This article accurately captures the scope of the problem of back pain, but I am not satisfied with its characterization of current views on the topic (as someone who had nonspecific back pain from age 13-25, finally fixed it by internalizing the right information and skills, and is now running a company that reliably assists people to get over nonspecific back pain using talk-based coaching interventions). We do free trials; more on that later.

The sentences in the article that's supposed to sum up the current state of the field is: "A definitive physical cause—such as a fracture, a tumour, pressure on a nerve, infection or arthritis—is found in 5-15% of people with back pain. The rest is all labelled as “non-specific”, and there is increasing evidence that it is not mechanical in origin...Researchers who specialise in pain increasingly believe that, in most cases, chronic pain means that the [pain] system has become damaged in some way that keeps it switched on." So, paraphrasing, researchers believe that most of the time the cause is not mechanical, yet there is something damaged that accounts for the pain. Later on, it goes on to quote a doctor saying that, "the reason they’ve got back pain is that they have financial problems, marital problems, disabled children, they are not sleeping at night." Notice the second doctor doesn't stipulate that anything is "damaged" in the person's pain system at all — he explains the pain as a response to the fact that the person has a lot of things going on in their life, any one of which may not feel completely handled or completely ok at any given time, there may be a whole slew of unresolved concerns.

So, sometimes, someone with persistent back pain has a pain-danger-alarm system that is working absolutely fine. The pain system is not damaged. The pain system a responding to a present understanding of the world that make a person feel not ok / not safe / in danger of some kind, or to past trauma that a person hasn't completely processed, that is still lingering, and making the person feel unsafe. It's a map vs. territory issue, there's not "damage" in as much as there is something about the person's map that implies something about their current experience is dangerous.

Sometimes, when someone's pain/danger "check engine light" is stuck on, persistently creating pain as if to say "hey something is not quite right" — all that person needs to do is get information that physical pain isn't a 1:1 indicator of physical damage, and to not worry about the pain. Sometimes, they need to address current stresses and past trauma that are making them feel not ok, and then the pain goes away. Howard Stern talks about a doctor who saved his life by telling him his tissues were fine. John Stossel got relief from decades of back pain from the same doctor, and profiled him on ABC's 2020. That doctor recently passed away, considered a pseudoscientist to the end of his days, and current research is just starting to catch up. Expect a study in 2020 by Tor Wager, Dr. Howard Schubiner (one of our advisors), and Allan Gordon.

If anyone out there needs a white-glove concierge package that can assist you to figure out what's driving your pain, and what you will be able to do to solve most nonspecific back pain in a year, book a free trial here: (https://calendly.com/adamjensen/trial?month=2020-01) or check us out at www dot attunecarecoordination dot com.