Do warm and cold compress help relieve low back pain?

The universal treatment that almost all doctors recommend for people with low back pain is warm or cold compress. There are some data to suggest that heat therapy is helpful when the pain is acute and the duration of pain is less than 3 months. However, many doctors continue to recommend these treatments for people who have had back pain for many years. 

Heat treatments comes in many forms –from hot water bottle, heating pads, electrical appliance pads and infrared lamps. The cold treatments come as cold ice pack, gels, cold towels and ice massages. However, the question is, “do warm or cold compress help relieve back pain which is long standing?”

A recent review of major studies on low back pain where both heat and cold treatments were used revealed the following. There was little benefit from both ice and heat treatment if the back pain was of more than 3 months in duration. However, if the back pain was of short duration, heat treatments only provided minimal relief that was of short duration. In some cases, addition of exercise did help reduce the pain and helped improve function. As far as cold treatment were concerned, there is very little data to support their use. Most people did have any benefit from cold treatments

So what should the consumer do?

If you have new onset of back pain, try some heat and start an exercise program. As far as ice packs are concerned, save your money for the pain pills.

Is there a permanent cure for back pain?

Unfortunately No. Back pain affects millions of people and accounts for high morbidity. For most people, the only way to relieve back pain is with the use of pain killers. There are many types of traction devices, herbs, lotions, pastes, enemas, detox diets, and support instruments for the back. All these either provide temporary relief or are worthless remedies. In most cases, use of these back pain remedies will only worsen your pain and make you go broke. 

Just like the weight loss industry, back pain treatment is a multi billion dollar industry with many charlatans who make lots of false promises. As far as surgery is concerned, keep away from back surgeons unless it is an absolute emergency. It is the very rare patient who ever benefits from back surgery. For every one happy individual, there are thousands more who are incapacitated and in worse shape then before. Moreover, back surgery is often associated with serious complications. 

If you have severe back pain, try a combination of gentle exercise, physical therapy and cut down on your weight. You will live a lot longer (and get to keep your money) if you keep away from back surgeons and the nonsensical traction devices.

Does traction therapy help back pain? Part 2

That traction is at best considered sham or a scam- which means it did diddly squat. Traction was no more effective than taking a sugar pill (placebo). A variety of traction devices were analyzed and the conclusion was the same- traction devices are nothing more than a scam. Irrespective of whether the individual underwent continuous traction or intermittent traction, no one benefitted from this type of therapy In fact many individuals developed more complications from traction and some even required emergent surgery.

The authors concluded that traction alone as a treatment for low back pain is as good as garbage.

So if you have back pain, save your hard earned money on these sham devices and keep away from scamming health care professionals who are more interested in your money than your back.

Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2007, Issue 2. Art. No.: CD003010. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD003010.pub4

Does traction therapy help back pain? Part 1

Low-back pain (LBP) affects millions of individuals in North America and is a major health problem. The medical costs of low back pain are enormous resulting in absenteeism, disability and poor quality life style. No one satisfactory treatment for low back pain exists and almost every week a new therapy is developed. In the last 2 decades, traction has been advocated as a panacea for back pain. There are several type of devices ranging from mechanical and manual traction.

Today, many physicians have fancy traction devices in their clinics which they hype up as a cure for sciatica and other types of back pain. It is recommended that one enroll in traction treatment sessions 1-2 times a week for 12-16 weeks and voila, you will be cured. One should not forget that traction treatments do not come cheap. All the data on traction treatment and its benefits come directly from the mouth of people who make these machines or physicians who promote these devices.

So do they work?

Researchers looked at randomized controlled studies to determine if traction really worked. More than 2200 patients who received 1045 sessions of traction were evaluated from several clinical trials.

And what did the researchers find?