reading & research

Time to Start Thinking About Your Back—and Taking Care of It

Becoming aware of your back and how you can prevent arthritis in the spine’s facet joints is an investment in years of back health. CONTINUE

3 Simple Practices Your Spine Will Appreciate

Could you afford to be out of work for several weeks? Back pain is not only a leading cause for calling in sick, it prolongs absence for weeks at a time. According to one study, “…the proportion of people with back pain returning to work was 68.2% at 1 month, 85.6% at 1-6 months and […] CONTINUE

How Can Pain Come from Joints in Your Spine?

When you think of joints in your body, the “usual suspects” come immediately to mind: knees, ankles, wrists, knuckles in fingers and toes, shoulders and elbows. Even before you can remember, back when you were learning to talk, your parents may have played a little game with you. Where’s your nose? Where’s your ear? Where’s […] CONTINUE

Is Your Back Pain All in Your Head?

Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is not picky. Like an equal opportunity employer, it chooses all ethnicities and excludes no genders. “The prevalence of CLBP in adults has increased more than 100% in the last decade and continues to increase dramatically in the aging population … with a significant impact on functional capacity and occupational […] CONTINUE

Second Time Around: Glucosamine and Facet Joint Pain

If something is worth writing about, it’s worth writing about twice. This is the second time I have occasion to bring up glucosamine in connection with facet joint pain. The first time was an article called “Can Glucosamine Prevent Facet Joint Pain?” in which I indicated that evidence of cartilage benefit in the spine is […] CONTINUE

How Much Are You Willing to Pay for Facet Joint Pain?

Lower back pain is one of the most common sources of discomfort, often severe enough to hamper normal daily activities. Family life, job performance, and social activities start to slip. It may be short-lived, e.g. due to injury, and manageable with over-the-counter pain relievers and home treatment so it soon eases off. However, other conditions […] CONTINUE

Does Focused Ultrasound for Bone Mets Spark Wider Antitumor Activity?

If cancer spreads from the primary tumor (e.g. breast cancer, prostate cancer, etc.) to the bone, it can do a lot of damage. Metastasis to the bone—or bone mets—can weaken the bone, making it vulnerable to a fracture that’s difficult to repair. Even more frightening, bone mets cause fierce pain for 50-75% of patients. For […] CONTINUE

4 Ways to Take Charge and Prevent Arthritis in Your Spine

The Riddle of the Sphinx: “What is the creature that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon and three in the evening?” If you’re not familiar with the Riddle of the Sphinx, it was a trap posed by this mythical creature in order to devour travelers. If you couldn’t answer the […] CONTINUE

4 Easy Tips for Preventing Lower Back Pain

“…let’s see if we can’t prevent being ill by trying to offer a love of prevention before illness.”– MAYA ANGELOU Do you remember your first car? Once you had the means to afford one, whether new or used, it was exciting to shop the ads or the car lots, and do some research on gas […] CONTINUE

5 Home Remedies for Lower Back Pain

Do you suffer from lower back pain? Regardless of how often and how much it hurts, you’re in the company of millions of others affected by an aching lower back. The lower back is called the lumbar region or lumbar spine. At some time or another, four out of five adults report they have had […] CONTINUE