Fitch was hesitant, and so was James Weinstein, director of the Spine Center at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. There's no guarantee that Fitch's condition will not worsen, but two years later, he still has not felt the need for surgery. Last March, he ran the Boston Marathon, and he is training for the New York City Marathon. A combination of stretching, strengthening, and aerobic exercises probably does the most good for back pain, for a myriad of reasons. Active muscles rebuild themselves more quickly, and because spinal disks don't contain blood vessels, they rely on the body's movement to bring healing nutrients their way.
Exercise also sends natural painkillers flowing through the body.
Perhaps that is why recent studies suggest that as athletic activity increases, so does the threshold for pain. The power of motion. As strongly as researchers encourage getting moving, Jean Cates can testify that it's difficult advice to follow. Cates used to love her 5-mile walks through the streets of Chapel Hill, N.C., but three weeks into a bout of pain that the strongest painkillers can barely touch, she finds it tough to finish a single mile. A key in using exercise to hasten relief, says Dartmouth's Weinstein, is to distinguish hurt from harm.