subject: Back Pain And Treatment In New York, Ny [print this page] People with back pain that never goes away completely know that this sort of pain can undermine your quality of life. It can prevent you from participating in activities that bring pleasure and security to your daily life. The medications that we use to deal with the pain, while being life-savers in terms of providing relief from the suffering, expose us to potential harm.
What causes my back pain?
Back pain and treatment is a tricky subject. For people looking for relief from back pain, there is a new method of treatment to consider. Back pain is frequently caused by muscles, which are an often under-diagnosed source of pain. While this may sound simple to diagnose, it is quite the opposite. Since our bodies use muscles in an orchestrated manner, a muscle causing pain in your body will often produce pain in an adjacent muscle. Many groups of muscles work together in order for us to move, so pinpointing the exact muscle that is causing pain requires specific diagnostic work.
How does muscle pain work?
Are you currently hitting a roadblock in identifying where your pain originates? As an example, most patients with neck and shoulder pain report discomfort in the trapezius muscle, which travels from the top of your arm, up into your neck. At the pain institutes in New York City, we find that more than half the time the uncomfortable trapezius is not the actual source of the pain.
Rather, it is the infraspinatus muscle, which overlies the shoulder blade. So you can imagine how it will not be very effective to treat the trapezius in these cases, since it is only where you feel the pain. Instead, we go directly to the source of the pain and treat the infraspinatus.
The same treatment approach exists for the low back as well. The pain you're feeling may actually originate in the low back and be felt in the buttock. Conversely, it may originate in the buttock and be felt in the low back.So, how do we know for sure which muscle is causing the pain, and thus help you find relief from back pain?
Why can't I just take medication for my back pain?
We often assume that over the counter medications are the safest ways to treat chronic pain. Unfortunately, we have been assuming incorrectly! Tylenol (acetaminophen) has been found to result in more than 40,000 cases of liver damage each year in the United States. Some of these patients have even died due to unintended misuse of acetaminophen. Because of the misuse of this generally well tolerated drug, the FDA will limit its availability in combination drug products such as Percocet and Vicodin.
The recommended upper limit has been 4000 mgs but will probably be reduced in the near future in an attempt to warn patients of possible overdose. A regular dose Tylenol tablet is 325 mgs, making twelve the maximum number of tablets/day. When you take the combination drug you may not even be aware that you are ingesting the same drug as in Tylenol and might inadvertently take a harmful overdose. Some medications for persistent pain can cause other serious side effects, including death.
If you need relief from back pain, contact the experts in New York City today and find out about their ideas of back pain and treatment and how you can avoid unhealthy medications and surgeries.
