I saw an osteopath. I'm doing farmer walks (kind of exercise). It is helping me a lot after ~5 years of back pain.
Ask HN: How do you deal with neck and back pain?
41–45 of 45 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with neck and back pain?
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
"See a doctor" is not a silver bullet. I have pretty severe chronic upper back pain that I have repeatedly brought to my doctor's attention at Stanford Med. I've only ever gotten "I dunno, maybe see a PT" as a response. No imaging referrals, no diagnosis, just a tacit admission that my issue is hard to diagnose or treat, and therefore uninteresting. I've gone to a series of physical therapists. They all offered me ex…
Sorry to hear you're in pain :( I agree it's not a silver bullet, and I probably should have made that more clear. The point I was trying to make is that they're likely to get a lot of advice in this thread, and knowing nothing else about them other than that they have back pain and a standard desk job it's more likely that a doctor will be able to help than that any recommendation here will make a difference. To you…
No worries, and thanks for your sympathy! Just wanted to point out that a lot of the time in situations like these, there's really no good advice to give, even if you really feel like giving some advice.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with neck and back pain?
#43(1) See a doctor. General-purpose advice isn't meaningful here. (2) Pain can be from something as simple as underusing a region of muscles. Once you know your specific problems it's often really easy to treat and prevent. (3) Fixing that sooner rather than later is probably a good idea. You heal faster when you're younger, and chronic pain can easily become a mental pattern long after the physical trigger has healed…
"See a doctor" is not a silver bullet. I have pretty severe chronic upper back pain that I have repeatedly brought to my doctor's attention at Stanford Med. I've only ever gotten "I dunno, maybe see a PT" as a response. No imaging referrals, no diagnosis, just a tacit admission that my issue is hard to diagnose or treat, and therefore uninteresting. I've gone to a series of physical therapists. They all offered me ex…
I have seen a physical therapist as well, but with a very generic answer as a result. Hence I am asking here for more ideas on how to do that “just do som regular workout” as I am supposed to.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with neck and back pain?
#44Work by Dr Stuart McGill PhD is a good scientific take on the issue as well as offering super practical level advice to avoid pain and injury, simple tests to see exactly what is causing your pain, and excercises to build up specific muscles.
https://www.backfitpro.com/about-us/
His book Back Mechanic is aimed at ordinary people, but he's worked with athletes as well, so you can find some stuff on that kind of topic.
Walking is a simple and underated cure when you're already in the pain stage.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with neck and back pain?
#45Lots of comments about random pains from what I'm going to assume are relatively younger folks. I was diagnosed with ulnar neuropathy before 30 where my pinky and ring finger went numb. It was caused by my sitting and even laying position when using MacBook air where my wrist and arm would rest against the edge of the MacBook and desk. I switched to a standing desk which elevated my arm so it wasn't always pressed or pinched against the edge of something and due to a combo of massage and acupuncture, resolved my neuropathy without surgery (which btw was told to me was the only fix by multiple modern doctors/specialists)
If you move to a standing setup, be sure to buy a standing pad with ridges. My feet were killing me initially but that's cus they weren't used to being stood on and the ridges force you not to lock your hip.
I was 29m, 5'8" 215 pounds in 2018 when this all hit me. By 2020 I was as low as 165 and could run 5 miles at mid 7 min pace. I changed my life around and felt great. Covid sucked and I'm at 195 today but back on a path to the 170s.
Haven't had ulnar neuropathy since and at my company, others who have reported issues, we moved to standing setups and those issues have also resolved themselves.
Backpain appeared along with my first kid where you contort your body when sleeping to make sure they are sleeping well. Went to chiropractor to reset, switched to the firmest foam mattress, and lift weights to strengthen back muscles.