This is, I think, how I ended up with a lower back pain problem...
I was never the sporty one in my family. My younger brother and sister are both more sporty than I am. They played team sports and were the popular ones at school. Me, I hung out with the nerds. I enjoyed making model kits of tanks and planes, or doodling, or reading. I was never very fond of running around in the fresh air...
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I was an ungainly teenager. I know, I've seen the photographs. There's one in particular, taken of me side on - I didn't know it was being taken and didn't pose (I think we were at a zoo). My head is slouched forward and I have the most appalling posture. I'm now living with the legacy of that.
(And let's not talk about my fashion sense back then. What on earth was I thinking?)
So there I was, 27, and my back was starting to wake me up. Pretty much like clockwork, at 4am every night, I'd wake with really bad backache. And I didn't know what to do about it.
So I went to my local doctor.
Frankly, my doctor was about as much use as a chocolate fireguard. He basically told me that the human spine is a very complicated structure and nobody really understands why anyone gets lower back pain. He did give me some simple exercises to do, but also gave me a prescription for slow-release ibuprofen.
The drugs worked.
The exercises were less successful - but part of that is that I didn't understand what the exercises were trying to do. My doctor didn't explain why I needed to do them and as a result I didn't keep up with them.
I'm not all that keen on drugs - especially painkillers. So after a while I stopped taking them. And inevitably, the pain returned. So in between repeat prescriptions I tried more physical treatments including The Alexander Technique, physiotherapy, going to the gym and visiting an osteopath. I'm currently "doing" pilates. I also read books and bought a few aids to help ease my lower back pain.
And I found that while much of it works for a short time, it tends to wear off after a while.
This is, I think, how I ended up with a lower back pain problem...
I was never the sporty one in my family. My younger brother and sister are both more sporty than I am. They played team sports and were the popular ones at school. Me, I hung out with the nerds. I enjoyed making model kits of tanks and planes, or doodling, or reading. I was never very fond of running around in the fresh air...
I was an ungainly teenager. I know, I've seen the photographs. There's one in particular, taken of me side on - I didn't know it was being taken and didn't pose (I think we were at a zoo). My head is slouched forward and I have the most appalling posture. I'm now living with the legacy of that.
(And let's not talk about my fashion sense back then. What on earth was I thinking?)
So there I was, 27, and my back was starting to wake me up. Pretty much like clockwork, at 4am every night, I'd wake with really bad backache. And I didn't know what to do about it.
So I went to my local doctor.
Frankly, my doctor was about as much use as a chocolate fireguard. He basically told me that the human spine is a very complicated structure and nobody really understands why anyone gets lower back pain. He did give me some simple exercises to do, but also gave me a prescription for slow-release ibuprofen.
The drugs worked.
The exercises were less successful - but part of that is that I didn't understand what the exercises were trying to do. My doctor didn't explain why I needed to do them and as a result I didn't keep up with them.
I'm not all that keen on drugs - especially painkillers. So after a while I stopped taking them. And inevitably, the pain returned. So in between repeat prescriptions I tried more physical treatments including The Alexander Technique, physiotherapy, going to the gym and visiting an osteopath. I'm currently "doing" pilates. I also read books and bought a few aids to help ease my lower back pain.
And I found that while much of it works for a short time, it tends to wear off after a while.