Should You Learn to Live With Back Pain?

Of course you can live with the pain, it's the effects of the stress you can't live with. How many times have you heard that stress causes health problems? Modern medical science finally has an answer.

I'm not going to argue that you can't live with back pain. Of course you can. For proof just look in the mirror. There is a long list of various maladies that could cause back pain, and to be sure, a few of them such as spinal meningitis are life threatening, but for the most part garden-variety bone/muscle/nerve back pain, often referred to as mechanical back pain, is not something that you will die from - therefore, you can live with it. Elementary logic. Simple stuff, really. Back pain is not like chest pain where there is a very real possibility that you might die from the coming heart attack. Most assuredly it is stressful to live with a bad back, never knowing for sure whether tomorrow will be a good day or a bad day, but certainly not life threatening. The real question is can you live with the constant stress of chronic neck pain or back pain? Should you do less and less as months turn into years in a futile effort to avoid the pain? Should you take more and more, and stronger and stronger drugs in an effort to continue a normal life? And, perhaps, most importantly, if there was a way to halt or slow down the gradual progression from cane to walker to scooter, would you do it?

The real problem with chronic neck pain and back pain is not the pain it causes, but the stress it causes. How many times have you heard that stress causes health problems? A true enough statement insofar as it goes but it is more accurate to state that stress causes chemical changes within your body that when prolonged eventually result in health problems. Say, for instance, that you go out to your mailbox to check the mail and find a letter from the IRS. Would your blood pressure go up? The onset of a stress response is associated with specific physiological actions in the sympathetic nervous system, both directly and indirectly through the release of adrenaline and other hormones to facilitate immediate physical reactions by triggering increases in heart rate and respiration, constricting blood flow to the internal organs, facilitating blood flow to the skeletal muscles, and a host of others all evolved to increase your chances of survival. These are the things you can't live with. Would you get a knot in your stomach? An IRS audit doesn't cause ulcers but the stress of an IRS audit, or more specifically the chemical changes that occur as the result of the stress, may. The interactions of the hypothalamus, pituitary, and adrenal glands are a major part of the neuroendocrine system that controls reactions to stress and regulates many body processes, including the circulatory system, digestion, the immune system, mood and emotions, sexual vitality, and many, many, many others. How do you sleep between now and audit day? Stress can interfere with a very long list of vital functions.

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stressor) states that a stressor is a chemical or biological agent, environmental condition, an external stimulus or an event that causes stress to an organism. An event that triggers the stress response may include for example:
· environmental stressors (elevated sound levels, over-illumination, overcrowding)
· daily stress events (e.g. traffic, lost keys)
· life changes (e.g. divorce, bereavement)
· workplace stressors (e.g. role strain, lack of control)
· physical stressors (e.g. tobacco, alcohol, drugs)

Stress Comes in an Endless Variety of Forms

Clearly stress comes in an endless variety of forms. However, the physiologic response, complicated though it may be, is basically the same regardless of the source of the stress. Everyone at one time or another has had a rock in their shoe. How did you know there was a rock in your shoe? Why, the little