Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield underwent back surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital this week to repair a herniated disc and remove a loose fragment. Many are encouraged to hear early word the back surgery was deemed successful with 4-6 weeks of rehab to begin immediately.
Starting with lower back pain, the pitcher developed weakness in his left leg which led to a season ending limp. All the classic complaints of sciatica, characterized by pain running down the back of the leg, weakness in one or both legs, and even lower back pain.
Interestingly, Tim’s progression from pain and weakness to cortisone shots to back surgery follows a pattern familiar to many back pain sufferers. The good news for those with lower back pain or sciatica — even those with a diagnosed herniated disc — is back surgery is rarely necessary to eliminate back pain. In fact, it should be considered a last resort.
Beating sciatica pain and weakness starts with understanding that sciatica is actually a symptom of a different condition. The four most common conditions leading to sciatica are:
Piriformis syndrome — the most common cause of sciatic pain, where the piriformis muscle places pressure on the sciatic nerve
Herniated disc — a bulging or herniated disc may irritate the sciatic nerve
Spinal stenosis — a narrowing of the spinal canal itself pinches the sciatic nerve
Isthmic spondylolisthesis — a slipped vertebrae may irritate the sciatic nerve during movement as it rubs abnormally against the adjacent vertebrae
Outside of cases of trauma, sciatica almost never develops overnight. While the pain may appear suddenly, the underlying condition usually takes months or years to develop.
Fortunately, most cases of back pain and sciatica pain can be relieved through targeted stretching and strengthening exercises. This non-invasive approach is almost always preferable to back surgery and cortisone shots which don’t treat the actual cause of the condition. Particularly since back surgery is the only category of surgery with a clinical name for failure: failed back surgery!
You know the feeling. A pinch between the shoulder blades. It Simply tilting your head all the way back is painful. And that crick in your neck when you turn your head, ouch!
Whether you sit all day at a desk working on a computer or use your neck and shoulders all day like a hair stylist, an upper back pinch is an increasingly common – and difficult to eliminate – back pain complaint.
Almost universally, the pinch you feel between your shoulder blades is the result of long term postural dysfunctions. Put simply, you’ve held your head, neck, and shoulders in a poor postural position long enough that you’ve created muscle imbalances.
Muscle imbalances are caused when some muscles become overdeveloped and tight while opposing muscles are weakened and stretched out of their normal position. That pinching feeling between your shoulder blades is your body letting you know there’s a problem. Left long enough, muscle imbalances and the resulting postural dysfunctions can lead to long-term health consequences such as a herniated disc.
Long-term correction requires going to the source of the problem. Muscle balance therapy is an effective treatment for the upper back and neck pain resulting from muscle imbalances by stretching only the tight muscles and exercising only the weakened muscles to restore balance.
While you work on correcting the muscle imbalances causing the pinch you can try these other tips to ease the severity of your neck and upper back pain symptoms:
Take regular stretch breaks — try shoulder shrugs, raising your shoulders towards your ears to create a slight tension in your neck and shoulders and hold for 3-5 seconds; relax and repeat
Undo the damage gravity has done to your back. Inversion has been used for thousands of years… has millions of success stories and is a safe and proven way to eliminate back, neck and sciatic pain. Click here to learn more about inversion therapy
The Nubax Trio is an excellent way to decompress the spine and is a great alternative to using an inversion table because it’s easier to get in and out of and it allows you to apply as little or as much traction as is needed. Click to see just how effective this simple little device can be…
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Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield underwent back surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital this week to repair a herniated disc and remove a loose fragment. Many are encouraged to hear early word the back surgery was deemed successful with 4-6 weeks of rehab to begin immediately.
You know the feeling. A pinch between the shoulder blades. It Simply tilting your head all the way back is painful. And that crick in your neck when you turn your head, ouch!
