Sometimes getting the kind of treatment you need is difficult, particularly for back pain. Most conventional treatments like pain medications fail to solve the problem. The average doctor, while highly capable in many areas, isn't well-equipped to diagnose causes of back pain. Spinal abnormalities arrive on imaging tests, but most back pain cases are caused by muscular and biomechanical problems which are less perceptible.
Often, properly diagnosing the source of your pain takes a trained eye that may identify dysfunction by observing the way you hold yourself and how you move. A physical therapist may help you pinpoint why you have your pain, whether it's poor posture, improper body mechanics, muscle imbalance or muscle weakness. Each of these problems can disrupt spinal and pelvic stability in addition to cause muscular pain, knots and spasms.
Unless your back pain presents with certain "red flag" symptoms, such as leg pain, weakness and/or numbness or lack of bladder and bowel control, standard protocol is to wait it out for per month or so. Almost everyone has back pain at some time, in fact it is often short-lived. For most, though, the pain recurs. For a few, it becomes chronic. In case you have back pain not related to an obvious cause, for instance a fall, an awkward movement or overexertion, then you may have a muscular dysfunction which could result in further pain later on.
Physicians could be unwilling to refer one to physical therapy for an incident of back pain. Fortunately, in lots of states, you can seek physical therapy with out a referral; this is called direct access. Many insurance companies will grant reimbursements to patients who forgo the physician's office and head right to a physical therapist. See http://www.apta.org/StateIssues/DirectAccess/ for updated information on direct access by state and changing legislation. Contact your insurance company to find out their policy on immediate access.
Some argue that direct access encourages patients to misdiagnose themselves and overuse care. However, a large-scale study concludes otherwise. The analysis, conducted by Jane Pendergast, PhD, and director of the Center for Public Health Studies at the University of Iowa et. al., looked at almost 63,000 medical records of patients being treating with physical therapy. About 25% of patients in the analysis were self-referred. Contrary to the above arguments against immediate access, the study found that self-referred patients had fewer physical therapy visits and lower overall healthcare costs linked to the health concern that physical therapy was sought. Direct access patients weren't overusing healthcare or overlooking important health issues; they were simply cutting out the middle man. More on this study are available at http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/apta-dat101311.php.
With more studies emerging in support of immediate access and the progress that is made toward this end in the last decade, there's reason to believe that getting the kind of treatment you want will become easier in the near future. Many hurdles are still in place concerning alternative medicine, but physical therapy is a natural treatment that has edged its way into mainstream, conventional medicine. Opening usage of it will allow more patients to bypass the route of expensive imaging tests and medications.
Physical therapy can help the body move better and function better. In case you have nagging back pain and so are worried about body mechanics, posture or muscle imbalance, consider seeing a physical therapist.
Industrialized nations have problems with a plague of spinal health problems. The perfect solution is is learning as much as possible you start with Back Pain Solutions Online. View website can lead to improper diagnosis of one's back pain problem. Read Visit the website how to use 7 ways of reduce back pain in your life, right now.