{"id":32334,"date":"2026-11-02T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/?p=32334"},"modified":"2026-11-02T16:48:45","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T22:48:45","slug":"chronic-back-pain-does-any-intervention-really-last-probably-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/02\/chronic-back-pain-does-any-intervention-really-last-probably-not","title":{"rendered":"CHRONIC BACK PAIN? DOES ANY INTERVENTION\u00a0REALLY LAST? PROBABLY NOT.\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Your spine ages with time, just as your hair gets gray and your skin wrinkles. An impressive study followed the spine MRIs of 2,000 patients of different ages having\u00a0<strong>no back pain.\u00a0<\/strong>Changes showed disc degeneration, disc protrusion, and\/or disc bulge began as early as 20 years old, worsened steadily over the years, reaching 90% by their 80\u2019s but still no complaints of back pain in the vast majority. My own spine MRI at 45 looked like a bull mastiff had been chewing it for hours. The chiropractor who ordered it reassured me it was nothing serious, just a pulled muscle. Do my prescribed stretches and my back pain would go away (it did).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Orthopedic surgeons use these Xray and MRI changes to start \u201cthe back pain patient\u201d on the assembly line that all too often leads to one or more utterly useless back surgeries. (Many patients have several surgeries.)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Does an MRI of the spine followed by a surgical procedure ever help dramatically? Yes, of course. If the MRI locates a spinal tumor, a totally herniated disc with nerve compression, bleeding within the spine. These are less than 5% of cases.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If&nbsp;<strong>you,&nbsp;<\/strong>after several months of back pain, the new mattress does not work and you\u2019re tired of popping Advil, still have pain, then it\u2019s time for a doctor visit. Your primary care doctor does not seem worried because there\u2019s no evidence of nerve damage (weakness of one leg). Although you don\u2019t tell your primary, you&#8217;ve been seeing a recommended chiropractor who interestingly does not take x-rays or order an MRI. His treatments are somewhat helpful but temporary.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is it. You\u2019re not worse, but not better either. You wait four months for one of the mega-orthopedic centers to allow you to enter. The Physician\u2019s Assistant takes your history, examines you, orders an MRI and has you schedule a return visit in a couple of weeks.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This time the orthopedist is present, a worried look on his face. He points out several areas of structural damage.&nbsp;<strong>If you were reading what I&#8217;ve been writing carefully, most \u2018structural damage\u2019 is normal age-related changes and don&#8217;t need fixing.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;\u201cWe\u2019ll try to avoid surgery with physical therapy and steroid injections.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The &#8220;avoid surgery&#8221; part is something termed the\u00a0<strong>nocebo effect,\u00a0<\/strong>from the Latin, <strong>\u201cI shall harm.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>He says \u201cWe\u2019ll try to avoid surgery\u201d conveys to you that eventually you will need surgery. He will try to save you from having surgery. But don\u2019t get your hopes up.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He knows that physical therapy will give you 6 weeks of relief (if that) and you\u2019ll be back again.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He&#8217;ll also suggest steroid injection, often painful and often useless. At best, you\u2019ll get a few weeks of relief. And yes, some patients do feel worse.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ultimately, you\u2019re back, hat in hand, all set for spine surgery.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To be fair, back surgery works best depending on the location of the pain. Sciatica, in which the pain is coursing down one leg, usually caused by a disc compressing a nerve, generally responds best. Most other surgical results can be pretty dismal. Very large worldwide studies show persistent pain in about 40% of patients and a complication rate of 36%.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Other studies show recurrence pain in 60% of patients and with numbers like these, health insurances are less quick to approve back surgeries, one of the main reasons you might have seen a rise in your premiums recently.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A fairly new and expensive procedure has been&nbsp;<strong>the spinal cord stimulator&nbsp;<\/strong>in which electrodes are implanted into your spinal cord to deliver electrical current and allegedly reduce pain. The stimulator is fraught with issues (infection, device failure, and a recent study showed that \u2018sham\u2019 stimulation work just as well).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Orthopedic surgeons and pain management physicians are extremely resistant to mind-body therapies. Once, when I was invited to give a lecture on Mind-Body Medicine to the Pain Management Group over at Rush, there were some pleasant nurses who attended but no physicians. Not one. \u201cReally,\u201d a nurse said, \u201cThose guys are only interested in expensive procedures. Not your stuff.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I suggested the nurses read the Bible of mind-body medicine for back pain, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ebay.com\/p\/19038786727\">Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection<\/a>\u201d by John Sarno, M.D.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And keep in mind the great quote of Upton Sinclair, \u201cIt is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Be well,&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>David Edelberg, MD<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Your spine ages with time, just as your hair gets gray and your skin wrinkles. An impressive study followed the spine MRIs of 2,000 patients of different ages having\u00a0no back pain.\u00a0Changes showed disc degeneration, disc protrusion, and\/or disc bulge began as early as 20 years old, worsened steadily over the years, reaching 90% by their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2087,"featured_media":32336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,120,119,2388],"tags":[505,850,3043],"class_list":["post-32334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alternative-therapies","category-chiropractic-physical-medicine","category-pain-management","category-surgery","tag-back-pain","tag-mind-body-technique","tag-spine-surgery"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>CHRONIC BACK PAIN? 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An impressive study followed the spine MRIs of 2,000 patients of different ages having\u00a0no back pain.\u00a0Changes showed disc degeneration, disc protrusion, and\/or disc bulge began as early as 20 years old, worsened steadily over the years, reaching 90% by their [&hellip;]\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/02\/chronic-back-pain-does-any-intervention-really-last-probably-not\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"WholeHealth Chicago\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wholehealthchicago\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-11-03T03:00:00+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/AdobeStock_464110938-scaled.jpeg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1715\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"wholehealthchicago\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@wholehealthchi\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@wholehealthchi\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"wholehealthchicago\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/02\/chronic-back-pain-does-any-intervention-really-last-probably-not\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/02\/chronic-back-pain-does-any-intervention-really-last-probably-not\",\"name\":\"CHRONIC BACK PAIN? 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