Blog

In my view too few older people turn to manual therapies to deal with pain, stiffness and loss of function associated with advancing years.

And now a word about dodgy knees. ...what may be surprising is that the problem is often not in the knee itself but in the structures above and below, namely the pelvis and feet.

Clients who tell me their neck “cracks” or “pops” or feels “crunchy” are often worried about it and wonder if maybe it’s a sign of some serious underlying problem. My answer is that it is and it isn’t.

t turns out that pain in general and back pain in particular is a lot more complicated than most of us think. When it comes to backs, our natural assumption that pain equals damage just isn’t reliable.

How many times have you heard someone with a sore back say, “Oh, my back is out again? Clients who say this to me usually mean that some component of their back has shifted to a new and uncomfortable position. These people believe their pain will be relieved when this component is put back where it should be. This is wrong on both counts.

There are several "common sense" adaptations to back pain which don't help and may even make things worse.

Contrary to popular belief, physicians have found that there is practically no link between degenerative changes seen on x-rays or MRIs and low back pain

Back pain is the most common reason people have for coming to see me in my clinic. And it’s not just me; back pain takes up a huge amount of the time and resources of the healthcare system as a whole. More people take time off work because of back pain than for any other reason and it is also the single most frequent cause of visits to GPs. It’s no exaggeration to say that there is a back pain epidemic in Australia. You’d think for something so common, we’d have a pretty good understanding of back pain but the fact is we don’t, not the general public and not always clinicians. So I’m going to list a series of back pain myths and misconceptions over the next several weeks...