Had back pain (lower back and neck) for years, mostly I think due to being tall and poor desk posture.
I used to spend a lot of money at the chiropractor/osteopath, and while they do give relief I don't see them as a long term solution. That said, I think they can be valuable for acute episodes.
What cured my back pain is Yoga. Not overnight, not over a week, but months of adding strength and flexibility to body as a whole. I'm now pain free.
This may not work for all symptoms, but I think it's important to realise (in most cases it seems) you cannot expect the medical professional to heal you, only to help you temporarily. You must heal you.
I think there are a lot of people with back problems (definitely not all of them though) particularly desk workers (and not all of them either) who have a lot of their issues down more to a lack of core strength than anything else. Yoga, from what I have been told, is pretty awesome for core strength.
It's something I'm working on in physiotherapy, because although I went to see her because I was having horrendous knee problems (now in full retreat thanks to some very simple, well-chosen exercises), she looks more holistically than that and identified some back issues as well. More exercises.
The back ones are harder to do though, and don't seem to be as effective, but I'll be bringing that up at my next visit.
Had a similar story. After having kids and carrying them around a lot, coupled with no exercise at all, I had an episode of intense lower back pain. After an xray, any structural problem was discarded, I needed exercise to keep my posture.
I then decided that I need to carry on working on a desk for decades ahead (I'm on early 30s) so I had to tackle the problem.
Was recommended by my daughter's pediatrician to look into Pilates classes. I'm now pain free and results came very early on in practice.
Also, random pain spots that appeared frequently (for instance knee pain while driving) are mostly gone too.
I used to spend a lot of money at the chiropractor/osteopath, and while they do give relief I don't see them as a long term solution. That said, I think they can be valuable for acute episodes.
What cured my back pain is Yoga. Not overnight, not over a week, but months of adding strength and flexibility to body as a whole. I'm now pain free.
This may not work for all symptoms, but I think it's important to realise (in most cases it seems) you cannot expect the medical professional to heal you, only to help you temporarily. You must heal you.