preview, and the entire book is just $US19.95.
The evidence that tissue pathology does not explain chronic pain is overwhelming (e.g., in back pain, neck pain, and knee osteoarthritis).
Lorimer Moseley, “Teaching people about pain — why do we keep beating around the bush?” Pain Management. 2012.
TABLE of CONTENTS PREVIEW
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- Introduction
- A tragic low back pain myth
- How do so many health care professionals go wrong when they treat low back pain?
- The journey to relief begins with better back beliefs [updated Jul 2020]
- The case for hope: some “incurable” chronic low back pain can still be cured
- “What if there’s something seriously wrong in there?” [updated Apr 2020]
- Low Back Pain Diagnosis — Your low back is not fragile! Most of what is supposedly “wrong” with spines is nonsense
Even serious structural problems in the low back are often painless
- Maybe you’re just getting older? Actually, no … [updated Apr 2020]
- Structural problems in the low back are hard to diagnose accurately
- Those scary spine models
- It’s not structure, except when it is: “specific” back pain [Jan 2020]
- So then what? Muscle is the most plausible missing piece of the back pain puzzle
- There is nothing “just” about muscle
- Low back pain is the new ulcer [Apr 2020]
- Pain and fear, together at last: an even simpler vicious cycle
- Chronic low back pain is not so chronic: the myth of chronicity
- A trigger point checklist: does this sound like you?
- 3 Lessons From an Acute Back Trauma: Joint popping, muscle dominance, and the mind game
- “Out of nowhere”: seemingly random episodes of low back pain [Apr 2019]
- Summary so far …
- Morning back pain [Sep 2019]
- Other possible causes of low back pain, or “No, my low back pain is really serious … ”
- Could it be muscle strain? The muscle strain myth
- From the frying pan of injury pain to the fire of trigger point pain
- Could it be a vicious cycle of pain-spasm-pain?
- Could low back pain be an overuse injury?
- Could it be a herniated disc?
- Facet joint syndrome and MIDs
- Diagnostic numbing of facet joints (or the sacroiliac joint) [Dec 2017]
- Is there such a thing as a “subluxation”? Can your back be “out”?
- The role of sacroiliac joint dysfunction in back pain [Aug 2019]
- Are you crooked? The alignment theories: short legs, pelvic tilts, and spinal curves [Sep 2021]
- Do you really need to lose some weight? [Jun 2018]
- Is back pain a disease of civilization? A modern lifestyle disease? [Nov 2021]
- Is it core weakness? [Sep 2021]
- Is it all in your feet? Foot-o-centric low back pain theories
- Your problem is that you’re having “too much fun”
- Could you have a “pinched” nerve? The nerve pinch myth [Sep 2018]
- Case study: nerve pain completely resolved by massage
- The role of true nerve problems in low back pain [Nov 2021]
- The strange case of scoliosis
- Back pain and sneezing
- Lions, tigers, and … back mice? The significance of lipomas [Mar 2021]
- Should you get an MRI, X-ray, or other imaging? [Feb 2019]
- Self-treatment options — How to save yourself from low back pain, or at least avoid getting hurt or ripped off trying
- So what’s the plan? [Mar 2019]
- Some important things to keep in mind about placebos [Jul 2018]
- The confidence cure [May 2019]
- What is the difference between a ‘confidence cure’ and a mere placebo?
- Good, better, best: coping, easing, and curing [Apr 2020]
- Stress relief and the tyranny of meditation and yoga
- Another %!@&*!! personal growth opportunity
- Yoga and meditation are still an option, of course [Jul 2019]
- Beyond the confidence cure: what else can you do for low back pain?
- The cannabinoids: marijuana and hemp, THC and CBD — “it’s complicated!” [Nov 2019]
- Over-the-counter pain medications — not miraculous, not worthless [Aug 2020]
- Muscle relaxants (Robaxin, Robaxacet, etc), psychoactives, and sedatives [Nov 2019]
- Comfrey makes backs comfy, study claims
- A tale of two tutorials
- Introduction to treating your own low back trigger points
- Limitations of trigger point therapy, and how to take advantage of them
- Basic self-massage for low back trigger points
- How do you know it’s working? Getting a trigger point to “release”
- Massage tools are indispensable
- The bath trick
- Can you damage your nerves when self-massaging?
- Don’t hesitate to recruit amateur help
- The evidence for massaging back pain [Nov 2017]
- Heat and ice both provide good bang for buck, but err on the side of heat
- Act normal! Rest minimally and strategically, while maintaining as much normal activity as you can
- Strain-counterstrain (AKA positional release): find a neutral, comfy position and rest there [Jun 2021]
- Massage with movement and life in the Goldilocks zone
- Don’t worry about lifting technique [Jan 2018]
- Traction: low back pain on the rack!
- Stretching as a back pain treatment
- Stretching to treat trigger points
- Stretching for the hamstrings in particular (and other naughty pelvis pullers) [Jan 2020]
- Troubleshooting perpetuating factors
- Fix your insomnia
- Sleep posture, mattresses and pillows, and other help for morning back pain [Sep 2019]
- Sitting, chairs, and ergonomics
- Troubleshooting severe and persistent trigger points
- Troubleshooting even worse trigger points
- Less than a cure, but better than nothing: short term symptom relief options for low back pain
- Getting professional help — A consumer’s guide to buying therapy and medical care for low back pain
- An introduction to your care options [Mar 2018]
- Physiatry for low back pain
- Massage therapy for low back pain
- Buying trigger point therapy rather than back pain therapy
- Spinal manipulative therapy (SMT): Adjustment, manipulation, and cracking of the spinal joints
- Physical therapy (physiotherapy) for low back pain
- “Medical” treatment option for trigger points: dry needling (IMS), stretch and spray, and trigger point injections
- Opioids and anticonvulsants [Jul 2018]
- What about surgery?
- The back surgery placebo problem, and how it limits our knowledge of the effectiveness of back surgeries
- Surgery for sciatica (microdiscectomy)
- Needles for back pain: nerve blocks for facet joints and related treatments [Dec 2017]
- Kill it with fire! Treatment by nerve destruction [Dec 2017]
- Bogus Cures
- Craniosacral therapy (CST) is often prescribed for low back pain but has no potential to help
- The fascinating case of acupuncture, formerly a contender in low back pain therapy, but which has now miserably failed well-designed scientific tests
- Core strengthening has failed to live up to the hopes and dreams of therapists and patients [Aug 2018]
- Scoliosis cannot be straightened without surgery
- Facet joint and intradiscal steroid injections are not recommended for most patients [Jan 2020]
- Injections: the curious case of intradiscal methylene blue [May 2019]
- Injections: prolotherapy [Jul 2019]
- Spinal decompression therapy: worth the money and risks?
- Back bracing and stabilization contraptions (especially inflatable ones)
- Antibiotics for back pain: a debacle [Oct 2019]
- A few more snack-sized reality checks: brief comments on other treatments to avoid
- Now what? — An action-oriented summary of recommendations
- Appendices
- Appendix A: Why don’t the experts know more about this?
- Appendix B: A low back pain story
- Further Reading
- Reader feedback … good and bad
- Acknowledgements
- What’s new in this tutorial?
- Notes
- Introduction
Buy “The Complete Guide to Low Back Pain” right HERE.