European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 14, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Good new for your aching Back by Anne c. Roark los Angeles times of Don t know How or where it began. Perhaps you simply sat too Long. Or you Bent Over too quickly or stretched too fan but now the pain of a. Bad Back has taken Over your. Whole life. Like a Security alarm that can t be shut off the a. A a discomfort of an ailing Back can be merely annoying but All too often it is blinding and debilitating in its. Intensity. And it can happen to anyone at any. Time y Back ailments Are among the most frequent health. A problems second Only to the common cold. A a a four of five and tilt americans suffer from  pain v sometime in their lives. About 1 percent of the a population or 2.5 million individuals is totally and permanently disabled by chronic Back problems. And the incidence of Back pain what the National institutes. Of health recently called Quot a crippling ailment of. A a staggering dimensions Quot appears to be increasing. Faster than  form of bodily injury. Quot a a a a a As alarming As is the frequency of Back complaints is the mystery that surrounds them despite an Arsenal of new tools Only about 17 percent of cases can be a a accurately and fully diagnosed according to recent. Quot epidemiological studies. A. T a yet there is Good news for Many of the 8 million americans who will be stricken with Back. Pain this year. And the nearly 80 million already afflicted. Thanks to v. New insights into the mechanics and biochemistry of the spine and Radical rethinking about How to treat Back \ pain the majority of Back problem s can to brought under control and in some cases a with the right diet. Proper exercises and new work and Leisure habits can be prevented. A Quot Quot there is no cure for Back pain Quot cautioned Michael Schlink founder of Schlink amp associates a physical therapy group in los Angeles that specializes in Back a pain and other orthopaedic ailments. There is he said Quot control and prevention. More than almost any other area of Medicine it is up to the patient to do the controlling and the  Ivy. Back pain sufferers Schlink said cannot passively submit to doctors or therapists and Hope to find a a. Permanent remedy for their Back problems. Nor can they rely on often prescribed Penis anti Quot. Inflammatory drugs and pain relievers a to offer anything More than temporary Relief. Quot this is one area of Medicine Quot he said Quot where a patient cannot be a . I  that Means to the sufferer is exercise to strengthen All parts of the body stretching leg neck and Pelvis Muscles and learning to a. Stabilize and control the trunk of the body so that the spine always remains in its natural alignment said or. Lionel a. Walpin former director of physical Medicine at Cedars Sinai medical Center and now medical director of the Walpin physical Medicine and pain ,. A Institute in los Angeles. /. A which exercise works Best will vary from person to person depending on body condition and the precise nature of the ailment Walpin said. But virtually every Back patient will Benefit from routine stretching and strengthening exercises along with regular aerobic. A activity either swimming or vigorous walking for at least 20 minutes a Day. A a a a a  that assessment shared by most health care professionals is based on Long term epidemiological a studies of Back patients and recent research on the. Mechanics of the spine and the biochemistry of disks and other soft tissues that support the Back. Current thinking about what works a and what does not a would have been considered medical heresy a decade ago said or. August a. White Iii an orthopaedic surgeon at Harvard medical school. A. Posture for example is now believed to be neither a cause of Back pain nor a cure for it. Evidence that the. Quot admonition to Quot stand up straight Quot does Little if anything to keep people from having Back pain comes in part from a detailed review of Quot posture pictures Quot taken As part of \ a. Fitness programs in women s colleges in the 1950s. Heat and Massage two of the oldest and most trusted remedies Are now considered by most a physicians and physical therapists to offer Little More than temporary palliative Relief. A the same is True of bed rest. According to experts taking to bed for More than a few Days during an acute the herniated disk disks Are More than 80% water which makes them highly elastic and enables them to absorb jolts to the Back. With age the disks dry out. The fibres holding the Core become torn allowing the Core to leak out and to form a bulge of this bulge presses on any of the roots of the nerves radiating from the spinal Cord pain weakness and numbness will occur. V. A amps Sharon Kilday \ bout of Back pain might do More harm than Good a causing the Muscles that Are needed in recovery to atrophy and exacerbating the feedings of helplessness and depression that often accompany Back pain Back surgery once considered to be the Riskiest but Only permanent remedy for Back ailments also has fallen out of favor a even with prominent Back surgeons quo surgery should be the last treatment a. Patient considers. And even then the patient should be a second Pinion a said or. Theodore b. Goldstein a Beverly Hills orthopaedic surgeon who specializes Sinback surgery. T a��., t. That a not to say spinal surgery is As Quot fearsome Quot a proposition As it once was noted Goldstein a founding member of the spine Institute a private Center for the treatment and. Diagnosis of Back problems that is scheduled to open this Spring in los Angeles with the right patient and the right diagnosis the. Success rate for surgery on a herniated disk the most common Back operation now runs As High As 94 a a percent thanks to new diagnostic techniques that have a made exploratory Back surgery unnecessary and new operating techniques employing fiber optic lighting and microscopic instruments which result in smaller incisions and faster recoveries. A a a a recovering from Back surgery however is much like avoiding surgery in the first place Goldstein said. It requires physical activity and fundamental changes in the patient s lifestyle. That Means changing the Way a Back patient moves. All evidence indicates that Many Back problems Are the result of Quot movement disorders Quot chronic repetitive movements that put undue stress and Strain on the. Spine and surrounding tissue said Rob land Elf a. University of Southern California professor of physical. Therapy. A. A -. Exercise not Only can strengthen and stretch. Muscles giving the spine the support and agility it. Needs but it also can relieve stress now thought to be one of the precipitating causes of painful muscle. Spasm. Exercise might even relieve pain by causing the body to release its own natural pain killing chemicals. The problem is finding the right exercise for a patient. Back pain is not always a matter of a single defect that can be corrected by a simple procedure or a. Standard set of exercises said or. William a Dillon an orthopaedic surgeon at Kerlan Jobe orthopaedic clinic in Inglewood. Calif. A. A. Often something goes wrong in one area and the patient uses  compensate for it. A muscle Strain can aggravate a disk tear. A disk tear can cause a muscle Strain. A joint problem might trigger a muscle problem. While the patient might feel pain in one place  might be relayed Down nerve pathways from somewhere else. The stars and stripes tuesday