Chronic Back Pain and Physiotherapy

Chronic back pain is unpleasant primarily due to its duration, which can seem endless. In addition to unpleasant painful sensations, it also brings other negative effects that impact various areas of a person’s life and those around them. Untreated long-term back pain usually does not disappear on its own and tends to get worse. Therefore, it is not advisable to simply ignore it, but to undergo targeted treatment.

A Bit About Pain

Pain is one of the most common issues that leads a person to visit a doctor. It can be described as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential damage to human tissue. Pain can be likened to a warning light that starts blinking to alert us that our body is not in balance.

From the perspective of the musculoskeletal system, the nervous system is trying to let us know that muscles, ligaments, or joints are overloaded and need to rest and recover. If the overload continues, the warning light flashes more strongly and the pain intensifies. When pain is chronic/long-lasting (3 months or more), a bigger problem arises.

Specifics of Chronic Pain

In the case of chronic pain, it is a long-lasting condition that no longer has a protective function and negatively affects the biological, psychological, and social aspects of a person. The body’s own “analgesics” become depleted. The pain is no longer suppressed and the pain threshold and tolerance decrease. In other words, things that would not have hurt us much before can now cause significant pain.

Other symptoms may also occur, such as sleep disturbances, rapid fatigue, decreased appetite, reduced sexual activity, and lower work performance. In addition to the above, changes and limitations in movement and daily activities may also be observed. Limiting physical activity and movement negatively affects the overall condition and puts the individual in a vicious cycle.

Tips to Avoid Chronic Back Pain

1) Learn to Perceive Your Body

The moment we are able to perceive our bodies, we will already notice the first signals that something is not quite right. Then we can easily make changes to avoid the development of pain. Physiotherapy, among other things, can help with body awareness. Article about body awareness here.

Example:

When sitting for long periods while working on a PC, people are often so absorbed in their work that they notice nothing except what’s happening on the monitor. At that moment, they don’t even realize that their muscles in the lumbar, thoracic, or cervical region are already stiffening. If sedentary work is a daily routine, we may start to feel unpleasant pain, and if we do not make a change, it can become chronic.

2) Address Musculoskeletal Problems Already in the Acute Phase

We should not underestimate acute problems. Acute musculoskeletal pain may resolve even without treatment, but it can also progress to a chronic phase, where therapy is already more complicated. When acute pain of the musculoskeletal system occurs, it is best to seek professional help in the form of a doctor or a physiotherapist. More about acute back pain here.

3) Do Regular Physiotherapeutic Exercise

To prevent the development of chronic problems, it is advisable to do targeted physiotherapeutic exercises and additional physical activities that respect various physical and personality characteristics of a person. Different physical activities are suitable for different individuals. Preventive exercise, as well as additional leisure activities, can be recommended by a physiotherapist.

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Sources:

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et al. (Eds.), Rehabilitace v klinické praxi (pp. 639-640). Praha: Galén.

Raudenská, J. (2012). Psychologické vyšetření a hodnocení pacientů s chronickou bolestí
podle kognitivně-behaviorálního přístupu. In R. Rokyta, M. Kršiak, & J. Kozák (Eds.),
Bolest: Monografie algeziologie (pp. 194–199). Praha: Tigis.

Neudertová, H. (2013). Bolest jako syndrom. In M. Hakl (Ed.), Léčba bolesti. Současné
přístupy k léčbě bolesti a bolestivých syndromů (pp. 27-30). Praha: Mladá fronta.