NICE is going to back acupuncture for back pain

BBC News reports that the NHS's NICE is going to back acupuncture for back pain. According to this article, "Low back pain is a very common problem affecting one in three adults in the UK each year, with an estimated 2.5 million people seeking help from their GP."

And "NICE says anyone whose pain persists for more than six weeks and up to a year should be given a choice of several treatments, because the evidence about which works best is uncertain.

In addition to painkillers and regular advice to stay active and carry on with normal activities as much as possible, patients, together with their doctor, can decide to opt one of three complementary treatments.

This includes up to eight exercise sessions or 10 sessions of acupuncture over 12 weeks, or a course of manual therapy, which includes up to nine sessions of spinal manipulation, mobilisation or massage."

Personally, I've found acupuncture useless, but I have, for some problems, found manipulation by an osteopath helpful for backache. And remember - pain is not caused by aspirin deficiency!

But a cost-free, safe measure to take is to try cutting down on salt and salty food. This helps with headaches and migraines particularly, but also helps with arthritis and with back pain/backache and many other sorts of chronic pain. - Why not try it for your pain? - It may help, and it will certainly improve your health in many other ways - by lowering your high blood pressure and your excess weight, by giving you more energy, etc.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it!

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Sodium in foods

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

Why mobile phones may hurt backs.

Why mobile phones may hurt backs
article on the BBC news website. - The article is from 5 years ago, but I've only just come across it.

Extracts:

"People who chat on their mobile phone while walking could be hurting their back, according to a study. Scientists at Australia's University of Queensland say it's all down to the way we breathe."

"Dr Matthew Bennett, a spokesman for the British Chiropractic Association, welcomed the study.

"This is completely surprising," he told BBC News Online. "This is totally new research.

"It shows that we really shouldn't be talking and walking at the same time. Talking appears to disrupt our ability to walk efficiently.

"This is something we will now have to add to our list. People with bad backs should watch the way they bend to pick things up, shouldn't sit for too long and now it would seem shouldn't talk with someone they are walking with.

"This is particularly important for mobile phone users. We already know that holding a phone to your ear for long periods is bad for you, because it can increase tension across the shoulder and cause pain." "

Obese patients could be causing back pain for nurses who lift them.

Obese patients 'increasing back pain among nurses' - Independent

Extracts:

"A rise in the number of obese patients on wards could be causing thousands of NHS nurses to seek treatment for back pain, according to experts.

About 5,000 nurses are currently being treated for back pain following a surge in patients' weights and the number of patients a nurse has to care for, according to the British Chiropractic Association.

Dr Matthew Bennett, a member of the BCA who has been a chiropractor for 20 years, said: "There are thousands of nurses with work-related back pain and I think this could increase in the future.

"A lot do not turn up in official statistics because it affects employment status.

"The weight of patients is a contributory factor to back pain. It's not just a weight issue - it's a fitness issue with people unable to turn themselves over easily.""

"A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: "The department advises that staff should avoid manual handling. No one working in a hospital, nursing home, or community setting should need to put their safety at risk when lifting patients manually."

WHEN is the truth going to be told about obesity?

Read my Mensa article Obesity and the Salt Connection

All that is necessary to curb the growing incidence of obesity is to tell the truth about what causes it! - Obesity is NOT caused by overeating. It is caused by fluid retention, frequently because of taking prescribed medications, especially steroids such as prednisolone, prednisone and HRT, and anti-depressants such as amitriptyline. (When doctors prescribe drugs that cause sodium retention and water retention they should warn the patient not to eat salt, or food containing salt, while taking the medication. When they do not give this warning, the inevitable consequence is considerable weight gain.)

Read here about the groups of people who are vulnerable to salt: vulnerable groups

Obesity can be easily reduced by seriously reducing your salt/sodium intake and eating plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables. - It is important not to restrict calories. - 'Slimming' or 'dieting' is unnecessary, ineffective and often harmful.

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Transplants for slipped discs?

Patients with a slipped disc could be cured by transplant

Extract:

"Surgeons have pioneered a radical cure for the slipped disc, a common cause of back pain, by using transplants from donors.

In the first operation of its kind, orthopaedic specialists in Hong Kong replaced slipped discs in five patients, who had suffered long-standing pain, with discs removed from three women aged between 20 and 30 who had died in accidents.

The operations were performed between March 2000 and January 2001 and the five patients - four men and a woman then aged between 41 and 56 - were followed up for five years. The results, reported in The Lancet today, show the transplants were still functioning well in all the patients and their pain had improved. None of the patients needed immunosuppressant drugs normally given to transplant recipients for life.

A slipped disc occurs when the jelly-like disc of cartilage that acts as a cushion between two vertebrae in the spine, slips or prolapses so it is pressing on the nerves causing the muscles of the back to go into spasm."


Obesity is caused by fluid retention, not by overeating. - The usual cause of fluid retention is sensitivity to salt.
Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Elderly nursing home residents left in pain by care staff

Scandal of elderly left in pain by care staff

Extract:

"Elderly people in nursing homes are being left in "shocking pain" says a survey today, with two in five saying they are in constant agony, and others admitting to having suicidal thoughts.

The research, conducted confidentially among residents whose average age was 82, reveals the extent to which the frail and vulnerable are made to suffer unnecessarily.

It was carried out by the Patients Association, the independent lobby group led by Claire Rayner, a former nurse and midwife and well-known agony aunt."

Many painful conditions, e.g. osteoarthritis, can be improved and made less painful by reducing salt intake. See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Psychological treatments 'help back pain'

Psychological treatments 'help back pain'
The review lead author is Dr Robert Kerns, of the VA Connecticut Healthcare System.

Extract:

"Receiving psychological treatments could help ease the pain of people with back problems, a new review has found.Such treatments can also improve depression and "health-related quality of life", according to the review, published in the January issue of the journal Health Psychology."

This may well be true, but a far more effective way to reduce depression and many pains, including some back pain, is to eat less salt/sodium. - See my webpage http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html - Lowering salt intake costs nothing...(o: and has many other benefits too.