SaveYourself.ca helps you solve pain problems

low back pain Wed Nov 25th @ 11:00am by Paul Ingraham

Low back pain patients need MRI scans like fish need bicycles

You’d be hard pressed to find a low back pain myth more busted than the MRI myth. MRI (and other imaging techniques, like X-ray) simply do not produce useful diagnostic information about low back pain, and do not lead to better treatment results. I’ve written about this extensively in the past, and compiled an impressive pile of scientific evidence supporting the point — that section of my low back pain e-book is already thicker with footnotes than any other place in all of SaveYourself.ca.

Then, from the The Lancet, along comes one study to rule them all. It’s just too good not to write about, too good not to add it to the pile. This is what we call a “sentinel” study: the last word on the subject for a long time. It offers the kind of scientific certainty that is only possible after rather a lot of other good science has already been done.

“Some clinicians do lumbar imaging routinely or in the absence of historical or clinical features suggestive of serious low back problems,” but this review of several studies of the subject clearly concludes that they really should not do that. It simply does no good, yet wastes resources and scares patients. As long as there are no signs of a serious underlying condition, “lumbar imaging for low back pain … does not improve clinical outcomes.”

Loud and clear message to doctors: Please stop sending low back patients for MRI scans unless you are really, really, really sure that it’s terribly important to check for something nasty.

ADVANCED TUTORIAL

Save Yourself from Low Back Pain!

There are thousands of low back pain books — what’s special about this one? The problem is that 90% of doctors and therapists assume that back pain is structural, in spite of mountains of scientific evidence showing … exactly the opposite. Only a few medical experts understand this, and fewer still are writing for patients and therapists. Supported by 204 footnotes, this tutorial is the most credible and clarifying low back pain information you can find. Ships with a free copy of SaveYourself.ca’s trigger point tutorial! Add it to your shopping cart now ($19.95) or read the first few sections for free!

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Other recent stuff …

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Aug 28 links
 
Do-it-yourself clinical trials, homeopathic hijinks, a gorgeous e-textbook app for iPad, Lorimer Mosely on pain neurology, and a Chewbacca thing
Aug 26 exercise
 
Five stars! Micro book review of Body by Science
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Backfirin’ placebos! How the placebo effect can actually make back pain worse
Aug 20 trigger points
 
A new chapter: medical factors that perpetuate pain
Aug 17 teaser
 
Kind of a big deal coming
Aug 10 humour
 
Sheldon Cooper on overconfidence
Aug 10 core strengthening
 
Two more mighty scientific blows to the credibility of “core strengthening” as a therapy for low back pain
Aug 10 insomnia
 
Sleep triptych: three nifty sleep and insomnia links