‘OH, MY ACHING BACK!’---WELL, HAVE YOU TRIED MINDFULNESS?

Back pain--and, in particular, low back pain--has been said to be the single leading cause of disability worldwide. As many as 80 per cent of the population will experience a back problem at some time in their lives. In addition, about 50 per cent of all working Americans admit to having back pain symptoms each year, and that figure seems to hold good for most other Western nations as well.

 

Back pain is one of the most common reasons for missed work. In fact, back pain is the second most common reason for visits to the doctor’s office, outnumbered only by upper respiratory tract infections. I have read that Americans spend more than $50 billion each year on back pain—and that’s just for the more easily identified costs.

 

Well, new research reveals that mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) may do as much as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) to calm the catastrophizing thought patterns of people with chronic back pain.

 

This may well be the best news many back pain sufferers have had for some time.

 

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