3 exercises treat 90% of lower back pain cases

Low back pain is one of the most prevalent health problems in our time, and perhaps this is due to changing working conditions, especially office work that requires long sessions, which has led to the prevalence of these diseases.

In Germany, for example, Professor Michael Ruff tells the Leading Medicine Guide newspaper that 80% of German people have suffered from lower back pain more than once during their lives, often due to carrying unfamiliar weights, as well as other causes such as spinal degeneration.

According to Professor Horst Balling, who works at the Neckar Oden Wald Hospital in Baden-Witttemberg, 80,000 "lower back" surgeries are performed annually in Germany.

In exchange for medical and surgical treatment, there is another medical opinion that says that the treatment of many of these diseases is done through adherence to a group of exercises that lead to much better results than those therapeutic methods.

Al Jazeera Net visited d.

Muhammad Tohme, a specialist in orthopedics and spine surgery from the University of Bochum, in his clinic in Pforzheim to learn about these treatment methods.

Low back pain, either of specific or unspecified causes, which is the most common (Shutterstock)

• What are the causes of lower back pain?

We can talk about:

cause

;

These pains cannot be traced back to a specific cause and can be increased or improved by general things such as sudden bending that can increase them, as well as carrying heavy weights, and they appear in the form of muscle spasm.

Also, as a result of sitting for long periods in front of the computer (for work) or working for long periods standing (under the influence of the weight of the body), and sometimes severe psychological pressure, or depression may cause back pain of unknown cause, that is, it is not related to any organic cause.

What we should know is that this back pain (of unknown origin) does not pose a threat to a person's life.

causes

;

It can be a herniated disc, fractures, osteoporosis, narrowing of the spinal canal, inflammation of the spine such as ankylosing spondylitis, or rheumatic pain.

Back pain can only be localized and may spread to the lower extremities, as well as may be associated with anesthesia and numbness of the lower extremities or be associated with disturbances of urination or defecation habits, as well as high fever, chills, sudden weight loss, tingling or pain when lying down, these previous symptoms require a competent opinion, as they are indicative of a nerve root injury.

This usually requires clinical examination and x-rays, CT or MRI in some cases.

Most people complain of unspecified lower back pain, such as muscle spasms after muscular effort.

This requires conservative treatment, such as the use of analgesics known to some, such as ibuprofen, diclofenac, or naproxen, and these analgesics are known as (NSAR) or through some sports movements and exercises.

Surgical intervention can be avoided in many cases (Shutterstock)

• What are the risks of surgery and when is it?

I worked in the largest spine center in Germany. We used to perform 15 to 20 surgeries per day. The surgical procedure is useful if the surgical incision is small. There is nothing wrong with the operation. The entry is through the camera and the excision of the “nucleus pulposus”, but if it is large, the surgery leads to bleeding. A blood mass forms a "hematome" that presses on the nerve root, and its effect is more severe than the disc itself, so it is preferable to stay away from surgical work. Also, drug treatment is not recommended because of the side effects of drugs, except for a short-term treatment.

The preferred method is exercise, but in a medically studied manner, and it requires continuity and not intermittent, and the patient must adhere to these exercises.

They are simple exercises that only need 10 minutes in the morning and the same in the evening, and improvement will come with continuity.

• Why these exercises and what is their purpose?

When the disc presses on the nerve root, the muscle that is nourished by the nerve root is affected, and pain appears from it. The role of “medical” exercise is to affect the muscle and indirectly on the nerve root, as it has an anti-inflammatory effect (edema around the nerve).

• How did you arrive at this method of treatment?

By observing the results of hundreds of major surgeries, and my study of multiple medical cases, I found that many of these operations in this field in general can be avoided through the exercises that I worked on collecting and reviewing scientifically and practically during my 20 years of medical experience in this field. Some of the results of surgeries may It is not what the patient wishes, especially if the surgical incision is large.

About 90% of patients do not need surgery due to the persistence of exercises (Shutterstock)

• What are the most important results that you reached by applying this to patients?

The most important thing in treatment is the patient’s acceptance of that and trust in the doctor, and for that I used to deal with the patient with logic (I will not prescribe medication for you, nor will I take you to surgery), but on the condition that you adhere to these exercises as the medicine, while perpetuating these exercises as if you were taking medication on its regular schedule. .

And I give you examples through my treatment of German patients, when a patient comes about to undergo surgery - and this happened a lot - so I ask him to start these exercises and continue for two months, after which we decide whether to operate or not, the results are about 90% of the patients did not need surgery because of the perseverance On the exercises, as for the rest, they are the ones who did not adhere and may not be convinced because of the severity of the pain. It is strange that those who recovered through the exercises became in a much better condition than those who preferred surgery.

• You mentioned the use of painkillers.. When will the doctor decide it?

Low back pain patients avoid bending forward because the pain increases, and exercises depend on bending, and this leads to muscle spasm in some cases, forcing us to give the patient a temporary sedative - either ibuprofen or diclofenac - in a preventive manner, often for a maximum of one week.

This talk is also not general, but rather one needs to know each disease case separately. For example, patients who have “nervous irritation” need vitamin “B12” (B12), because this vitamin works to restore the damaged nerve part.

3 exercises recommended by Dr. Mohamed Tohme to treat lower back pain (Shutterstock)

• What exercises do you recommend?

There are 3 exercises:

The first exercise

: the knees are straight and not bent, and the feet are far apart, bending forward as much as possible with the hands extended towards the ground and then bending backwards with the hands placed on the lower back and repeating the previous completely 15 times, morning and evening, and it is preferable to increase it 5 times every two days until it reaches 25 Once.

The second exercise: the

feet are far apart and the knees are straight, the patient bends down and extends his left hand to the left ankle if he can and is not satisfied with touching the thigh or leg, and the right hand is on the head and the head is pressed against the chest as much as possible, the first day starts with a minute of pressure on the head and every two days it increases by half a minute Until it reaches 2.5 minutes and continues to do it morning and night.

The third exercise: the

knees are straight, the feet are wide apart, the hands are under the back with the bending back, then the right hand is raised on the forehead and the head is pressed back, it also starts with a minute and then increases by 30 seconds every two days until it reaches 2.5 minutes in the morning and 2.5 minutes in the evening.

There are some notes that you should pay attention to:

• Do not wait for improvement in a day and night, just continue to improve and the pain will inevitably come.

• If you did not reach the ground with the first exercise or the ankle with the second exercise, it is sufficient to bend as much as possible, so you will reach the ground or the ankle with repetition and continuity.

• Emphasizing once again that the pain may increase in the early days due to spasm of the back muscles, and therefore, as a precaution, painkillers should be used in the first days.

• Avoid falling during exercises, especially patients with orthostatic hypotension. It is preferable, at first, for the elderly to perform the exercises in the presence of a family member.