The following program presents principles 00:00:01.36\00:00:02.70 designed to promote good health 00:00:02.73\00:00:04.07 and is not intended to take the place of personalized 00:00:04.10\00:00:06.60 professional care. 00:00:06.63\00:00:07.97 The opinions and ideas 00:00:08.00\00:00:09.34 expressed are those of the speaker. 00:00:09.37\00:00:10.71 Viewers are encouraged to draw their own conclusions 00:00:10.74\00:00:13.21 about the information presented. 00:00:13.24\00:00:16.85 Have you ever lifted something in the wrong way, 00:00:16.88\00:00:19.15 or may be overworked your body 00:00:19.18\00:00:20.72 and woke up next morning unable to sit up? 00:00:20.75\00:00:23.32 Back pain could be crippling. 00:00:23.35\00:00:25.05 But there are some treatments that can help. 00:00:25.09\00:00:26.82 Stay with us to learn more. 00:00:26.86\00:00:29.42 I'm Dr. James Marcum. 00:00:29.46\00:00:31.26 Are you interested in discovering 00:00:31.29\00:00:33.13 the reason why? 00:00:33.16\00:00:34.70 You want solutions to your healthcare problem. 00:00:34.73\00:00:37.53 Are you tired of taking medications? 00:00:37.57\00:00:40.50 Well, you're about to be given the Ultimate Prescription. 00:00:40.54\00:00:46.51 It was around 9:00 pm on a Friday evening 00:00:46.54\00:00:48.64 when I realized that I made a mistake. 00:00:48.68\00:00:51.15 My back had been aching all week, 00:00:51.18\00:00:53.72 and I hadn't done anything about it. 00:00:53.75\00:00:55.42 And by Friday evening I realized, 00:00:55.45\00:00:57.39 you know, this is the problem 00:00:57.42\00:00:58.75 that's not going away on its own. 00:00:58.79\00:01:00.42 Dr. Marcum, have you ever had 00:01:00.46\00:01:01.79 something like that happen to you? 00:01:01.82\00:01:03.16 Yeah, I've had back pains, and you know, 00:01:03.19\00:01:05.66 we're in a series talking about pain 00:01:05.69\00:01:08.23 on different parts of the body. 00:01:08.26\00:01:10.57 And on today's program 00:01:10.60\00:01:11.93 we're gonna talk about back pain. 00:01:11.97\00:01:13.30 Yeah. 00:01:13.34\00:01:14.67 And it's one of the most common causes of pain. 00:01:14.70\00:01:17.97 And it's something that affects almost every one 00:01:18.01\00:01:20.68 in the course of the lifetime. 00:01:20.71\00:01:22.61 And we're gonna talk about that, what causes it, 00:01:22.64\00:01:24.91 some simple things that we can do. 00:01:24.95\00:01:26.28 So what did you do with your back pain, Nick? 00:01:26.31\00:01:28.18 Well, you know, I had an accident 00:01:28.22\00:01:31.05 where I fell on my hip 00:01:31.09\00:01:32.42 and I don't know if that caused it or not, 00:01:32.45\00:01:34.26 but there is just a lot of pain in my lower back. 00:01:34.29\00:01:37.03 And you know, I'm young, I thought it will be fine, 00:01:37.06\00:01:39.36 it will go away on its own. 00:01:39.39\00:01:41.36 But then I waited till the weekend 00:01:41.40\00:01:42.73 whenever everyone closed and the help wasn't available. 00:01:42.76\00:01:46.74 And then I finally decided, you know, 00:01:46.77\00:01:48.10 I need to see someone. 00:01:48.14\00:01:49.47 But fortunately a good friend of mine is a physiotherapist. 00:01:49.50\00:01:50.84 There you go. 00:01:50.87\00:01:52.21 And so I went and saw him at his convenience, 00:01:52.24\00:01:54.28 and he was able to help fix my problem. 00:01:54.31\00:01:57.58 Well, that's a good thing. 00:01:57.61\00:01:58.95 And, you know, we're gonna talk about 00:01:58.98\00:02:00.32 back pain, the basics, 00:02:00.35\00:02:01.68 and unfortunately a lot of people 00:02:01.72\00:02:03.05 suffer from back pain, 00:02:03.08\00:02:04.69 and it's not treated correctly 00:02:04.72\00:02:06.72 and it becomes a chronic problem. 00:02:06.76\00:02:09.09 And then it grows and it gets bigger and bigger 00:02:09.12\00:02:11.76 and sometimes it leads to operations. 00:02:11.79\00:02:14.30 Lot of people don't realize that 00:02:14.33\00:02:15.66 operations aren't successful every time on the back. 00:02:15.70\00:02:18.00 In fact I read a statistic 00:02:18.03\00:02:19.57 that said operations are only effective 00:02:19.60\00:02:21.57 50 percent of the time. 00:02:21.60\00:02:23.30 Yeah, wow. 00:02:23.34\00:02:24.67 Now if we remember, you know, what's in our back is, 00:02:24.71\00:02:27.48 you know, that we have a spinal cord 00:02:27.51\00:02:29.54 that go through our back 00:02:29.58\00:02:30.91 and that's how we sense the world through that cord. 00:02:30.95\00:02:33.68 And that cord has spaces where the nerves come out of it 00:02:33.72\00:02:36.82 and goes throughout the body. 00:02:36.85\00:02:38.35 So there is a lot of nerves going on. 00:02:38.39\00:02:40.06 We talked earlier about pain in nerves 00:02:40.09\00:02:42.36 and pain from damage to nerves. 00:02:42.39\00:02:43.73 Yeah. 00:02:43.76\00:02:45.09 And unfortunately 00:02:45.13\00:02:46.46 if you think about it this way is that's 00:02:46.49\00:02:47.96 where a lot of nerve activities happening in our back. 00:02:48.00\00:02:51.17 So if we don't treat our back correctly, 00:02:51.20\00:02:53.40 it causes trauma to these nerves. 00:02:53.44\00:02:56.20 Now just think about it for a second, 00:02:56.24\00:02:58.54 one of the biggest traumas that we have on our back, 00:02:58.57\00:03:01.84 okay, is sitting. 00:03:01.88\00:03:03.78 Yeah, right. 00:03:03.81\00:03:05.15 And we weren't really made to sit 00:03:05.18\00:03:06.51 for prolong periods of time. 00:03:06.55\00:03:07.98 And how many people sit all day long, 00:03:08.02\00:03:10.72 they work at computer desks, and they don't move around. 00:03:10.75\00:03:13.79 And when you don't move around, guess what? 00:03:13.82\00:03:15.86 It can put the back in bad positions, 00:03:15.89\00:03:18.79 it can put muscles that squish on nerves 00:03:18.83\00:03:20.83 and it does that chronically, it can cause damage. 00:03:20.86\00:03:23.63 Right, right, yeah. 00:03:23.67\00:03:25.00 Now if that's not bad, what about cars? 00:03:25.03\00:03:26.84 You know, I see lots of truck drivers 00:03:26.87\00:03:28.44 with back pain, it's just from the posture. 00:03:28.47\00:03:30.64 Yeah. 00:03:30.67\00:03:32.01 They don't get up and move and exercise. 00:03:32.04\00:03:33.54 So the back is also made to move 00:03:33.58\00:03:35.78 and stretch and exercise. 00:03:35.81\00:03:37.18 When we don't do those things, 00:03:37.21\00:03:39.05 we get lagged into certain positions 00:03:39.08\00:03:40.98 and sometimes the nerves are compromised. 00:03:41.02\00:03:43.75 Okay. Okay. 00:03:43.79\00:03:45.29 Another thing that that I see is 00:03:45.32\00:03:46.96 people lift the weights inappropriately. 00:03:46.99\00:03:49.19 You know, they're trying to lift weights 00:03:49.22\00:03:50.63 and they're really not warmed up, 00:03:50.66\00:03:52.06 they hurt their back 00:03:52.09\00:03:53.43 when they're just trying to lift the weights. 00:03:53.46\00:03:54.80 They bend in certain ways and it's that, 00:03:54.83\00:03:56.53 and then they have pain. 00:03:56.56\00:03:58.10 And then a lot of the back pain, 00:03:58.13\00:04:00.04 Nick, it would get better if we would just rest, 00:04:00.07\00:04:04.11 and let it heal. 00:04:04.14\00:04:05.47 Yeah, right. 00:04:05.51\00:04:06.84 And unfortunately when a person has a back pain, 00:04:06.88\00:04:08.21 oh, we're in a fast going society, 00:04:08.24\00:04:10.71 we cannot rest, okay. 00:04:10.75\00:04:12.91 Where we cannot take the time off to get it better, 00:04:12.95\00:04:15.48 so we might take some pills, 00:04:15.52\00:04:16.85 we might take some anti-inflammatories 00:04:16.89\00:04:18.45 we keep going, and then all of a sudden 00:04:18.49\00:04:20.42 the muscles pulls on a nerve, 00:04:20.46\00:04:21.92 it gets worse and worse and worse, 00:04:21.96\00:04:23.86 and before a long it becomes chronic pain 00:04:23.89\00:04:25.66 and we make the problem much worst. 00:04:25.69\00:04:27.33 Now you respond, you saw physical therapist, 00:04:27.36\00:04:29.30 what did he do for you? 00:04:29.33\00:04:30.67 Well, my hips hadn't been aligned properly 00:04:30.70\00:04:33.90 after whatever caused that, whether it was a fall 00:04:33.94\00:04:35.97 or whatever else. 00:04:36.00\00:04:37.64 And so he was able to do a manipulation 00:04:37.67\00:04:39.47 that helped readjust my hips. 00:04:39.51\00:04:41.51 And I guess that had caused 00:04:41.54\00:04:42.88 the muscles in my lower back to be stretched. 00:04:42.91\00:04:46.01 And at first you know, I thought it was gonna away 00:04:46.05\00:04:48.45 but then after a while, the pain got worse and worse. 00:04:48.48\00:04:51.02 And almost instantly 00:04:51.05\00:04:52.62 after he did the manipulation to get my hips back in line, 00:04:52.65\00:04:55.42 I almost instantly I felt better. 00:04:55.46\00:04:56.89 Yeah. 00:04:56.93\00:04:58.26 Although there was some residual soreness 00:04:58.29\00:04:59.63 that lasted for couple of days. 00:04:59.66\00:05:01.00 Now that's great, 00:05:01.03\00:05:02.36 'cause that's a great way for people that have back pain 00:05:02.40\00:05:04.27 if it doesn't heal, 00:05:04.30\00:05:05.63 a physical therapist is the good place to go. 00:05:05.67\00:05:07.14 Yeah. 00:05:07.17\00:05:08.50 They also might want to see their doctor 00:05:08.54\00:05:09.87 to make sure it's nothing more serious 00:05:09.90\00:05:11.67 like a slipped disk. 00:05:11.71\00:05:13.78 Usually those type of people with back pain 00:05:13.81\00:05:16.08 has a pain that radiates into the legs. 00:05:16.11\00:05:18.78 Yeah. 00:05:18.81\00:05:20.15 And it usually doesn't go away 00:05:20.18\00:05:21.52 with rest and conservative measures, 00:05:21.55\00:05:22.88 and we can do some tests, you know, 00:05:22.92\00:05:24.82 MRIs and CAT scans 00:05:24.85\00:05:26.19 which can look to see if a disk is slipped. 00:05:26.22\00:05:28.62 We also have fancy test to look to see 00:05:28.66\00:05:30.69 if the spinal column is infiltrated 00:05:30.73\00:05:32.89 or things of that nature. 00:05:32.93\00:05:34.26 But most of back pain is caused by what we call is 00:05:34.30\00:05:37.97 we don't use our back correctly. 00:05:38.00\00:05:39.50 Right. 00:05:39.53\00:05:40.87 Now another big cause of back pain nowadays is 00:05:40.90\00:05:44.37 because the blood vessels to the back are compromised. 00:05:44.41\00:05:48.24 And what causes that? 00:05:48.28\00:05:49.61 Yeah, well, think about it. 00:05:49.64\00:05:51.05 We've talked in previous programs 00:05:51.08\00:05:53.05 about the heart. 00:05:53.08\00:05:54.42 Too much fat clogs up the arteries of the heart. 00:05:54.45\00:05:56.62 Right. 00:05:56.65\00:05:57.99 Well, guess what? 00:05:58.02\00:05:59.35 It just doesn't stay with their heart. 00:05:59.39\00:06:00.72 Too much fat can clog up 00:06:00.76\00:06:02.09 the arteries to the spinal cord, 00:06:02.12\00:06:03.73 okay. 00:06:03.76\00:06:05.09 And if the arteries to the spinal cord 00:06:05.13\00:06:06.49 aren't getting enough blood, guess what? 00:06:06.53\00:06:08.46 Another source of back pain. 00:06:08.50\00:06:10.03 Okay. 00:06:10.07\00:06:11.40 Even though trauma, posture, 00:06:11.43\00:06:12.93 lifting incorrectly is probably the most common. 00:06:12.97\00:06:15.50 We also see blood vessels being compromised. 00:06:15.54\00:06:18.34 A smoker that has a lot of back pain 00:06:18.37\00:06:20.44 and we can't find out physical problems, 00:06:20.48\00:06:22.41 it could be the blood vessels 00:06:22.44\00:06:24.15 aren't as good as they should be 00:06:24.18\00:06:27.25 and that's triggering pain when they do things. 00:06:27.28\00:06:29.58 But I see a lot of people that have back pain 00:06:29.62\00:06:32.19 and unfortunately rather than 00:06:32.22\00:06:33.76 getting at the cause of the back pain, 00:06:33.79\00:06:35.92 which is usually posture or a stress on our muscle, 00:06:35.96\00:06:39.86 you know, doing the exercises, the stretching, 00:06:39.89\00:06:42.43 they jump to a medication a little bit too quickly. 00:06:42.46\00:06:45.63 Now there is place for medications. 00:06:45.67\00:06:48.14 And sometimes medications with bed rest 00:06:48.17\00:06:51.14 can let the medicines heal. 00:06:51.17\00:06:53.38 You know, the medicines help to turn down the inflammation, 00:06:53.41\00:06:56.44 the inflammation goes down, 00:06:56.48\00:06:58.05 and the nerves can heal on its own. 00:06:58.08\00:07:00.35 Sometimes physical therapy 00:07:00.38\00:07:01.72 or chiropractors can take pressure off the muscle 00:07:01.75\00:07:04.22 which lets the nerves relax and heal. 00:07:04.25\00:07:06.65 But when people don't do that, Nick, 00:07:06.69\00:07:09.26 it just makes the problem worse, 00:07:09.29\00:07:10.89 because you're not getting at the cause, 00:07:10.93\00:07:12.76 they're treating a symptom. 00:07:12.79\00:07:14.43 And everyone wants to get back 00:07:14.46\00:07:15.86 to doing what they can so soon, 00:07:15.90\00:07:17.73 that they wanna jump, jump, jump to the final step 00:07:17.77\00:07:20.87 and they don't want to take the time to heal. 00:07:20.90\00:07:23.00 And in our fast pace world 00:07:23.04\00:07:24.84 everyone's moving around doing too much. 00:07:24.87\00:07:27.14 Now after you had your back problem, 00:07:27.18\00:07:29.54 what did your physician do to help your back out, 00:07:29.58\00:07:32.58 I mean to prevent it from happening again? 00:07:32.61\00:07:34.42 Right, well, I ask him about that 00:07:34.45\00:07:36.05 because I said, you know, this happened once. 00:07:36.08\00:07:37.55 He said, likely that will happen again and he said, 00:07:37.59\00:07:39.79 you know, it very well could. 00:07:39.82\00:07:42.22 For me it stems from a problem 00:07:42.26\00:07:44.13 actually that I had long ago with my knee, 00:07:44.16\00:07:46.03 I have a knee injury, I partially tore a ligament. 00:07:46.06\00:07:48.83 And I've functionally reduced the amount of flex in my knee. 00:07:48.86\00:07:54.77 So my left leg functions a little short, 00:07:54.80\00:07:56.94 my right leg functions a little bit long, 00:07:56.97\00:07:58.87 and that causes my hips to be misaligned. 00:07:58.91\00:08:00.81 So he told me if we could do some stretching 00:08:00.84\00:08:02.54 to get my legs functioning equally 00:08:02.58\00:08:04.98 that would help my hips stay in line 00:08:05.01\00:08:06.72 and then not cause the back pain. 00:08:06.75\00:08:08.28 Yeah, so I guess the first big point 00:08:08.32\00:08:10.05 we have today if you have back pain, 00:08:10.09\00:08:12.42 don't be afraid to rest. 00:08:12.45\00:08:13.79 Yeah. 00:08:13.82\00:08:15.16 Get at the reason why, 00:08:15.19\00:08:16.66 and think about some physical therapy, 00:08:16.69\00:08:18.49 a short course of medication might be useful. 00:08:18.53\00:08:20.43 Right. 00:08:20.46\00:08:21.86 Those are all things and then of course 00:08:21.90\00:08:23.23 if it doesn't go away, 00:08:23.26\00:08:24.60 they progress to the CAT scans and MRIs with those 00:08:24.63\00:08:27.90 to have surgery on your back 00:08:27.94\00:08:29.27 or long term medications are the last place 00:08:29.30\00:08:31.84 we want to go. 00:08:31.87\00:08:33.21 We want to try to find out anything else we can do first, 00:08:33.24\00:08:36.31 which brings me up to a story I heard. 00:08:36.34\00:08:38.75 Have you ever heard this term, placebo effect? 00:08:38.78\00:08:41.42 Yeah, sure. 00:08:41.45\00:08:42.78 Okay, I don't like that word. 00:08:42.82\00:08:44.35 I like to call it healing beliefs. 00:08:44.39\00:08:46.89 Yeah. 00:08:46.92\00:08:48.26 You know, if a person believes that treatment's helping them 00:08:48.29\00:08:50.49 and it actually does help them, 00:08:50.53\00:08:51.86 because the brain has the ability 00:08:51.89\00:08:54.00 to help heal the body. 00:08:54.03\00:08:55.36 That's right. 00:08:55.40\00:08:56.73 You know, we've talked about inflammation 00:08:56.77\00:08:58.10 but healing belief, 00:08:58.13\00:08:59.47 just sometimes our body can do things for itself 00:08:59.50\00:09:01.70 they can help heal it. 00:09:01.74\00:09:03.24 I remember a story I heard 00:09:03.27\00:09:06.44 about the islands out in the Pacific. 00:09:06.47\00:09:08.41 I don't know if you've ever been there, 00:09:08.44\00:09:09.78 but they have, 00:09:09.81\00:09:11.28 there is this bunch of young men 00:09:11.31\00:09:12.65 out on the islands of the Pacific. 00:09:12.68\00:09:14.45 And there is these bad guys 00:09:14.48\00:09:16.55 they would just fall over dead in their 20s. 00:09:16.58\00:09:18.89 Oh, my... 00:09:18.92\00:09:20.26 And no one knew why. 00:09:20.29\00:09:21.62 Yeah. Okay. 00:09:21.66\00:09:22.99 So they did the autopsies on these fellows 00:09:23.02\00:09:24.69 and there was nothing wrong with them at all, 00:09:24.73\00:09:26.70 nothing wrong. 00:09:26.73\00:09:28.06 They were completely healthy 00:09:28.10\00:09:29.43 and they were falling over death. 00:09:29.46\00:09:31.40 Well, they did some evaluation into that 00:09:31.43\00:09:34.37 and they found out that there was these witch doctors 00:09:34.40\00:09:36.87 that were sticking needles into them, 00:09:36.91\00:09:38.67 and these gentlemen thought that they were gonna die. 00:09:38.71\00:09:41.64 They just believes 00:09:41.68\00:09:43.01 what they were to, they would die. 00:09:43.04\00:09:44.38 Yes, they believed. 00:09:44.41\00:09:45.75 So healing beliefs has a very important treatment in pain. 00:09:45.78\00:09:49.62 Right. You know. 00:09:49.65\00:09:50.99 If you have believe in a treatment, 00:09:51.02\00:09:52.75 if you believe in something 00:09:52.79\00:09:54.12 it has some chemical properties that helps our body separate 00:09:54.16\00:09:57.76 than anything else we can understand. 00:09:57.79\00:09:59.59 Our bodies are much more complicated than we think. 00:09:59.63\00:10:02.10 Right. 00:10:02.13\00:10:03.47 As far as our brains, our genetics 00:10:03.50\00:10:05.10 and we know that people that are positive 00:10:05.13\00:10:07.30 that believe in the treatment that they are receiving, 00:10:07.34\00:10:11.07 they do much better, 00:10:11.11\00:10:12.44 so there is really not this placebo effect, 00:10:12.47\00:10:14.34 it's they believe it's helping them. 00:10:14.38\00:10:15.71 Yeah. 00:10:15.74\00:10:17.08 And I've heard of people that have back pain 00:10:17.11\00:10:18.85 that get rest and they're giving you know, 00:10:18.88\00:10:20.78 just some minor things 00:10:20.82\00:10:22.38 and they believe it's helping them, 00:10:22.42\00:10:23.99 they do the things right and just that in itself 00:10:24.02\00:10:26.86 has a very powerful ability for the body to heal itself. 00:10:26.89\00:10:29.86 Yeah. 00:10:29.89\00:10:31.23 But I really want to focus on 00:10:31.26\00:10:32.59 how important rest is in treating back conditions. 00:10:32.63\00:10:35.56 Yeah. 00:10:35.60\00:10:36.93 You know, some people don't believe 00:10:36.97\00:10:39.30 that they need to go see someone to get help. 00:10:39.33\00:10:41.70 I didn't know, you know, I thought four, five days, 00:10:41.74\00:10:43.81 I didn't believe I needed help 00:10:43.84\00:10:45.17 but then after the sixth or seventh day 00:10:45.21\00:10:46.61 I believed, you know, I do need help. 00:10:46.88\00:10:48.38 What do you say to people 00:10:48.41\00:10:49.74 who are reluctant to go get their back checked out? 00:10:49.78\00:10:51.65 Well, think about it, you know, 00:10:51.68\00:10:53.05 a little problem can become a big problem pretty quick, 00:10:53.08\00:10:56.12 you know. 00:10:56.15\00:10:57.49 If you had your car that was knocking a little bit 00:10:57.52\00:10:59.75 or the engine light came on, 00:10:59.79\00:11:01.29 would you keep driving that car 00:11:01.32\00:11:02.79 mile after mile down the road? 00:11:02.82\00:11:04.86 And it gonna get stuck somewhere. 00:11:04.89\00:11:06.23 No, you have a warning light 00:11:06.26\00:11:07.60 that something's not wrong, right. 00:11:07.63\00:11:09.46 Something is not right, yeah. Right, something is not right. 00:11:09.50\00:11:10.87 And pain is sign, a warning light in our body 00:11:10.90\00:11:14.50 that something is not right. 00:11:14.54\00:11:15.87 That's right. 00:11:15.90\00:11:17.24 And whether which organ it is 00:11:17.27\00:11:18.61 when we're having pain in the back, 00:11:18.64\00:11:19.97 sure most of the time 00:11:20.01\00:11:21.34 back pain is not life threatening 00:11:21.38\00:11:22.71 like heart pain or some other types of pains. 00:11:22.74\00:11:24.58 But long term it could be a big problem. 00:11:24.61\00:11:27.38 So if you're having pain that's unexplained, 00:11:27.42\00:11:30.02 that doesn't go away in a short period of time with rest, 00:11:30.05\00:11:33.39 you might want to see a professional 00:11:33.42\00:11:35.46 that can evaluate this. 00:11:35.49\00:11:36.86 And you know, general providers can do this, 00:11:36.89\00:11:39.36 physical therapists are excellent at this, 00:11:39.39\00:11:41.53 and there is some chiropractors that are very good 00:11:41.56\00:11:43.83 in helping you understand the cause of the pain, 00:11:43.87\00:11:46.57 especially when it comes to back 00:11:46.60\00:11:47.94 and can teach you some things, 00:11:47.97\00:11:49.30 whether it be getting up and moving every hour, resting. 00:11:49.34\00:11:52.31 And they also can evaluate you to see 00:11:52.34\00:11:53.98 if it's something more serious. 00:11:54.01\00:11:55.84 Right, right. 00:11:55.88\00:11:57.21 Well, sounds like some good advice there 00:11:57.25\00:11:58.81 and we've got questions from our viewers 00:11:58.85\00:12:01.15 and we're gonna get to those in just a moment 00:12:01.18\00:12:02.98 after the break. 00:12:03.02\00:12:04.35