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The $100B per year back pain industry is mostly a hoax

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Re: The $100B per year back pain industry is mostly a hoax

#151

Post by rargulati »

slr555 wrote: post #135

The thing is, when you've seen one back problem, you've see one back problem. The spine is a maddeningly complex assembly of bone, nerves, cartilage, articular surfaces, vasculature, packed tightly, subjected to immense forces, and articulable is many directions. It is a miracle of evolutionary engineering and a miserable failure. We needed to crawl longer before we stood up and walked as a species. I have been throu…

Would love to learn more about the activities or structural issues that led to getting the surgery. Also, what were the types of things you heard over 10 years (or treatments you attempted) before getting the surgery? Basically, would love to hear your story / more details here - thanks :)

Re: The $100B per year back pain industry is mostly a hoax

#152

Post by chad_strategic »

My recommendations for fixing back pain or a slip disc. 1. If you are a man, get a smaller wallet, don't be sitting on a thick wallet. 2. If you are in a crappy job that annoys you, then quit or get fired. Some back pain is psychosomatic. 3. Lose about 20 pounds. (I was in great weight lifting shape, but had kinda of looked like a line backer.) 4. Yoga 5. Running 6. Standing desk

4 and 5 are free. The medical industrial complex can't make money by telling you to go to yoga or run. They would rather preform surgery or give a patient drugs. Unfortunately, people take the easy route.

I have been free of back pain for nearly 14 years. Sure some of it comes back here and there but it goes away with stretches, exercise and proper sitting / standing awareness.

Re: The $100B per year back pain industry is mostly a hoax

#153

Post by [deleted] »

hpcjoe wrote: post #63
femto wrote: post #16

I can personally vouch for the effectiveness of a morning routine of 15 minutes of exercise at home, targeting the pelvic muscles. The only equipment required is a floor mat, if the floor is hard. I started gently and naturally progressed to a higher level, taking the attitude that there is no hurry, because I'm going to be doing this for the rest of my life, so there is plenty of time to progress. My initial routine…

I've had back pain on and off over the years. Usually due to muscle cramping from poor posture. I had to make a conscious effort not to slouch at my desk. What I've found helps with back pain, sciatica, knee pain, are stretches, and free weights. Then again, I've been lifting for about 41 years, so its not a surprise to me that changing my regimen provides positive outcomes. Specifically, for me, dead lifts for lower…

[deleted]

Re: The $100B per year back pain industry is mostly a hoax

#154

Post by sntdoaeu98 »

erentz wrote: post #47

http://sciencebasedmedicine.org/acupuncture-doesnt-work/

Yeah, my wife was sent to an acupuncturist as a sort of last resort when everything else had failed. She was more than happy to go and assumed it would help. She was sent to the UCLA East/West center, which is supposed to be top-of-the-line in the field. The instructions they gave her didn't even make sense. In addition to getting poked with needles, there was a lot of very vaguely described things she was supposed to do. It was so weird I can hardly remember most of it, but they had a special diet they wanted her to start. It involved such specifics as "avoid foods that invite dampness." We didn't know what that meant, but they had a helpful chart of examples, like lettuce. WTF? What does that even mean? They also suggested she take orange rinds, but didn't specify how she was supposed to take them. Should she just eat them raw? Put them in tea? Grind them up in something? And what type of oranges?

Calling it a "medical technique" or even "alternative medicine" was ludicrous. It wasn't even coherent.

Re: The $100B per year back pain industry is mostly a hoax

#155

Post by logicallee »

taneq wrote: post #144
bigiain wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll vouch for the effectiveness of losing 30+kg (65+lb). Which only reduces the back pain problem for overweight people to a known-intractable weight loss problem... :-/

Weight loss isn't "known intractable". Physically it's very simple, if an overweight person is physically prevented from eating too much, they'll lose weight, just like physically it's very simple to quit addictive drugs. And the drug analogy is a good one, because just like quitting drugs, you can't quit overeating (barring the aforementioned option of someone physically preventing you from doing so - which is liter…

you do not even need that. just set appetite = 80 in the human source code so you start eating 80÷ of your daily caloric use. the pounds will melt off. when you have a goal weight set appetite = 100÷ and you will simply stay at that weight.

it is very simple physically.

as for where to set it, I have nothing to say about it just as you have nothing to say about how to make a choice.

/s

The fact is, a choice fat people can make is "I will get gastric sleeve surgery" and this "commit" is statistically enough.

the "commit" that parent suggests is the same as my suggestion at the top. I give no practical advice at the top of this comment and neither does parent comment.

if there were a variable that would set someone's appetite and saciety then it would work. if there were a variable for commitment then parent's advice would work.

parent ignores the hard work of finding and setting that variable, and parent ignores statistics that most fat people have spent a few dozen hours looking for how to set that variable and have failed to do so.

your advice is as bad as when people defend some totally useless setup on the grounds that it's turing complete. yes, you can make a social media app with a custom backend written in C++. No that does not work statistically and most people who set out to do so fail.

but physically it's very simple.

reasonable people don't ignore the statistics.

Re: The $100B per year back pain industry is mostly a hoax

#156

Post by zurn »

taneq wrote: post #144
bigiain wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll vouch for the effectiveness of losing 30+kg (65+lb). Which only reduces the back pain problem for overweight people to a known-intractable weight loss problem... :-/

Weight loss isn't "known intractable". Physically it's very simple, if an overweight person is physically prevented from eating too much, they'll lose weight, just like physically it's very simple to quit addictive drugs. And the drug analogy is a good one, because just like quitting drugs, you can't quit overeating (barring the aforementioned option of someone physically preventing you from doing so - which is liter…

Constant application of great amounts of willpower against your most basic biological instincts is possible for some individuals, but generally you are really arguing against the dictionary definition [1].

[1] [trak-tuh-buh l] .. easily managed or controlled; docile; yielding:

Re: The $100B per year back pain industry is mostly a hoax

#157

Post by timcederman »

deelowe wrote: post #137
slr555 wrote: post #135

The thing is, when you've seen one back problem, you've see one back problem. The spine is a maddeningly complex assembly of bone, nerves, cartilage, articular surfaces, vasculature, packed tightly, subjected to immense forces, and articulable is many directions. It is a miracle of evolutionary engineering and a miserable failure. We needed to crawl longer before we stood up and walked as a species. I have been throu…

I'd love some help. How did you find someone who could actually give you some sort of prognosis/diagnoses? Mine just say either "more PT" or "here's some pills." Neither work. My disc is budged and it seems like moving the wrong way will trigger 2-3 days of intense pain and immobility. No one seems to offer any suggestions on how to fix it. Is it fixable? I don't know... P.S. the back pain industry is a sham, but the…

I went through the PT option for many many years. It definitely helped, but never provided lasting relief. Finally, after a period of nearly a year without any pain relief at all (I now have extreme empathy for people who suffer chronic pain), a microdiscectomy/laminectomy resolved everything. After 2 weeks I could go back to work, after 3-6 months I felt fairly normal, and after a year I felt better than I could ever remember.

I kept seeing experts, getting more opinions, and aggressively pursuing all options. Eventually I was referred to an amazing back doctor who took me through all my options - first PT, then a series of epidural cortisone injections, and finally surgery.

Worth noting though, I did a ton of research about failed back surgeries (it has its own name - "Failed Back Surgery Syndrome"), and while you can put the odds in your favour, there's no sure thing. However, getting a highly rated doctor and surgeon working together to get a very accurate diagnosis, combined with the latest surgical techniques will maximise your odds of success. The microdiscectomy with metrx is pretty incredible for being minimally invasive and keeping recovery time as short as possible.

Re: The $100B per year back pain industry is mostly a hoax

#158

Post by moogly »

logicallee wrote: post #155
taneq wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weight loss isn't "known intractable". Physically it's very simple, if an overweight person is physically prevented from eating too much, they'll lose weight, just like physically it's very simple to quit addictive drugs. And the drug analogy is a good one, because just like quitting drugs, you can't quit overeating (barring the aforementioned option of someone physically preventing you from doing so - which is liter…

you do not even need that. just set appetite = 80 in the human source code so you start eating 80÷ of your daily caloric use. the pounds will melt off. when you have a goal weight set appetite = 100÷ and you will simply stay at that weight. it is very simple physically. as for where to set it, I have nothing to say about it just as you have nothing to say about how to make a choice. /s The fact is, a choice fat peopl…

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/opinion/sunday/why-you-ca...

Apparently, boffins are starting to realise it's not that simple.

Re: The $100B per year back pain industry is mostly a hoax

#159

Post by qazpot »

femto wrote: post #16

I can personally vouch for the effectiveness of a morning routine of 15 minutes of exercise at home, targeting the pelvic muscles. The only equipment required is a floor mat, if the floor is hard. I started gently and naturally progressed to a higher level, taking the attitude that there is no hurry, because I'm going to be doing this for the rest of my life, so there is plenty of time to progress. My initial routine…

I have also found sleeping on a hard floor very effective in preventing back pain.

Re: The $100B per year back pain industry is mostly a hoax

#160

Post by thirdsun »

scrollaway wrote: post #149
joelrunyon wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Piggybacking on this - basic mobility exercises can free up a lot of your muscles from regular pain. You end up doing this a lot when you go see a physical therapist. This was part of the reason we bootstrapped our app - MoveWellApp.com - to give people easy-to-understand routines to stay mobile and pain free at home. It's a free download at http://MoveWellApp.com/download for iOS, so if you have any specific feedbac…

No comment to its quality, but it's pretty ballsy to piggy-back on a thread talking about a $100B/yr industry being "mostly a scam" to promote your app :)

Obviously he has the spine to do so :)

On a more serious note, I think an app that motivates people to be more active isn't a bad thing or scam per se, though I can't speak to the quality of this particular one.

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