The New World Economics Guide to Curing Lower Back Pain

Be prepared for the next great transfer of wealth. Buy physical silver and storable food.

ewworldeconomics / September 2, 2012

A friend was asking me about what to do about back pain. This is is something I happen to know about. In late 2001, I developed extreme lower back pain, due mostly to sitting oddly on the floor for extended periods of time. (I was playing Starcraft.) Eventually “something happened,” and the worsening condition could no longer be ignored. For two weeks, I laid on the floor, unable to stand, walk, or sit for any length of time. I immediately went to a chiropractor, bypassing all regular doctors and hospitals, who don’t really have anything to offer.

The chiropractor developed a schedule for relieving the immediate pain. It involved four visits a week, including various treatments to reduce muscle tension in the lower back area. The office was three miles away, so I had to drive. It took maybe six or seven minutes. This six or seven minutes of driving was so painful that, when I arrived at the office each time, I would get out of the car and lie on the parking lot next to the car — it was dirty but I didn’t care — for five to ten minutes, until the pain subsided enough that I could walk into the building. Then, I would do it again on the way home.

Over the next four years, I made roughly 150 visits to the chiropractor, gradually reducing the frequency to three times a week, twice, once, every other week, once a month and so forth. I paid for all of this out of pocket. It was worth it.

If you are in a crisis situation like I was, you need to go to a chiropractor, and you need to do it a lot. However, any good chiropractor will tell you that a few minutes per week in his office is not enough. You have to change everything you do, to relieve whatever it is that caused the back problems in the first place. The chiropractor can help get you out of a crisis situation and establish the conditions for further healing, but the healing process is mostly up to you.

If you have less dramatic back pain, I would still go to the chiropractor. It would probably take a lot fewer visits, perhaps once a week to start, but the basic process is the same.

After a few weeks, I could sit and walk enough to work, taking regular rest breaks by walking outside the office. After a few months, I could go hiking and do other outdoor sports that were not too back-intensive, if I was careful. However, it was nearly five years (mid-2006) before I even attempted to do ten situps in a row. Today, I can say that I have made a 100% recovery. I can do hundreds of situps and other back-intensive activities, and have no back pain at all.

Simply going to the chiropractor is not enough. You have to change everything that aggravates your back. Here’s what you do:

Fix your bed. You spend eight hours a day lying on your bed. It had better be OK. Standard mattresses (springs/padding) wear out after about seven years. Yes, even the expensive ones. If your mattress is more than seven years old, or even five years, then you need a new one even if it looks OK. I junked my old mattress. I used an air mattress for a while, which helped, but now I prefer a memoryfoam mattress. Tempurpedic is the high-end brand here, but foam is pretty simple stuff and the memoryfoam mattresses sold on eBay for about $280 in full size are fine. You also need a good pillow. I use a memoryfoam “cervical” pillow, which is thickest under your neck.

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Thanks to BrotherJohnF