Jiu-jitsu puts a strain on the back of upto 80% of practitioners according to some incidence reports. Do you have an issue with your back? Are you in pain? Disc herniations are much more common than previously thought. Further, disc herniation may be asymptomatic. They may cause mild to moderate or confusing symptoms but they can also lead to serious, devastating and permanent injury.
But things get a bit more complicated once we consider the role pharmaceutical industry plays in it.
This is exactly the topic of the new book from investigative journalist Cathryn Jakobson Ramin. Ramin traveled around the world and served as guinea pig for various therapies and interviewed a significant number of patients, doctors and therapist linked to the 100 billion dollars a year industry.
She told next avenue:
You describe a personal diagnosis called “degenerative disc disease.” That sounds incredibly frightening.
Scary. And when I heard that the first time and the second and the fifth time, I was very, very scared. It sounded bad. It sounded like doomsday, and I thought we were going to have to widen the doorways to the bathrooms, so that I could get in in a wheelchair.
No one said to me, ‘That really sounds terrible, but it isn’t, so just don’t worry about it.’ Instead, the doctor’s receptionist said, in a very serious tone of voice, ‘You really need to come in right away so we can talk about next steps.’ I thought, ‘Oh, God, really?’ I was about 51 or 52, and I thought this just can’t be happening.
But what I learned over the years was this diagnosis is nonsense, because everybody has degenerated discs in their spine. It’s just how it works, and also, it’s very much a marketing term and a way to sell surgery.
But perhaps the most startling discovery from her book was that when 100 spinal doctors were polled with the question ‘Would you have spine surgery?’:
This was a question posed to spine surgeons: ‘Would you have spine surgery?’ [Specifically lumbar fusion or disc replacement surgery.] And resoundingly, in this group, all said ‘No,’ except one. Now, that should tell you all you need to know.
You connect the dots between the spike in back pain and the opioid epidemic.
There is an extremely clear correlation. What happened was doctors felt compelled to prescribe opioids to patients who were suffering. And the drug companies were right behind that, pushing that all back pain should be treated immediately with opioids.
In addition to this Ramin shared her opinion on what it takes to recover:
What’s your practical advice for back pain sufferers?
People want to be fixed. They are always looking for the person who can fix them, or the procedure or the drug. The bad news here, or maybe it’s good news, is that you are not going to find someone who will fix you. You will be the fixer. You will be the one who develops the intensive exercise program that is going to allow you to escape from this.
And it’s not only intensive exercise. It’s changing the way that you think about back pain. Do you think that if you get up and move and exercise that you will damage yourself? Very, very, very unlikely. So, we’re talking about a very structured, intensive exercise program.
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