Why your Back Hurts And Why your Health Practitioner Can’t Tell you Exactly Why you Feel Pain
“More than 80% of the adult population suffer from back pain at some point in their life”
Why can’t my health practitioner tell me exactly what’s going on with my back?
Our minds are wired to seek answers, and when we don’t get them, it can be very frustrating. Many of us also believe that the healthcare system has all the answers to every physiological issue. But doctors and health specialists, while very well-educated and deserving of more credit than they often receive, are still just people—making educated guesses.
So, when they look at your MRI, they’re making an informed guess as to why you feel pain or discomfort, but it’s not always straightforward or obvious. Here’s why:
We all experience wear and tear on our spines as part of the ageing process, but not all wear and tear leads to pain or discomfort.
For example, if we compared the MRI of a 27-year-old’s spine to that of a 50-year-old, the wear and tear might look exactly the same. Yet, only one of these people may feel back pain—and it isn’t necessarily going to be the 50-year-old.
Our spines have wonderful shock absorbers between the vertebrae called discs, which are technically ligaments that allow movement. Discs are a bit like jam-filled doughnuts, with a substance called Glucose Amino Glycan (GAG) inside, which gives the disc its cushioning effect. GAG is mostly liquid in nature, but as we age, it dries up, causing the discs to shrink, narrow, and stiffen.
When we’re young and ‘bouncy,’ the nucleus (the jam) is more mobile and more likely to prolapse if the disc is compressed, like when we jump, trip, or fall. Imagine this happens when you’re in your twenties—you fall, creating a tear in the disc, and the jam (nucleus) seeps into the tear. You don’t feel any discomfort because the disc is still squishy and has plenty of GAG. Then, as you age and the disc dries up, the jam is now in the wrong place, outside the centre. At 50, you bend down to tie your shoelaces, and boom—you suddenly feel the effects of something that happened decades earlier.
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Doctors are not typically trained in low back pain pathology. They might order an MRI and then send it to an orthopaedic or neurosurgeon who make their living doing.. Surgery.
And you will probably be put forward for a procedure of some kind. But consider this..
“In a study of 600 people, all were given an MRI. 60% showed pathology that required surgery, according to the radiologist that read it.
The interesting thing is, that they were ALL healthy people who did not experience back pain, so really none of them required surgery.”
As a side note, sometimes surgery is necessary, and surgeons don’t offer it lightly. It’s their training and skillset, so that’s what they have to offer. However, it’s always worth seeking advice from other professionals if you want to explore non-surgical options.
What is back pain?
There are two main types of back pain:
Non-Specific – This refers to tension, soreness, and/or stiffness without a specific identified cause. It’s usually the result of incorrect movement patterns and poor posture, which we pick up over time for various reasons.
Specific – This is caused by an accident or injury and is often localised to one area.
In many cases, the trauma heals quickly, but the pain lingers because we continue using incorrect movement patterns and compensatory postures. These adaptations, initially made to avoid pain, maintain the feeling of discomfort in the body.
Example:
People with back pain often adopt a rigid position when sitting down or standing up, avoiding bending at the hips—even though their hips are fine. This is the body’s way of protecting itself, but ironically, this unnecessary rigidity creates the real problem.
Treatment for Back Pain
Whether your pain is from an accident (specific pain) or from other causes (non-specific pain), the treatment is often the same.
As a Movement Therapist, it’s helpful for me to know about your falls, accidents, and MRI results. However, what I really need to know is exactly where you feel pain or discomfort, during which activities you feel it, and at what time of day.
This information helps me figure out how to balance your body to alleviate the pain. I can then identify where you’re avoiding movement and where compensatory tissues are being overused because of the pain.
Where Do We Go From Here?
As with any type of pain, there’s often trauma involved, whether high or low level. But I hope this helps you understand that you can let go of what happened to you—it’s no longer important, even if it has unfairly changed your life. What matters most is how you feel now and what we do about it—now.
Holding onto the fear of movement, or the memory of what caused your pain, will only make the problem worse. If you have a tear in a disc, you can rest assured that these are very normal. Avoiding movement will only exacerbate the problem. Instead, we need to get you moving confidently in everyday functional activities, like sitting down and standing up or putting on a pair of trousers. We’ll build from there. I find that once my clients can perform these simple activities without pain, there’s no stopping them!
Charlette x