🚨If you've just pulled your back or it's just "gone" while you were putting your socks on this morning, then you need this!
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🙋🏻‍♂️Hi, I'm Shaun and I'm a Registered Osteopath based in Colchester, UK. Every week I have patients who see me with acute low back pain. We define acute low back pain as pain that is less that 6 weeks old. Most acute low back pain will resolve within 4-6weeks depending on the onset and severity of your symptoms. Here's six points that I find really helps my patients and will give you an insight in how I treat my patients with this condition.
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1️⃣ Relative Activity Modification
I'll start by addressing what's causing you pain and discomfort. I rarely advocate complete rest. Complete rest is old thinking. It can lead to fatty infiltration of muscles, decondition your muscles, increase pain and can delay your recovery. That said, some people will need some sort of rest. It’s not as cut and dry as one size fits all. I will often get you to modify your work positions or bring in a pacing strategy to reduce stress on painful structures. It might be changing your exercise routine or training schedule. This is where having a clear line of communication with your therapist helps. See points 2 & 4, there should be constant feedback finding what works for the individual and what does not.
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2️⃣ Build a Therapeutic Alliance
I want me and my patient to become a team. I want to build trust so they can approach me with any questions or queries. I will in turn advocate for you and support you along your back-pain journey. Treating and recovering from acute low back pain is not a case of ‘go away and do these exercises.” I see patients who’ve been given a list of tens of exercises and are unsure if they should be doing them because they cause pain. By regular communication whether it’s face to face, by text or email we can build trust and really individualise your treatment and recovery.
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3️⃣ Osteopathic Assessment & Treatment
I start by listening to you (a lot), and taking a case history. We investigate different parts of your health & lifestyle because putting that plate in the dish washer should not have caused a muscle strain. There's often an accumulation of factors that snowball up to that point. I will assess you physically to see how your body is moving and functioning. This might include muscle testing and moving joints around. We will investigate what’s causing pain and what positions give you relief.

Osteopathic treatment might include soft tissue release & massage, dry needling, taping, stretching & spinal manipulation. The goal is to reduce pain and improve your movement, function & confidence. Most of my patients will leave confident that they have a plan to get them back to work, sport or doing what they enjoy.
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4️⃣ Education & Communication
I really try my best to make sure my patients firstly understand what's going on with their back. I advise on prognosis as all too often back pain doesn’t go away overnight. I like them to know what they need to do to help themselves. If they understand this then they seem to have less worry, less fear avoidance and better outcomes.

5️⃣ Rehab Exercises & Return to Activity
Whether you like exercise or not, you need to be increasing your activity levels to help your back and reduce pain. I tend to tailor specific exercises to my patients to begin with. I find this builds confidence in their body and spine. Often a back injury can leave someone thinking their back is weak or degenerative. The exercises will increase your mobility and range of motion. They will also increase strength, stability & endurance. On top of this we know regular exposure to exercise has a pain modulation and relieving effect on the body. My plans are often progressive so I can have them integrate themselves back to work or activity.
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6️⃣ Reassurance & Follow Up
Chronic low back pain can sometimes develop in a small number of patients who have acute low back pain. It's also thought that up to 80% of people will have a relapse over the following year. I educate my patients about this and keep our channels of communication open. It’s often useful to have follow up appointments to progress your exercises as your body gets stronger and moves better.

As you can see a big part of my osteopathic treatment is developing a relationship with my patient. If we can build a strong therapeutic alliance and you understand the reasons behind why we are doing or not doing certain moves or activities then you’ll be more likely to follow the plan and have long term results.

If you’d like to work with me then please get in touch.

📲07900363938
📧info@shauntyler.com

💥Lumbar Disc Herniation Symptoms💥

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😨 The lumbar area of the spine (the lower back) is the most injured area. The vertebrae are and discs are bigger than anywhere else in the spine, and this reflects its function as a shock absorber.

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🦴A herniated disc is also known as a prolapsed disc & sometimes "slipped disc." There is damage to outer layer of the disc called the annulus fibrosis that allows the nucleus pulposis on the inside to herniate. This can compress and irritate the spinal cord & spinal nerves. This results in a multitude of symptoms that include pain, weakness, and sensory loss. This is often referred to as "sciatica."

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Presentation:

👷Often patients will recall an incident that triggered the pain such as lifting & twisting.

💥Pain is often described as sharp, burning, electric shock or a dull ache.

⚡️ Pain can radiate in the distribution of the affected nerve root.

❄️In more serious cases this can result in a loss of sensation, numbness, pins and needles, itching,

💪 Each spinal nerve innervates certain muscles of the lower limb called a myotome which can present as weak. L3/4 weakness would present as difficulty straightening the knee. L5 issues would prevent you to push up onto your toes.

💦 In extremely serious cases there may be changes in the bladder or bowel & sexual dysfunction. THIS SHOULD BE TREATED AS A MEDICAL EMERGENCY

🤸‍♂‍Often most movements of the trunk will cause pain. Some patients present with a certain movement such as side bending to the affected side or extension.

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📊Almost 85% of patient’s symptoms will resolve in 8-12weeks without any treatment. However, that is a long time to be in severe pain. Around 30% of patients complain of low back pain after 1 year. Chronic symptoms are also associated with mental health disorders such as depression & anxiety.

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🚶Most patients complain of worse pain when sitting & reduced pain when walking. Current advice is to try to keep moving in small doses. This might be 2-3 5-10minutes walks each day or a specific set of mobility exercises.

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🙋‍♂️Have you suffered from these symptoms? Please share in the comments what they were & how long it took to resolve to help someone suffering the same 👇

Living with chronic pain is disabling. For some sufferers it is the primary complaint of diseases such as fibromyalgia and for others it might be a progression of a degenerative disease such as osteoarthritis (Mao 2017).

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It's widely accpeted that you cannot treat chronic pain the same as acute pain. Patients have to manage their lifestyles and their own expectations (and possibly the expectations of family, friends and work colleagues). A more long term approach must be taken and patients encouraged to reflect and self-manage themselves with the guide of a clinician . Too often patients with chronic pain problems are looking for a magic bullet and will hang all of their hopes on a single treatment such as steroid injections. It’s only when they start to reflect on their activities, lifestyle and stressors that they can truly manage their condition and move forwards.

I've put together a list of techniques that I use myself to help manage my chronic pain that's resulted in a total knee replacement revision. I paticularly find exercise really helps me. If I am consistent and don’t push too hard then my knee feels loose and I can manage the pain quite well. However, if I get over zealous in the gym or do a really long walk I will suffer for a couple of days afterwards.

Read through and let me know what you think. Feel free to leave your tips in the comments.

References:

Mao J. Challenges of managing chronic pain BMJ 2017; 356 :j741 doi:10.1136/bmj.j741

Sciatica is really painful and debilitating. Often the leg pain is much worse than the low back pain. Pain can run down the back or outside of the leg into the calf, foot and toes. Sometimes it’s a constant ache or numb other times it can be sharp, electrical or burning.

In my practice at AbbeyField in Colchester I’ve treated alot of patients with sciatica. If you’re suffering from sciatica it’s so important to try to keep moving. If you can walk then get moving. If the pain is more debilitating then try some gentle exercises lying on your back. The more you’re moving then the more your are using your muscles as pumps to help flush out inflammation and reduce pain and sensitivity. If you can’t do any of these things then you should seek help from a professional.

I use neurodynamic techniques alot when I’m helping patients with nerve pain and sciatica. They are quick and easy to use. There’s alot of research to support their use (which I won’t go into now). Doing these exercises help reduce irritation of the nerve and may reduce pain and increase range of motion.

If you’re in pain and suffering from sicatica then try this routine below. Work within your own range of motion and pain levels. Start with ten repetitions of each version and build it up to twenty over a few days. Aim to perform this routine three times a day. I was told on a course by an eminent researcher in this field that 10 repetitions evey hour during the day is optimum.

A word of caution that there are many different neurodynamic exercises so it’s important to to see a health care professional to prescribe the right type of exercise and the right dose for you. This exercise isn’t a panacea and should be used along with conventional care such as seeing your registered osteopath, physiotherapist or chiropractor.